Call for Proposals: Strengthening the role of Key Populations to improve Health and Wellbeing

Deadline: 24-Jan-24

L’Initiative, a funding mechanism implemented by Expertise France, has announced a call for proposals to strengthen the role of key populations in relation to HIV, tuberculosis and malaria to improve health and wellbeing.

This call (23-2024-INIT-APR-02) focuses on strengthening the role of key and vulnerable populations to improve their health and environment. By key populations, L’Initiative means those most at-risk or affected by at least one of the three diseases, and who are stakeholders involved in the response. They generally have reduced access to services and may be criminalized and/or marginalized. Other vulnerable populations are those who are more vulnerable in a particular context and who do not fall into the categories mentioned, including children and adolescent girls, young girls and women, and people living with disabilities.

Aims

• Under this call for proposals, L’Initiative will therefore be particularly focused on the promotion and prioritization of measures aimed at:
  • Capacity and skills strengthening of national and community actors. There will be a specific focus on the design of education-based activities, in particular by ensuring the analysis of initial needs, the design and monitoring of training including on the ground training, the quality of training provided, consolidation of knowledge, assessment of targeted skills and the involvement of beneficiaries at all stages and levels of the project.
    • This may include initial or ongoing training activities that provide certificates and diplomas for health professionals, including community health workers.
  • Developing population empowerment strategies to increase the impact of health policies and services, and support services adapted to the needs of key and vulnerable populations.
  • Developing and implementing tailored and targeted advocacy plans for systematic consideration of the needs of key and vulnerable populations in the project’s intervention strategies. L’Initiative encourages lead applicants to: assess and encourage the development of countries’ legislative frameworks, if necessary, to document cases of human rights violations.
  • Effective involvement and representation of key and vulnerable populations in coordination and decision-making mechanisms.
  • Promoting community-based approaches by and for key and vulnerable populations in order to provide them with appropriate services at community level, by mobilizing peer educators, community health workers (CHWs), task shifting or developing outreach interventions (mobile facilities, etc.). Implementing approaches to improve the status and remuneration of CHWs in projects is encouraged.
  • All sexual and reproductive health and rights activities related to the three pandemics and following themes (non-exhaustive list): human papillomavirus (HPV) and associated cancers or any other sexually transmitted infection, combating gynecological and obstetric violence or sexual mutilation, menstrual hygiene, accessibility/quality/availability/acceptability of contraceptive/family planning products and services (including access to safe abortion), comprehensive sexuality education.

Funding Information

• The total requested grant amount must cover at least 50% of the project budget and be between €650,000 and €3,500,000.
• Project duration must be between 36 and 48 months.

Target Beneficiaries

• Target beneficiaries for projects are the following – applicants do not have to reach all the population groups listed below, or address all the multiple areas of vulnerability:
  • Key populations: key populations are those most at-risk or affected by at least one of the three diseases and who are stakeholders involved in the response. They generally have reduced access to services and may be criminalized and / or marginalized.
  • The following groups are generally considered to be key populations:
    • For HIV: people living with HIV, men who have sex with men, male and female sex workers and their clients, transgender people, people who use drugs and their partners, people in prisons or detention centers, refugees, migrants, displaced or mobile populations.
    • For tuberculosis: people living with HIV, people who use drugs, people in prisons or detention centers, refugees, migrants, displaced or mobile populations.
    • For malaria: pregnant women and children under five, indigenous populations living in regions where malaria is endemic, refugees, migrants, displaced or mobile populations.
  • Other vulnerable populations: populations that are more vulnerable in a particular context and that do not fall into the categories mentioned above, including, children and adolescent girls, young girls and women and people living with disabilities.
• As different vulnerable populations are not homogeneous groups, this call for projects encourages a focus on intersectionalities (multiple vulnerabilities), such as belonging to different key populations (e.g. sex worker and drug user), to different socio-ethnic groups, age categories etc.

Eligibility Criteria

• The project lead applicant must be legally registered and have a board of directors/management committee and a registered headquarters in an eligible country or in France. International organizations, with the exception of regional non-state organizations, may not be the lead applicant or an implementing partner of projects. However, they can be associated stakeholders that do not receive any delegated budget.
• The lead applicant must have been legally registered for at least 3 years at the time of project submission.
• Lead applicants and implementing partners must not have any statutory provisions that prevent Expertise France, or any external auditor appointed by Expertise France, to carry out on-the-spot checks and inspections and have relevant rights to access the project sites and premises where the project will be carried out, including access to all documents and electronic data relating to the technical and financial management of the project.
• The lead applicant must have sufficient management capacity to manage the requested budget.
• Co-financing is required for a minimum of 10% of the total intervention budget if the lead applicant’s annual expenditure is more than 5 million Euros.

For more information, visit L’Initiative.