S/GWI seeking Proposals for Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response

Deadline: 11 May 2020

The Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI) has announced this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a new agreement to advance U.S. national security and foreign policy priorities by supporting women and girls who are at risk from genderbased violence (GBV), violent extremism, and conflict.

Under this NOFO, S/GWI seeks proposals that will address the needs of women and girls adversely impacted by GBV, particularly female genital mutilation / cutting (FGM/C) and/or early forced marriage (EFM), through the support of survivor-centered and/or informed activities in communities, countries, and regions impacted by conflict and violent extremism.

This NOFO aims to support activities in continental Africa (including Sub-Saharan and Northern Africa). Proposals may work in one or more countries in the target region.

Goal and Objectives

• To enhance survivor-centered and informed efforts to prevent and respond to GBV, particularly FGM/C and/or EFM, in communities, countries, and regions affected by conflict and violent extremism.

Objectives

• Advocacy and/or social change is a cross-cutting objective that should be central to the proposed project, increasing survivors’ meaningful participation in national, regional, and/or global changes in laws, policies, or cultural norms to end GBV:
  • Empower Individuals. Support women and girl survivors of GBV informing and/or leading efforts to prevent or respond to GBV, particularly FGM/C and/or EFM in areas affected by violent extremism or conflict. Sample activities include:
    • Strengthening survivor-centered or informed advocacy efforts that amplify the voices of survivors in local, regional, national or international forums.
    • Training programs for women and girls to support their agency, leadership, and advocacy skills.
    • Increasing survivors’ awareness of, and linkages to, GBV response services.
    • Building upon current survivor-centered initiatives to train religious or community leaders, educators, law enforcement, health care providers or legislative/government actors to prevent and respond to GBV.
    • Engaging men and boys as partners and champions to tackle harmful cultural norms that perpetuate GBV.
  • Strengthen Communities. Strengthen community prevention of and response to GBV through the work of survivor-centered or survivor-informed civil-society organizations (CSOs), particularly FGM/C and/or EFM, in areas impacted by violent extremism and conflict. Sample activities include:
    • Supporting survivors’ leadership in community organizations, local governance, and cultural activities.
    • Educating community members on the inherent value of women and girls.
    • Raising awareness of legal protections for women’s rights.
    • Promoting enforcement of legal protections for women’s rights.
    • Analyzing the drivers of GBV through survivor-centered data collection.
    • Spreading community activism and/or education on GBV.
    • Launching anti-GBV media campaigns.
  • Build Networks. Strengthen existing and/or establish national and/or regional networks between CSOs, community groups, service providers and others advocating for GBV survivors and/or GBV prevention or response. Sample activities include:
    • Supporting survivor-centered advocacy, education, or outreach.
    • Building the capacity of GBV-focused CSO/NGO networks to conduct advocacy, organize campaigns, and engage the media.
    • Cultivating partnerships between survivor-centered or informed organizations and governments, CSOs, and/or the private sector.
    • Establishing partnerships between survivor-centered or informed organizations and print, radio, television outlets, and social media platforms.
    • Mobilizing CSO / NGO networks to draft or reform laws, policies, and regulations that prohibit or penalize GBV.
    • Convening stakeholders to develop action plans for GBV prevention and response.

Focus Areas

Applicants will need to present:

• A survivor-centered or informed approach that supports survivors’ meaningful participation in efforts to prevent or respond to GBV,
• An evidence-based intervention that applies a gender analysis to understand the various ways in which GBV intersects with conflict and violent extremism in the chosen location(s),
• A model that provides potentially scalable best practices for effective solutions,
• A design that incorporates an initial contextual analysis of the drivers of GBV in the chosen location(s), demonstrating in-depth understanding of cultural norms and practices that perpetuate forms of GBV,A proposal that prioritizes collaboration or network-building between local CSOs, community groups, religious leaders, government entities, service providers, and advocates,
• An inclusive and localized approach that incorporates families, men and boys, and engages with communities impacted by violent extremism or conflict.

Funding Information

Program Locations

• Be in continental Africa,
• Be able to incubate solutions that can be shared and/or replicated elsewhere, if successful,
• Demonstrate momentum towards adoption of new laws or implementation of existing laws that protect the rights of women and girls, and
• Involve strong local participation in, and ownership over, a program’s activities (this can be demonstrated with previous experience, letters of intent/support, or other evidence of local participation and leadership).

Eligibility Criteria

• S/GWI welcomes applications from educational and research institutions; U.S. not-forprofit/non-governmental organizations (NGOs) subject to section 501 (c) (3) of the U.S. tax code, and foreign not-for-profits/NGOs/social enterprises.
• If applicants determine that a consortium of expert organizations should implement the work, they must submit a list of their proposed partners, each of whom must also meet the eligibility criteria.
• Applications that do not meet the eligibility by the time of an application deadline will not be reviewed.
• Applicants may submit only one proposal in response to this NOFO. If multiple proposals are received from the same applicant, all submissions will be declared ineligible and receive no further consideration in the review process.

For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=326339