Deadline: 28-Jun-24
Freedom House invites applications for funding and support from local, registered non-governmental organizations based in Turkey that seek to expand civic engagement on a local level through building partnerships with local municipality offices in Turkey.
Turkey remains one of most challenging places in the European region to exercise fundamental freedoms. In this challenging environment, Freedom House seeks to empower civil society to contribute to the improvement of fundamental freedoms in Turkey and to advocate with national and international decision makers to uphold the country’s human rights commitments.
This project aims to create a common ground for different civil society actors to address human rights issues in the country. Freedom House and its partners intend to respond threats to fundamental freedoms by providing litigation support, research and analysis, support for grassroots initiatives, and advocacy.
Initiatives aimed at strengthening the role of civil society in advancing fundamental freedoms, developing projects on local level as well as engaging with municipalities that are focused on using, developing, or supporting domestic approaches and processes are encouraged.
Objectives
- The “Civic Space Empowerment” grants program will serve the following objectives:
- To provide financial support to cross-cutting grassroot initiatives that engage journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, and other activists that seek to strengthen cooperation between local civil society organizations, communities, and municipalities to advance fundamental freedoms in Turkey;
- To provide essential technical support, assistance, and tools to local grassroot initiatives in order to leverage their impact to develop projects in response to openings and opportunities in the aftermath of the previous municipal elections in Turkey;
- To help improve initiatives focusing on promoting fundamental freedoms in Turkey through local community engagement.
Thematic Areas
- Applications will be considered in the following thematic areas:
- Raise awareness about human rights issues with local stakeholders in Turkey;
- Engage officials in local civil society organizations and events;
- Encourage dialogue between civil society groups and the government;
- Building allies for civil society on local level.
Funding Information
- Freedom House will select one (1) initiative for up to $9,500 in funding.
Eligibility Criteria
- Only non-commercial organizations, associations, initiatives, and foundations active in Turkey are eligible for participation in this program. Individuals and government, quasi-government, or commercial agencies and bodies are not eligible for funding.
- Priority will be given to local grassroots organizations that have experience in building coalitions and working collaboratively with journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and activists on the local level. In addition, priority will be given to those initiatives addressing local- or regional-level issues related to fundamental freedoms.
- The selected initiative will receive a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 8 months of financial assistance. Freedom House will support a small initiative that will help tackling local issues regarding fundamental freedoms and build partnerships with municipalities to implement projects for the protection and improvement of fundamental freedoms in Turkey.
- Priority will be given to Turkish regional- and local-level small initiatives and campaigns, especially those that focus on engaging the public and developing projects with municipality offices. Applications to this announcement should demonstrate an understanding of main organizational and/or campaign needs and a desire to address them with the support of Freedom House.
- Applications must be submitted electronically in English or Turkish using the application form provided.
- Incomplete applications will not be considered. Each application requires a complete application proposal form, budget and budgetary notes.
For more information, visit Freedom House.