Deadline: 17-Jun-22
The Leading from the South (LFS) grant programme is now accepting applications for the 2022 cycle.
LFS is a consortium created to resource feminist activism in the Global South and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. It supports activism devised, implemented, and led by women’s, girls, trans, and intersex rights organisations in the Global South. The fund is being implemented by four women’s funds in the Global South, of which Women’s Fund Asia is the implementing fund in the Asia region.
Objectives
- Drawing from SDG5, the focus of the MFA’s Women’s Rights and Gender Equality group aims to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”
- To do so under the LFS programme, the grants supported aim to address one or all of the following three objectives:
- Addressing all forms of violence against women, girls, trans, and intersex people and advancing their bodily integrity and autonomy;
- Protecting and ensuring full economic rights and justice for women, girls, trans, and intersex people; and
- Expanding democratic space, sustaining inclusive governance, and equal participation of women, girls, trans, and intersex people.
Thematic Priorities
Within the above, priority will be given to groups that seek to:
- Expand the Right to Movement and Labour: They have supported interventions focused on women, girls, trans, and intersex people’s right to safe migration, economic justice, and labour rights, with a particular focus on women working in vulnerable, informal, and stigmatised sectors such as sex work, garment factories, tea plantations, domestic work, and migrant labour.
- Promote Autonomy, Decisions, and Sexual Rights: They have supported initiatives that promote the right to sexuality, decision-making, and bodily autonomy of women, girls, trans, and intersex people. Beginning with supporting work on child and forced marriage and young women’s leadership and choices, this priority area also grew to encompass groups working on lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, and intersex (LBTQI) rights, abortion rights, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
- Increase Access to Justice: They support initiatives focused on increasing women, girls, trans, and intersex people’s access to justice, including raising legal awareness among communities, creating pathways and mechanisms for survivors to access lawyers and the judicial system, training women paralegals, supporting women lawyers, and others.
- Extend Environmental Justice: Interventions aimed at securing women, girls, trans, and intersex people’s right to access natural resources, and recognition of their leadership in resource management, disaster risk relief, climate change, and sustainable development. They have supported work by women with disabilities, women farmers, garment factory workers, and indigenous and Adivasi women on issues such as land rights, right to clean water and safe living and working environments, climate-related displacement, mining, and deforestation, among others.
- Strengthen Feminist Voices: Supporting and strengthening grassroots feminist leadership and movements has always been a priority for WFA. In the past, grants have supported institutional strengthening, capacity development for groups and their constituencies, grassroots mobilisation, campaigns, research, advocacy, and outreach. Consideration will also be given to organisations and networks who work to advance the rights of women, girls, trans, and intersex people through feminist interventions, which include rights-based, intersectional strategies; developing new discourses and building/strengthening linkages; continuing mobilisation; and strengthening feminist leadership.
Funding Information
- Frontline Defenders grants (up to EUR48,600 for 33 months) are for organisations and networks led women, girls, trans, and intersex persons working directly with communities on mobilisation and leadership building at the community and sub-national levels. Groups must be based in rural areas or small towns, or working with marginalised communities in urban areas. Ongoing programmes/ interventions would be given a preference.
- Amplifying Voices grants (up to EUR206,600 for 33 months) are for organisations and networks led by women, girls, trans, and intersex persons working on campaigns, knowledge, and capacity building, research, and evidence-based advocacy at the national and/or sub-regional levels.
- Promoting Regional Feminist Agenda grants (up to EUR446,800 for 33 months) for organisations and networks led by women, girls, trans, and intersex persons working at the macro level on capacity building of other feminist groups and activists, as well as undertaking knowledge building, evidence-based advocacy initiatives at the sub-regional, regional, and international levels. Priority will be given to groups working with international treaty bodies and regional intergovernmental organisations/or cooperation entities.
Geographic Coverage
The call for proposals extends to 17 countries in Asia:
- South Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka
- East and Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.
Eligibility Criteria
All applicants must fit the following criteria, in addition to grant category-specific criteria:
- Registration: Must be registered and based in one of these 17 countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar7, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. If you are from an unregistered group, you may apply as part of a consortium. The lead applicant of the consortium must be registered and based in one of the 17 countries above.
- Location: Please note that the board and staff of applying organisations should be representative of the Asia region. At least 60% of board members should be based in the Asia region for regional organisations and in the country of registration for national/ sub-national organisations.
- Focus: Must have advancement of women, girls, trans, and/or intersex rights as a focus of their vision, mission, and programme.
- Approach: Must be committed to feminist principles and rights-based approaches.
- Consortium Grants: In case the application is for a consortium, the board and staff leadership as well as the board and staff composition of the lead organisation should comply with the criteria set out under the respective grant category. Additionally, the rest of the consortium members’s board and staff should be led/co-led by either one or a combination of women, girls8, trans, and/or intersex persons and be based in one of the 17 countries. Consortium members can pool their members’ annual budgets to meet the criteria, and submit their audited statement of accounts or management financial reports. Unregistered groups may apply as part of a consortium.
- Feminist/Women’s/Trans/Intersex Funds: National women’s, trans and intersex funds, registered and working in the 17 mandated countries for a minimum of three years can apply under the LFS programme. They may only apply for the grant category Amplifying Voices and as part of a collaboration for an application for Promoting Regional Feminist Agendas. Such organisations may apply only for capacity building, knowledge building, and research activities under this programme. They cannot use LFS funds for sub-granting.
For more information, visit https://www.womensfundasia.org/index.php?r=whatWeDo/leadingfromtheSouth