Voice First global Call for Proposals: Learn from Innovation

Deadline: 15 October 2016

Her Excellency, Lilianne Ploumen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation for the Netherlands has launched the Voice First call for proposals.

The first call for proposals is designed to help Voice and its potential grantees learn from innovation. There exist many new, interesting and effective methods and approaches for supporting the Voice target group(s) in participating in their own governance and improving access to resources and services. People who belong to more than one of the five target groups described above are more vulnerable to discrimination and an emphasis on learning from programming to address this phenomenon is encouraged. Voice hopes to capture and stimulate learning of these methods so as to develop an evidence-base for future programming at national and global level.

Voice is a programme within the policy framework “Dialogue and Dissent” of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. Voice is managed by Oxfam Novib and Hivos in consortium. Voice aims at strengthening the influencing capacity of civil society organisations and representatives of the most marginalised and discriminated people in order to empower these groups and to have their voices heard and respected. As these groups are hard to reach, innovative ideas and approaches are encouraged in the area of capacity strengthening and lobby and advocacy.

Funding Information

Funding for the Innovation and Learn Grant is for a maximum of 12-months and for a grant of €25,000 to €200,000.

Areas of Change

• Empower and voice (for marginalized people to participate fully in society they need to feel empowered and accepted; groups need capacity to build safe spaces, create confidence and skills);
• Amplify (groups need allies for their voices to reach critical mass, changing norms and attitudes; they need capacity to build alliances and networks with various stakeholders); and
• Influence (groups and their representatives need capacity to use a range of lobby and advocacy tools to influence decision makers’ policy, practice and behaviour).

Key Support Areas

Voice focuses on five marginalized and discriminated groups, selected based on a review of research and country analysis; these are:

• People living with disabilities
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, intersex (LGBTI) people
• Women facing exploitation, abuse and/or violence
• Age discriminated vulnerable groups notably the young and elderly
• Indigenous groups and ethnic minorities

Impact Themes

• improving access to (productive) resources (finance, land and water) and employment
• improving access to social services, health and education in particular
• fostering space for political participation:

Focus Countries

Voice works in the following focus countries and all funded projects must focus on at least one of these:

• West Africa: Nigeria, Niger, Mali
• East-Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
• South-East Asia: Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, Laos

Eligibility Criteria

• Consortium Partners of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation “Dialogue and Dissent” Strategic Partnership are ineligible for funding from Voice.
• The applicant or the lead party (if the application is made by a consortium) is a legally registered not-for-profit civil society or community-based organization with an operational bank account in the applicant’s name.
• The applicant (or a consortium member if the application is made by a consortium) must be based in Africa or Asia.
• The applicant (or a consortium member if the application is made by consortium) must operate in one or more of the Voice focus countries.
• This Call for Proposals is only open to organizations with a maximum annual turnover of €2 million. The applicant must show that grants awarded from Voice derive no more than 30% for of the total annual income of the applicant organization.
• The Innovate and Learn Grant proposal must focus on at least one of the target groups and or groups facing multi-factor discrimination, in at least one of the impact themes and in at least one of the Voice focus countries.
• The applicant or the lead party substantially works with the most marginalized and discriminated groups in society (particularly those of the Voice target groups) to empower and strengthen their capacity to influence for their interests or to have their voices heard.
• For organizations with broader objectives it is also possible to demonstrate this on the grounds of the organization’s track record.
• The proposed grant does not relate to the funding of commercial services, investment or other commercial activities.

How to Apply

• Applications for grants from Voice must be submitted using the model application formats as stipulated and made available by the Fund Manager.
• Applications should be in English language, complete and without reservations and submitted via email at the address given on the website.

Eligible Countries

Asia: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen.

Africa: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Cote d’Ivorie, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

For more information, please visit  Call for Proposals.

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