Small Grants for Women-Led and Human Rights Civil Society Organizations – Ukraine

Deadline: 04-Nov-20

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Ukraine Office plans to award Small Grants to eligible Civil Society Organizations (CSO).

Small Grants are intended exclusively to finance a limited range of eligible activities to support the development or strengthening of women-led CSOs’ and human rights CSOs’ institutional capacities.

The project supports the implementation of WPS commitments at regional and local levels and promotes the participation of women and girls, especially the vulnerable, affected by the conflict in recovery, peace and community security planning in Eastern Ukraine.

Focus Areas

UN Women solicits applications for Small Grants for institutional capacity development or strengthening from women-led CSOs and human rights CSOs legally established and operating in Ukraine working in the field of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and/or gender-responsive Covid-19 response and recovery, covering at least one of the below specific areas:

• Women’s leadership and participation in the WPS Agenda at the local, regional and national levels;
• Women-led peacebuilding, peaceful co-existence and/or social cohesion;
• Conflict-related sexual violence;
• Gender-responsive Covid-19 response and recovery for the benefit of vulnerable groups of women, facing multiple forms of discrimination in at least one of the following regions: Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia

Funding Information

• Minimum budget: USD 2,500
• Maximum budget: USD 20,000

Eligible activities

The applicant may apply for a small grant to cover the following activities:

• introducing and improving organizational systems, tools, and processes;
• training of the workforce in technical and managerial skills; and,
• supporting with equipment such as copiers, scanners, printers, laptops and computers as long as the cost of such equipment is limited to 30% of the proposed small grant budget or USD5,000, whichever is lower.

Who can apply?

• The applicant must be a women-led CSO or human rights CSO legally established and operating in Ukraine.
• The applicant may apply if it:
  • is a registered CSO in operation for at least three years;
  • is not on the Consolidated UN Security Council Sanctions List ;
  • is not being investigated for fraud, corruption, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or other wrongdoing;
  • has not had funding received from UN Women entirely or partly written off by UN Women;
  • is not currently engaged as an Implementing Partner (IP) or Responsible Party (RP) for UN Women;
  • has not been engaged as an IP/RP for UN Women at any time after 21 November 2019;
  • is not a government entity;
  • is not a UN organization;
  • is not an established CSO with the capacity to be engaged as an Implementing Partner/Responsible Party;
  • has sufficient capacity to collaborate with various stakeholders;
  • has sufficient financial stewardship, including having adequate financial policies and procedures in place to manage the small grant; and,
  • past performance has been deemed satisfactory by UN Women (if it has received small grants previously or been engaged as an IP/RP before 21 November 2019).
• The applicant must be operating in one or more of the following areas:
  • Women’s leadership and participation in the WPS Agenda at the local, regional and national levels;
  • Women-led peacebuilding, peaceful co-existence and/or social cohesion;
  • Conflict-related sexual violence;
  • Gender-responsive Covid-19 response and recovery for the benefit of vulnerable groups of women, facing multiple forms of discrimination in at least one of the following regions: Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

Review Criteria

Review Criteria The applicant must:

• propose eligible activities that develop or strengthen the institutional capacity of the applicant and are consistent with this advertisement;
• not propose to use the small grant to provide an activity/output on behalf of UN Women, civil construction work, engineering work, purchases of vehicles or other tangible or intangible property, except for copiers, scanners, printers, laptops, and computers;
• not propose to use more than 30% of the small grant or USD5000, whichever is lower, to purchase copiers, scanners, printers, laptops, and computers;
• propose a timeline and eligible activities that do not extend beyond 31 March 2021, including political, security, logistical considerations;
• not propose to cover its indirect costs/support costs with the small grant;
• not make a direct profit from the small grant;
• not propose to cover costs incurred or committed prior to a signed Small Grant Agreement;
• propose eligible activities sustainably supporting the applicant;
• propose eligible activities where the applicant has the capacity to reach the target audience; and,
• propose a budget that is cost-effective given the eligible activities, the number of targeted beneficiaries, and the proposed location.

For more information, visit https://eca.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/10/cfa-small-grants-for-women-led-and-human-rights-civil-society-organizations