Deadline: 8 December 2019
The Regional SRHR Fund seeks to support efforts that advocate for or take actions that can lead to improvements in the availability and accessibility of ASRH services and rights for young people and adolescents in the ESA with a focus on the most vulnerable and marginalized people including young women and girls.
Hivos in partnership with SIDA and Ford Foundation manages the Regional Fund on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). The Regional SRHR Fund was established in recognition of the critical need for a strategic regional response to collectively address the myriad of SRHR issues in Southern Africa with particular attention to young people and adolescents as well as to provide an opportunity for donors to coordinate their support to SRHR in the region.
The Fund currently focuses its efforts on Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (ASRHR) in east and southern Africa (ESA). To do so, it supports civil society responses to a diversity of ASRHR issues that are relevant at both the national and regional levels using grant-making as the main mechanism of support.
Grants will be provided to organisations proposing innovative ways to address the key challenges that young people and adolescents face in accessing sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) services and rights and those that promote opportunities that may exist to improve access to ASRH services and rights. Grants will principally focus on providing support to regional ASRHR advocacy, capacity development and research efforts, although strategic linkages with broader ASRHR initiatives will be encouraged.
The intermediate outcome of the ASRHR programme is:
- Stronger and more coordinated youth-led and youth-focused civil society in Southern and Eastern Africa that can promote, addressing and advancing ASRHR and its interconnection to HIV at the regional level, with a key focus on young people and adolescents.
Objectives
The key objectives of the ASRHR programme are:
- Objective 1: Capacity Strengthening – Youth-led and/or youth-focused organisations are trained, mentored and upskilled in all areas of organizational and programmatic capacity to enable them to gather evidence, and to promote and advocate for improved access for adolescents and youth to SRHR services
- Objective 2: Knowledge Management – There is improved knowledge sharing, networking and data collection on SRHR in the region by youth-led and/or youth-focused organisations and individuals, as well as increased capacity for youth-driven research
- Objective 3: Advocacy and Awareness Raising – Youth-led and/or youth-focused organisations have improved capacity to conceptualise, design and coordinate joint ASRHR advocacy and awareness-raising campaigns in the region
- Objective 4: Coordination/convening – Youth-led and/or youth focused organisations have enhanced capacity to coordinate SRHR activities and convene spaces through integrated and inter-linked initiatives, including with similar organizations in East Africa
Award Information
- Award Amount: minimum USD 25,000.00 and maximum USD 100,000.00
- Available Awards: Up to 8
Geographic Focus
East and Southern Africa (ESA) with a special focus on Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Preference will be given to regional applications or national responses that demonstrate regional relevance.
Proposal Focus
The proposed actions should focus on one or more of the following key result areas:
- Improved access to Adolescent and Youth SRHR.
- Better conditions for young people to make informed decisions about their health, sexuality and reproduction.
- Improved access to safe and legal abortions.
- Increased gender equality focusing on prevention of child marriages and sexual and gender-based violence, including female genital mutilation.
- Greater enjoyment of human rights for LGBT people
The Regional SRHR Fund is therefore seeking proposals that put forward approaches and activities that seek to improve the SRHR outcomes for young people and adolescents.
Activities can include:
- developing and implementing initiatives to improve the capacity of youth led and youth focused organisation to gather evidence, and to promote and advocate for improved access for adolescents and youth to SRHR services; and
- advocacy efforts that seek to change/implement policies or programs at the national and regional level;
- research to gather, document and share evidence on key challenges that young people and adolescents face in accessing SRHR services;
- pilot testing programs that seek to strengthen capacity for youth-driven research
- changing social norms and behaviour change around gender equality, sexual orientation and gender identity, safe abortion and adolescents access to SRHR; strengthen empowerment of rights-holders, and engage boys, men, as well as traditional and religious leaders.
Proposals should clearly demonstrate anticipated outcomes linked to the objectives of the proposal call. Applicants should be based or able to work in one of the identified countries (Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe or Kenya). The maximum length of a proposal is 10 pages (including budget, results-framework and work plan). The proposal could build on existing activities or initiatives of applicants. The proposed intervention should not be less than 6 months and should not exceed 12 months.
Funding is limited is therefore preference will be given to:
- Proposals that are well thought out and demonstrate a clear connection to the objectives of the Regional SRHR Fund and the proposal call.
- Proposals that demonstrate innovative approaches that seek to gather, and document best practices and lessons learned on undertaking advocacy and awareness-raising on ASRHR that are geared to young audiences and utilize relevant ICT technologies;
- Proposals that have the potential to have the greatest impact in improving access to SRH services for young people and adolescents in Southern and East Africa.
- Proposals that aim to reach the poorest or most vulnerable adolescent and youth population to increase their access to SRHR.
- Proposals that aim to reach the most hard to reach adolescent and youth population to increase their access to SRHR.
- Proposals that aim to reach adolescent and youth disability population
- Proposals that aim to break down barriers/ challenge social and gender norms around AYSRHR
- Proposals that include elements of sustainability
Additional Information
- Proposals should be rooted in the existing work and core activities of the organization
- Proposals should demonstrate that the organization applying for the grant is working in and has relationships with relevant stakeholders in one of the target countries.
- The organization should be able to demonstrate an understanding of SRHR in the region and the connection to young people and adolescents
- Proposals should be submitted with a corresponding budget, work plan and results framework.
- Proposals must adhere to international safety and ethical guidelines
- Proposals must be received on time and should conform with the information requested as articulated in the proposal guidelines.
- Applicants must be able to ensure strong governance and financial management arrangements through the provision of the necessary paperwork to demonstrate this.
- Only activity-based costs (admin costs included) will be considered.
- Preference will be given to supporting organizations that are seeking to work at the regional or multi-country level and applications that focus on the inclusion of marginalised groups of young people.
- Submission of a proposal does not automatically guarantee funding.
- Review of proposals will be done by a Selection Committee that will review proposals against the set selection criteria.
For more information, please visit https://southern-africa.hivos.org/vacancy/request-for-proposals-adolescent-sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-rights-asrhr-programme-2/