Grants for strengthening Women’s access to Public Spaces – Morocco

Deadline: 16-Feb-2024

UN Women is accepting applications from civil society organizations for the implementation of initiatives and actions aimed at strengthening women’s access to public spaces and improving their access to economic opportunities in the city of Casablanca.

UN Women, the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, launched the “Safe Cities, Free of Violence against Women and Girls” initiative in 2008. worldwide to combat violence against women and girls in public places. This program was born from the observation that, in cities around the world, every day, women and girls face sexual harassment and other forms of violence in public spaces, whether in the streets, parks, markets, public transport and even within their neighborhoods. This violence limits their access to education, work and prevents them from participating fully in public life, political life and, ultimately, the exercise of their citizenship. The program has notably been developed in cities such as Cairo (Egypt), Quito (Ecuador), New Delhi (India), Kigali (Rwanda). In Morocco, the city of Rabat joined the initiative in March 2015.

This initiative is a unique program that develops, implements and globally evaluates tools, policies and comprehensive approaches to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence against women and girls in public places, and this in different ways. These models are made available to local and national authorities and civil society so that they can adapt and reshape them according to the specificities of local contexts.

The expected effects in partner cities are as follows:

• The different forms of sexual violence against women and girls are reduced in public spaces,
• Women benefit from a greater sense of security and greater comfort in public spaces,
• The use of public spaces is increased and women enjoy better mobility and quality of life.

Funding Information

• The budget range for this proposal should be between 400,000 and 490,000 MAD.

Timeline

• It is proposed to start the interventions at the beginning of March 2024 on the basis of an implementation plan to be executed over a maximum period of 8 months (completed no later than December 1, 2024).

Required Services/Results

• The interventions expected from the implementing partner are part of the strategic priority “Elimination of violence in done to women and girls” of the UN Women 2022 – 2025 strategic plan. The interventions expected from the implementing partner(s) will aim to contribute to the achievement of a product:
  • Output 1 – The capacities of national actors are strengthened to implement and monitor the provisions of the Constitution as well as international commitments in terms of gender equality, equitable access to justice and rights to sustainable development taking into account of the gender dimension.
  • The expected interventions of the implementing partner are part of the 2024 work plan of the project “Safe cities and safe public spaces for women and girls”, and in particular in its effect 3 “Investments in security and economic viability public spaces, including public infrastructure and economic development, are effectively implemented.”
  • As part of this effect, the actions implemented aim to:
  • Improve the capacity and commitment of women and community groups to assess their needs in terms of access to public services and urban spaces as well as the needs and advocacy tools for the promotion of local services;
  • Strengthen the capacity and commitment of local authorities and service providers in gender-responsive local policies (including urban planning, creation of employment and education opportunities for women and girls and improvement of the quality of public transport service);
  • Strengthen the capacities of local officials and managers to integrate the gender component into urban planning (gender-sensitive budgeting of municipal plans) and to ensure the sustainability of actions in intervention sites.
  • UN Women aims to achieve this effect through the creation of a product. Submitting organizations are invited to develop proposals that fall within this logical framework and can take up the activities detailed below.
  • Outcome 3 – Investments in the safety and economic viability of public spaces are effectively made.
  • Output 3.1 – The capacities and commitment of women and community groups for the consideration/integration of gender in urban planning are strengthened.
    • Activity tracks
      • Improve understanding of the barriers that the urban environment presents to women and girls’ access to economic and educational opportunities.
      • Organization of interviews/focus groups with women and girls from different neighborhoods to identify the obstacles and opportunities encountered in public spaces in terms of economic empowerment and access to education (identify their know-how; their academic training and educational careers, identification of the types of discrimination experienced in access to employment and education opportunities).
      • Organization of capacity building workshops for women to ensure their participation in development and urban planning projects and to defend the consideration of gender in local urban policies in the design of gender-sensitive urban action plans for the benefit of women and local communities
      • Strengthen the organizational capacities of civil society to formulate responses to put an end to sexual violence against women and girls in public spaces in order to create an environment favorable to the empowerment of women.
      • Raising awareness and/or building the capacity of local authorities for the integration of gender into city projects, including urban development projects and the design and management of economic opportunity spaces such as markets

Competencies

• Technical/Functional Skills Required
  • The implementation partner must demonstrate the following skills:
    • Mastery of results-based management;
    • The application of the gender and human rights approach;
    • Monitoring and legal analysis and public policies in the field of combating violence against women and girls;
    • Advocacy and communication;
    • Good knowledge and analysis of the national context, actors and issues.
• Other skills, which, although not required, may be an asset to the proposal:
  • Demonstrate synergies with other Moroccan civil society initiatives in the field
  • Capacity building and awareness raising in the fight against violence against women and girls Mobilization of the community, including young people and men/boys.

For more information, visit UN Women.