Deadline: 14-Mar-23
Applications are now open for the Reconciliation Fund to build better relations within and between traditions in Northern Ireland, between North and South, and between Ireland and Britain.
The Reconciliation Fund hosted a series of Outreach Workshops over the course of January/February 2023. The Reconciliation Fund team hosted workshops in Belfast, Derry, Monaghan, as well as online, to outline the application process step-by-step in advance of the Annual Funding Round opening in February 2023.
The Fund will seek to organise Outreach Workshops later in 2023/early in 2024 in advance of the 2024 Annual Round opening. More details will be posted here closer to the time.
Priority Areas
Applications should be in line with one or both of these overarching pillars, while also focusing on one or more of the Reconciliation Fund’s priority themes/activities. Requests for funding support should therefore involve projects which support at least one of the following priority areas:
- Through dialogue or other means, seek to build understanding between peoples and traditions, whether within Northern Ireland, on a North-South basis, or on a British-Irish basis.
- Promote inter-community links and reduce segregation in Northern Ireland, including in the areas of integrated education and housing, and the use of shared community spaces.
- Build sustainable North-South links through the development of relationships and connections.
- Develop and deepen relations between Ireland and Britain.
- Seek participation in the most hard-to-reach and marginalised communities (in terms of economic and social deprivation), or those not normally involved in reconciliation and peace-building work, in line with the Government’s commitments made at the time of the NDNA Agreement.
- Seek to address the legacy of violence during the Troubles.
- Specifically target sectarianism, and which are aimed at eliminating sectarianism from society.
- Help to tackle paramilitarism and support the transitioning of members of paramilitary groups to peaceful, democratic activities.
- Employ a transgenerational approach, helping a younger generation to be more aware of the recent past and to break the cycles which are barriers to long term reconciliation.
- Develop the role of women in peace-building and civic and political life, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1325, and which build their capacity to take their rightful place as leaders in society.
- Educate and illuminate the events of the past, and in particular the events of the Decade of Centenaries, in order to deepen understanding and promote respect and tolerance between different groups and traditions.
- Explore issues around identity (including language and other cultural traditions) in ways that promote understanding, tolerance and inclusivity, or help to recognise the common aspects of traditions and identities shared by different groups.
- Involve academic research likely to significantly promote mutual understanding, peace and reconciliation, including in the context of the Government’s commitment at the time of the NDNA Agreement to commission research on the challenges faced by border communities (with a particular focus on minority communities in border counties).
- Empower diverse, underrepresented or new voices to articulate their views on issues relating to reconciliation.
- Assist communities from different traditions in trying to build a shared vision of the future.
Thematic Pillars
Their funding priorities continue to be rooted in two key overarching thematic pillars – repairing and building. For 2021-2024, the Reconciliation Fund will focus its support on reconciliation and peacebuilding work that seeks to:
- Repair those issues which lead to division, conflict, and barriers to a deeply reconciled and peaceful society; and/or
- Build a strong civil society that encompasses all communities, through the continued implementation of the Agreements and promoting a rights-based society, political stability and respect for all.
Eligibility Criteria
- The Reconciliation Fund welcomes applications that propose new and innovative approaches, as well as those that use methods rooted in current practice. They also welcome applications that use any of a wide number of approaches to bring people from different backgrounds together (e.g. arts, culture, sports, skills development, dialogue) exploring how society can address issues of common concern to all.
- In the case of more sectorally based projects (sports, community services, skills development e.g. for employability etc.), in terms of eligibility for funding, it is not sufficient to have groups come together on a cross-community and/or cross border basis. There must be a project component that allows for facilitated focus on broader issues that are relevant to reconciliation. The intention would be to encourage participants to engage with each other and listen to each other’s perspectives/narratives, to stimulate reflection and discussion, to promote understanding and tolerance and ultimately to help develop links and relationships.
- They give funding to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community groups, and voluntary organisations to support reconciliation and to create better understanding between people and traditions on the island of Ireland and between Ireland and Britain.
For more information, visit Department of Foreign Affairs.
