Deadline: 21-Dec-20
OPTIMA has announced its small grants pool which offers funding for the development or enhancement of resources, tools, and guides to better equip advocates in Sub-Saharan Africa to prevent, prepare for and respond to internet shutdowns in their countries.
OPTIMA is Internews’ program that supports collaboratively developed resources to enable more strategic, coordinated, cross-sectoral, and replicable responses to major instances of network interference (i.e. internet shutdowns) in Africa.
Funding Information
- Grants will be between $1,000 and $5,000 USD each and must support the creation of tangible resources that other individuals/groups can use to strengthen their work in either preventing or responding to internet shutdowns.
Funding Categories
Projects must fall into one of the following four funding categories:
- Network Measurement;
- Legal Resources;
- Multistakeholder Engagement;
- Circumvention Tools, Guides, and Resources.
Proposed Projects
Proposed projects could take a number of forms, including (but not limited to):
- Case study research to provide best practices and recommendations on how to respond to a shutdown.
- Resources to improve advocacy approaches and outreach to relevant stakeholders such as government bodies, ISPs, and other important actors.
- Guides on using circumvention tools during shutdowns, fighting shutdowns in courts, or measuring and documenting shutdowns.
- Translations of existing resources and guides for specific contexts, audiences, or languages.
- Training curricula relevant to predicting, preventing, or responding to an internet shutdown.
Requirements
- These funds are available solely to individuals or organizations interested in developing targeted, localized, and issue-specific resources to contribute to a growing community capable of responding to Internet shutdowns in Africa.
- Applicants must be based in Sub-Saharan Africa, or propose projects specifically targeting the region.
- Applicants can apply to supplement their existing project or to translate/update/localize an existing resource that they did not create (if it is under Creative Commons or with permission from the creator).
Countries of Focus
- Resources must be applicable for use in Sub-Saharan Africa. Resources that are created for use in specific countries (including localization or translation of resources into relevant languages) will be given precedent: Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritania, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Process
- Submissions will be accepted between November 20 and December 21, 2020.
- Projects should be no longer than 3 months in duration, with the possibility of a 2-month extension after that time.
- Grants will be reviewed by Internews, in conjunction with members of OPTIMA’s Advisory Committee. Projects may begin as early as January 1 and run through March 31, 2021.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/36YSgIs