Deadline: 15-Mar-21
The Disability Rights Fund (DFR) and Disability Rights Advocacy Fund (DRAF) are grantmaking collaboratives that supports organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) around the world to build diverse movements, ensure inclusive development agendas, and achieve equal rights and opportunity for all.
Established in 2008, the Disability Rights Fund supports persons with disabilities – including particularly marginalized groups– in Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Caribbean to build diverse movements, ensure inclusive development agendas, and achieve equal rights and opportunity for all. The Disability Rights Advocacy Fund, DRF’s sister organization, supports persons with disabilities to advance legal frameworks to realize their rights.
Funding Streams
DRF and DRAF currently administer three funding streams during their biannual grantmaking rounds:
- Small Grants: The Small Grants funding stream supports growth of a broader and more diverse disability movement to advance the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at local levels.
- Mid-Level Coalition Grants: The Mid-Level Coalition funding stream supports sub-national efforts to ensure that national legislation and policy which promotes and protects the rights of persons with disabilities is implemented at state (in a federal system), regional, provincial, or district levels, including through regulatory frameworks or establishment of disability-inclusive budgets.
- National Coalition Grants: The National Coalition funding stream supports advancement of the CRPD at national levels through lobbying for ratification of the CRPD/Optional Protocol or other international or regional human rights treaties protecting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities.
Priority Areas
- Priority areas relevant to all funding streams:
- Promoting gender equality and SOGIESC diversity
- Advancing achievement of Global Disability Summit 2018 (GDS18) commitments and advocating for Global Disability Summit 2022 (GDS22) commitments
- Ratification of the CRPD and/or the Optional Protocol (where not ratified), or of other international or regional human rights treaties relevant to the rights of persons with disabilities
- Priority areas specific to small grants:
- Increasing OPD capacity to participate in advocacy and decision-making processes (including those related to COVID-19) regarding implementation of rights at local levels
- Promoting inclusion of persons with disabilities in government programs, – such as education, health, or justice – and in budget planning and implementation (including programs and budgets related to COVID-19) at local levels
- Increasing OPD capacity to participate in advocacy and decision-making processes regarding implementation of the SDGs, including during COVID-19
- Advocacy for inclusion of persons with disabilities in the planning, implementation and monitoring of local government development plans and programs (as part of SDG implementation), including those related to COVID-19 response and recovery
- Priority areas specific to mid-level coalition grants:
- Passage of specific sub-national legislation (including ordinances), policy, regulations, and/or budgetary priorities (including those related to COVID-19) to accord with the CRPD
- Advocacy for inclusion of persons with disabilities in government programs (including programs disrupted by COVID-19), such as education, health, or justice, at the state (in a federal system), provincial, regional or district level in line with CRPD articles
- Advocacy to ensure that development stakeholders and development planning at sub-national levels, to implement the SDGs, are inclusive of persons with disabilities and use the CRPD as a guiding document
- Priority areas specific to national coalition grants:
- Passage or amendment of specific national legislation and policies to accord with the CRPD (including those related to COVID 19)
- Advocacy for budgetary measures as well as regulations to implement new or amended legislation and policy promoting the rights of persons with disabilities (including those related to COVID 19)
- Production of and/or follow up to Alternative Reports to the CRPD Committee and other human rights treaty bodies or reports to the Human Rights Council for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
- Engagement with national government SDGs focal point, civil society SDGs platforms, and National Statistics Offices to ensure national action plans, programs, monitoring frameworks and data collection methods for implementing and monitoring the SDGs are inclusive of persons with disabilities and use the CRPD as a guideline
- Advocacy to ensure inclusion of a disability perspective in national governmental implementation and/or monitoring of the CRPD
Funding Information
- Small grants range from USD 5,000–USD 20,000 for new applicants. For repeat grantees only, the Small Grants funding stream ceiling has been increased to USD $30,000.
- Mid-Level Coalition grants range from USD 30,000 – 40,000 per year (USD 60,000 – 80,000 over two years).
- National Coalition grants range from USD 30,000 – 50,000 per year (USD 60,000 – 100,000 over two years).
2021 Eligible Countries
OPDs in DRF/DRAF target countries may apply during two annual grantmaking cycles. In 2021, these are:
- Round 1 Open RFP: Pacific Island Countries (including Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu)
- Invitation-only RFP: Indonesia, Malawi, and Nigeria
Eligibility Criteria
To meet the basic eligibility requirements for DRF/DRAF funding consideration in 2021, applicants must:
- Be based in and conduct the majority of activities in a country targeted by the specific Round;
- Be a legally registered non-governmental OPD, or a group of persons with disabilities acting under the fiscal sponsorship thereof; and
- Be invited to apply, if from Nigeria, Indonesia, or Malawi (in Round 1), or from Haiti, Rwanda, and Uganda (in Round 2). Invitations will be extended to most current grantees, as well as to new applicants that are organizations of women with disabilities and/or LGBTI persons with disabilities. Focusing 2021 grantmaking in this way responds to the pandemic reality of increasing gender-based violence and other human rights violations affecting these groups.
For more information, visit https://disabilityrightsfund.org/for-grantseekers/