UN Trust Fund’s Call for Proposals to Address Violence against Women and Girls in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa

Deadline: 31 July 2019

The UN Trust Fund has announced a call for proposals for projects to prevent and end violence against women and girls under the Spotlight Initiative in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The UN Trust Fund Spotlight Initiative funded Call For Proposals will focus on women’s rights organizations and those working on behalf of groups facing intersecting forms of discrimination, such as those marginalized and excluded due to poverty, ethnicity, disability, age, geography, migratory status, HIV status, among others, in alignment with the 2030 Agenda and the principle of leaving no one behind in EVAWG programming.

The Call for Proposals for Latin America (the Spotlight Initiative)

• This UN Trust Fund window of grant-making in Latin America under the Spotlight Initiative will focus on addressing all forms of violence against women and girls with the specific goal of preventing femicide. It will support single country projects in 5 target countries of Latin America with an approximate envelope of EUR 4.5 million: Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
  • All proposals submitted must be aligned to the Spotlight Initiative’s Theory of Change and respond specifically to action under its Outcome Area 6 while contributing to its associated Outcome and Output indicators (Please see Annex 1) :
    • Outcome 6: Women’s rights groups, autonomous social movements and civil society organizations, including those representing youth and groups facing intersecting forms of discrimination/marginalization, more effectively influence and advance progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment and ending violence against women and girls, including SGBV/HP.
  • All proposals must qualify under three programmatic areas of the UN Trust Fund’s 2015-2020 Strategy : (1) Improving access for women and girls to essential, safe and adequate multi-sectoral services to end violence against women and girls; (2) Increasing effectiveness of legislation, policies, national action plans and accountability systems to prevent and end violence against women and girls; and (3) Improving prevention of violence against women and girls through changes in knowledge, attitudes and practices.
• As applicants write their application, please keep in mind that proposals will be evaluated against their alignment with the Outcome area specified above.
• By way of illustration and as a guide only, proposals might consider:
  • Creating opportunities for women’s rights groups, women human rights defenders and relevant civil society organizations to share knowledge, network, partner and coordinate their efforts to jointly advocate for ending femicide and violence against women and girls with relevant stakeholders at sub-national and national levels. This includes the use of digital technology for movement building, to exchange information rapidly, and to organize across geographical locations.
  • Strengthening capacities of women’s rights groups, women human rights defenders and relevant civil society organizations to design, implement and monitor their own programmes on femicide.

The Call for Proposals for Sub-Saharan Africa (the Spotlight Initiative)

• This UN Trust Fund window of grant-making focuses on eliminating sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and harmful practices (HP) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• The UN Trust Fund will support:
  • Single country projects in 13 target countries of Africa with an approximate envelope of EUR 6.5 million: Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
  • Multi-country projects originating from all other Sub-Saharan African countries with an approximate envelope of EUR 9.8 million. Multi-country initiatives may cover a maximum of three countries and four partner organizations with a sub-regional focus. This means that an organization based in a particular country (e.g. Senegal) may propose a project that covers implementation across up to two (2) other countries (e.g. Guinea and the Gambia). Organizations proposing multi-country initiatives must demonstrate that they or one of their national implementing partners are legally registered in each of the countries (or territories) of implementation.
• Please Note: As the Spotlight Initiative will be funding simultaneous calls for proposals launched through both the UN Women Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) and the UN Trust Fund in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria and Uganda, applicants from these countries should carefully note the following:
  • Organizations may apply either to the WPHF or the UN Trust Fund EVAW, but not both. Organizations that apply to both Funds will be disqualified.
  • The UN Trust Fund EVAW will fund applicants for grants of between USD 200,001 to USD 1 million in the aforementioned countries.
  • Organizations applying for grants between USD 20,000 and USD 200,000 should apply only to the WPHF.
• All proposals submitted must be aligned to the Spotlight Initiative’s Theory of Change and respond specifically to action under its Outcome Area 6 while contributing to the associated Outcome and Output indicators (Please see Annex 1):
  • Outcome 6: Women’s rights groups, autonomous social movements and civil society organizations, including those representing youth and groups facing intersecting forms of discrimination/marginalization, more effectively influence and advance progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment and ending violence against women and girls, including SGBV/HP.
• Proposals must qualify for funding under the three programmatic areas of the UN Trust Fund’s 2015-2020 Strategy : (1) Improving access for women and girls to essential, safe and adequate multi-sectoral services to end violence against women and girls; (2) Increasing effectiveness of legislation, policies, national action plans and accountability systems to prevent and end violence against women and girls; and (3) Improving prevention of violence against women and girls through changes in knowledge, attitudes and practices.
• As applicants write their application, please keep in mind that proposals will be evaluated against their alignment with the Outcome area specified above.
• By way of illustration and as a guide only, proposals might consider:
  • Creating opportunities for women’s rights groups and relevant civil society organizations to share knowledge, network, partner and coordinate their efforts to jointly advocate for ending sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices with relevant stakeholders at sub-national and national levels. This includes the use of digital technology for movement building, to exchange information rapidly, and to organize across geographical locations.
  • Strengthening capacities of women’s rights groups and relevant civil society organizations to design, implement and monitor their own programmes on prevention of sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices.
  • Fostering girls’ leadership and activism and mobilizing and supporting young and adolescent girls, especially indigenous and socially excluded girls, as champions of change for promoting equality and ending sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices.

Funding Information

• 3-year grants of US$ 50,000 to US$ 150,000 for small civil society organizations
• 3-year grants of US$ 150,001 to US$ 1 million for all other civil society organizations

For purposes of grant allocation, the UN Trust Fund considers an organization “small” if its annual organizational budget is less than US$ 200,000. Organizations with a larger annual budget are not eligible to apply under this grant category.

Eligibility Criteria

• The UN Trust Fund expects applicants to clearly articulate the contextual challenges, expected, specific and measurable results and strategies to achieve them, with a focus on tailored approaches and interventions to adequately address the identified problem and the specific form of violence against women and girls. The ideal proposal should include references to rigorous and documented evidence to justify the investment on the basis that the approach is likely to be effective in addressing violence against women and girls at the local or national level, where relevant.
• As the UN Trust Fund and the Spotlight Initiative aim to expand the global knowledge base on ‘what works’ to end violence against women and girls, applications from organizations piloting, up-scaling or replicating evidence-based innovative and promising results-based approaches that carry a promise of broader application are welcome.
• In all cases, ethical and safety considerations are fully required to ensure that all data is collected and all projects are implemented in a way that they respect human rights and confidentiality and do not jeopardize the safety of women and girls in accordance with WHO ethical and safety recommendations for researching violence against women and girls.

Type of Organizations

• Women-led and women’s rights organizations that have specialized knowledge, expertise and track record of working on women’s human rights and prevention and/or elimination of violence against women and girls. Supporting documents are required (constitutions, by-laws, organigrammes) to enable the UN Trust Fund to determine whether the organization is a women’s rights and/or woman-led organization.
  • Applications from women’s rights, women-led, and small women’s organizations will be prioritized, in recognition of them being the driving force of the ending violence against women agenda, as well as being at the forefront of reaching women and girls’ survivors at the grassroots level. Women’s funds are also encouraged to apply to expand the reach of the funding to a broader cross-section of civil society.
• Other legally registered civil society organizations and networks
  • Organizations must have specialized knowledge, expertise and a track record of working on prevention and/or elimination of violence against women and girls and partner with local women’s organizations that have the requisite expertise. The applicant organization must work with relevant partners to complement its expertise, outreach capacity and build the capacities of grassroots organizations.

Non-Eligible Applicants

The following are NOT eligible to apply for a grant from the UN Trust Fund:

• Organizations proposing single-country interventions in countries different from the target countries under the Spotlight Initiative in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa
• Organizations that do not have a legal status in the country of implementation (unless one of their implementing partners is registered in the country of implementation)
• Government agencies or institutions
• Individual UN agencies or UN Country Teams
• Private individuals
• Private sector entities
• Organizations currently implementing a grant from the UN Trust Fund
• Previous UN Trust Fund grantees, unless the grant was successfully closed before calendar year 2017

How to Apply

• Applicants are expected to submit proposals online in the form of a brief Concept Note.
• Applications can be submitted in the following languages only: English, French and Spanish.
• For preparation of the Concept Note, refer below:
  • Spotlight Initiative Theory of Change and Outcome 6
  • Concept Note Form
  • Budget Summary
• Only one application per organization will be accepted. Multiple applications from the same organization or for the same proposal will be automatically disqualified.
• The online application must include all the following required documents to be considered complete:
  • Legal Registration Documents
  • Certified Financial Statements
  • Organizational documents providing evidence if the organization is a women’s rights or women-led organization

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