Democracy Commission Small Grants Program in Uzbekistan

Deadline: 28-Feb-2025

The U.S. Embassy Tashkent Public Diplomacy Section (PDS) of the U.S. Department of State is pleased to announce funding is available through the Embassy’s Democracy Commission Small Grants Program to support the development of Uzbekistan’s democratic institutions and civil society by competitively awarding small grants to Uzbekistan’s nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and associations, to nonprofit civil society organizations (CSOs), and to independent local media organizations.

Project Background, Goals, and Objectives

Topic 1: Advancing Women’s Business Empowerment and Social Entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurship can be an important way for women to enter the workforce and bring much needed money into rural communities. Key obstacles to entrepreneurship include: a lack of familiarity with entrepreneurship as a valid career choice, access to capital, and the need for support to develop business plans and navigate the legal hurdles required when establishing a business.
- The U.S. Embassy is seeking to fund organizations that encourage and support entrepreneurship opportunities for women. Past Democracy Commission projects have included support to train women from rural areas on vocational and business skills, including how to start their own business, find a business partner, produce quality products, and write a business plan.
- Project Audience(s): Potential entrepreneurs and current small-scale business owners (ages 25- 55); women, particularly in rural areas or from marginalized communities.
- Project Goal: Strengthen women’s entrepreneurship and small business development by increasing knowledge and available tools that entrepreneurs and small business owners can use to make their businesses successful.
- Project Objectives: (Project proposals may address one or more of these objectives).
  - Within 12 months:
    - Increase entrepreneurial and leadership skills for at least 50 potential and current women entrepreneurs in creative economy industries, resulting in 70% of participants demonstrating improved leadership and business management skills and 25% of participants starting or expanding (e.g., increasing the number of new customers) their businesses to increase their participation in local economy.
    - Increase technical skills (such as coding, data analysis, design thinking) of at least 20 young women from rural communities to improve access to IT professions (including web developer, network engineer, data scientist), resulting in at least 35% of participants securing internships or employment through training, mentorship support and/or internships in local leading IT companies.
    - Improve and expand public-private sector networking and collaboration between local state agencies and women-owned businesses, with a minimum of 30 people participating in at least three collaborative events by the end of the program.
Topic 2: Combating Gender-Based Violence
- Diplomacy Section (PDS) to provide grant support for individuals and civil society organizations to reduce or mitigate against GBV. PDS is seeking proposals to help prevent GBV by raising the position of women in their families and communities, reducing their financial dependency on spouses, raising awareness about this important issue to create attiudinal or behavioral changes related to GBV, and supporting relevant initiatives.
- Project Audience: Young men and boys, who could be trained to see the value in supporting women’s rights and the role of women in their communities.
- Project Goal: Reduce gender-based violence (GBV) by facilitating active participation of young men and boys to advocate for and respect women’s rights and supporting the equality of women in their communities and across Uzbekistan.
- Project Objectives: Project proposals may address one or more of these objectives. Please Note: Proposals focused on providing direct social services will not be accepted.
  - Improve women’s self-confidence through creative coaching and women’s empowerment programming.
  - Raise awareness and understanding among at least 50 young men and boys of gender-based violence, root causes, and harmful gender norms, resulting in 85% of participants reporting better understanding of GBV and its impact on society.
  - Increase participation of young men and boys in community initiatives that support and advocate for gender equality, resulting in 90% of participants reporting improved attitudes towards gender equality and 60% increase of young men demonstrating engagement on these issues.
Topic 3: Strengthening Disability Right
- To increase the capacity of CSOs and NGOs working with persons with disabilities, the Embassy seeks to fund projects that raise awareness of civil rights, advocate for the greater integration of persons with disabilities in society, monitor the implementation of human rights of people with disabilities, and support capacity development and networking for relevant civil society organizations and stakeholders.
- Project Audience(s): People with disabilities and relevant stakeholders, community leaders, urban and rural NGOs, local and state government, independent media, journalists and other civil society organizations.
- Project Goal: Increase the capacity of Uzbekistan’s civil society organizations (CSOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to advocate for the rights and integration of the country’s disability community
- Project Objectives (Project proposals may address one or more of these objectives. Please note: Proposals focused on providing direct social services will not be accepted.
- Within 12 months:
  - Increase public and local and state government awareness on the importance of the integration of persons with disabilities into society, resulting in at least five media mentions or news stories related to disability integration and government policies or at least two local and state government bodies committing to discussions on disability policy.
  - Strengthen project and grants management skills of 10 of NGOs working to advance disability rights through training, mentorship, and workshops, resulting in at least 50% of participants demonstrating an improvement in project and grants management skills and 40% of participants developing at least one project plan within six months of completing the training.
  - Increase cooperation between rural and urban civil society organizations (CSOs) and local government on legislation to support the integration of persons with disabilities, resulting in at least two joint initiatives aimed at advancing disability rights legislation.
Topic 4: Empowering Citizen-led Initiatives to Improve Air Quality or Apply Innovative STEAM Solutions to Address Environmental Challenges
- This funding opportunity seeks projects that will advocate for and promote efforts to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality in Uzbekistan’s cities. The U.S. Mission seeks projects that will increase understanding of the drivers of air pollution, expand access to affordable and reliable clean energy, and promote new policy solutions to air quality. This opportunity aims to engage citizens, academics, opinion leaders, officials, businesses, and industries to produce tangible and lasting outcomes including in positive public opinion changes and the development of stronger public policy interventions in climate change mitigation.
- Project Audience(s): Civil society researchers and organizations, media professionals and opinion leaders who can amplify key messages, entrepreneurs and industry practitioners, physicians and researchers who can contribute to health research, and public officials.
- Project Goal: Increase public and government support for actions to improve air quality in Uzbekistan through increased government-civil society discourse on this issue.
- Project Objectives: Project proposals may address one or more of these objectives.
  - Within 12 months:
    - Increase public understanding of the causes of poor air quality, long-term health implications associated with poor air quality, and public and private actions that can improve air quality or other environmental issues.
    - Facilitate partnerships between civil society and the Government of Uzbekistan, resulting in at least two collaborative action plans or policy recommendations to improve air quality or other environmental challenges.
    - Increase government and public support for climate friendly actions to improve air quality or improve water resource management through demonstrations of environmental and economic viability and profitability, resulting in government adoption of at least two climate friendly policies or initiatives.

Funding Information

Awards may range from a minimum of $10,000 to a maximum of $50,000 (approximately)

Duration

Length of performance period 6 to 12 months.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible Applicants
- The following organizations are eligible to apply:
  - Not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks and civil society/nongovernmental organizations
  - For-profit organizations
- Civil society/non-governmental organizations
For this announcement, only Uzbekistan -based organizations are eligible to apply.

Ineligibility Criteria

This opportunity will not support:
- Projects relating to partisan political activity.
- Charitable or development activities; including direct social services such as medical, psychological, and/or humanitarian support.
- Construction projects.
- Projects that support specific religious activities.
- Fund-raising campaigns.
- Lobbying for specific legislation or programs.
- Scientific research or surveys.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.