UN Trust Fund: Preventing Women & Girls Violence in COVID-19

Deadline: 04-Nov-20

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) is seeking applications from civil society organizations (CSOs) working on the front lines of the COVID-19 response and recovery to address and respond to the growing reports of the rise of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the context of the current pandemic.

The UN Trust Fund will prioritize applications from women’s rights, women led, and small women’s organizations, in recognition of them being the driving force of the ending violence against women and girls agenda, as well as being at the forefront of reaching at-risk women and girls and survivors at the grassroots level.

The funding will focus on responses to and prevention of violence against women taking into account the intersectional marginalization of women in context of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly acknowledging the increased risk of violence for some groups including indigenous women, women with disabilities, older women, domestic workers and women without access to technology.

Funding Information

• 3-year grants of US $ 50,000 to US $ 150,000 for small civil society organizations (only organizations with an annual budget of less than US $ 200,000 qualify for this category)
• 3-year grants of US $150,001 to US $ 1,000,000 for all other civil society organizations

Priority Areas

• Adaption of EVAW service provision to meet increasing or varying types of demands and new forms of violence.
• Expansion of capacities of shelters and hotlines and amplifying of communications on the availability of GBV hotlines and other support mechanisms; exploring how technology can support those in lockdown situations to access services, being mindful of accessibility, confidentiality and privacy matters arising with such technology.
• Providing/ensuring availability and accessibility of legal aid, judicial protection and other essential police and justice services for women subject to violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, including through electronic or other remote means, and potentially associated training for handling GBV cases virtually, for lawyers, prosecutors and judges.
• Adaptation of VAW prevention programming or development of new or enhanced programming to integrate COVID-19 risk mitigation measures.
• Development of VAW prevention programmes to scale-up, adapt and replicate tested methods – that ensure survivor support as a central component and that are adapted to the COVID-19 context.
• Adapting programmes or designing new interventions to reach those most left behind in the pandemic and to mitigate the risk of both COVID-19 and VAW/G for marginalised groups including women and girls with disabilities and self-identified sex workers.
• Ethical and safe collection of data, monitoring of VAW/G and practictioner-based knowledge generation on the impact of COVID-19 on VAW and the use of this data for advocacy to amplify the stories of survivors and inform local to national COVID-19/VAW response.
• Providing economic support and empowerment programmes to mitigate the vulnerabilities excerbated by COVID-19 or to support survivors escaping violence.
• Advocacy, capacity building and knowledge sharing interventions to ensure CSOs – especially women’s rights organizations and those representing the most marginalised groups – are leading and participating fully in local and national COVID-19 responses in a manner that supports and sustains the women’s movement.
• Development of programmes that increase access to digital tools and spaces for violence prevention and response.

Eligibility Criteria

• Types of Organizations:
  • Women-led and women’s rights organizations that have existing and proven specialized knowledge, expertise and track record of working on women’s human rights and prevention and/or elimination of violence against women and girls.
  • To be considered a “women’s rights organization”, the organization must demonstrate that its core work is in the field of women’s rights, gender equality, the elimination of violence against women, and sexual and gender based violence. The organization’s official mission and vision statements must reflect its commitment to pursuing gender equality and empowering women and girls.
  • To be considered a “women-led organization”, the organization must demonstrate that it is governed and led by women.
  • To be considered a “small organization”, the organization’s annual operational budget must have been lower than US $ 200,000 (on average) over the last three years.
  • Other legally registered civil society organizations that have specialized knowledge, expertise and a track record of working on prevention and/or elimination of violence against women and girls.
  • International women’s rights organizations and International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) that explicitly focus on gender equality only.
  • Organizations can only apply, either as the main applicant organization or a co-implementing partner.
• Previous UN Trust Fund grants recipients:
  • Organizations receiving a grant from the UN Trust Fund may apply in this Call, if their grant has been programmatically and operationally closed by September 2020.
• The applicant must implement a project in one of the countries and/or territories listed in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Assistance Committee (OECD DAC) list of official development assistance (ODA) recipients.

Ineligible applicants

The following are NOT eligible to apply for a grant:

• Organizations proposing interventions in a country not listed in the OECD DAC list of ODA recipients;
• Organizations proposing interventions in more than one country or territory;
• Organizations whose work is not explicitly focused on gender equality;
• Organizations that do not have a legal status in the country or territory of implementation and neither do any of its co-implementing partners;
• Government agencies or institutions;
• UN agencies or UN Country Teams;
• Private individuals;
• Private sector entities;
• Organizations currently implementing a grant from the UN Trust Fund, either as the main grantee or as a co-implementing partner – unless the grant closed by September 2020.

Selection Process

They award grants through an open and competitive process. The application process will consist of two rounds.

• The first round will involve the submission of a Concept Note and only those successful in the first round will be invited to submit a Full-fledged proposal. xxx Applications will be appraised by independent experts and our Technical Review Group. A subset of final applicants will be considered for grants. Our interagency Programme Advisory Committee will make the final funding decisions.
• Grant approvals and signing of donor agreements will take place by mid-2021. All successful grantees are expected to work closely with our Team to incorporate full technical feedback and ensure high-quality standards of programme design and rigorous monitoring and evaluation plans.

For more information, visit https://grants.unwomen.org/untf/cfp/application-guidelines