Opportunity Desk

AWDF Call for Proposals: Leading from the South Fund Round 3 for Women Organizations in Africa & the Middle East

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Deadline: July 24, 2018

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) invites proposals for Leading from the South grants from all eligible women-led and women’s rights groups and organisations in Africa and the Middle East under Leading From the South. The Leading from the South Fund is a funding initiative created to resource women’s rights activism in the global South over 4 years, initiated by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It supports activism devised, implemented, and led by women’s rights organisations in the global South.

Under this initiative, AWDF aims to scale up its grantmaking and advocacy initiatives to promote women’s rights, amplify their voices, increase economic opportunities and improve access to spaces of decision-making. They support organisations and initiatives advancing the rights of women facing multiple discriminations. This includes young women; differently-abled women; women living with HIV, economically marginalised rural and urban women; sex workers and lesbian, bisexual and transgender women. They encourage applications from initiatives led by and/or including the participation and agendas of these constituencies.

Through Leading from the South, AWDF will award grants that advance the following three impact areas:

  1. Eliminate violence against women and girls & sustain respect for women’s bodily integrity and autonomy
  2. Protect full economic rights and justice for women
  3. Expand democratic space; sustain inclusive governance and equal political participation of women

Grants

Grants will be awarded in the range of US$20,000 to US$ 500,000 a year, in line with the following three categories:

Yalla grants

  • Size: US$20,000 to US$ 50,000 a year for up to 2 years
  • Geographic scope: Local and national
  • Grant size limit: An applicant organisation cannot apply for more than 50% of the organisation’s annual income.

Ananse grants

  • Size:US$51,000 to   US$ 199,000 a year for up to 2 years
  • Geographic scope: National, transnational (across 2 or more countries), regional.
  • Grant size limit: An applicant organisation cannot apply for more than 50% of the organisation’s/ combined network or consortium’s annual income.

Pamoja grants

  • Size: US$200,000 to US$500,000 a year for up to 2 years
  • Geographic scope: National, transnational (across 2 or more countries), regional, international.
  • Grant size limit: An applicant organisation cannot apply for more than 50% of the organisation’s or combined network/consortium’s annual income in the past financial year.

Activities to be considered for funding:

  • Campaigns to advance specific women’s rights agendas, law and policy change
  • Training to build core advocacy/social change skills
  • Media and communications campaigns
  • Action-research and knowledge production with an advocacy focus
  • Alliance and movement-building
  • Strategic litigation
  • Engaging the regional/international human rights system and international treaty bodies
  • Interventions to change public attitudes on key policy issues

Eligibility

  • Applications are accepted for women’s groups registered in the following countries in Africa and the Middle East:
    • Africa: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central Africa, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
    • Middle East: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Yemen
    • Funded programmes may be implemented in any of the above countries, as well as in Sudan, South Sudan, Iran and Syria.
  • AWDF funds women-led, women’s organisations as a priority. Organisations must have:
    • a track record of work on women’s rights,
    • a woman as organisational director/lead
    • a majority (at least 70%) of women staff
    • at least 70% women involved in the governing board/body
    • a stated commitment to women’s rights/gender equality in the organisational mission/vision/values
    • At least 70% of programmatic resources must be dedicated to direct programming on women’s rights;
    • the project applied for will be managed by a woman
  • For Ananse and Pamoja grants, we will also consider applications from networks/coalitions formed by three or more women’s groups. In this case applications will be made by one lead organisation who will be responsible for administering and reporting on use of funds. Funds can only be distributed by the lead to a maximum of 4 named partner/network members who must also be based in the two regions.
  • Organisations must demonstrate their capacity and financial management systems to effectively implement and account for grant funding and programme delivery.
  • Organisations must have registration status that enables them to receive funds from foreign sources.
  • Organisations must have been in existence for at least 3 years.
  • Applications will be accepted in English or French. Once a grant is awarded, technical support will be available in English and French.

Political parties, religious institutions, government bodies, for-profit organisations and individuals are not eligible for funding either independently or as part of a consortium.

Application

  1. All grant applications must be submitted to AWDF by 24 July 2018. AWDF will acknowledge receipt by email for all applications received.
  2. Please ensure that you only use the correct, updated application forms. Using the wrong form (including forms from previous rounds) could disqualify you.
  3. Submitted applications will be reviewed by AWDF’s experienced Programme Officers and managers with the support of qualified regional technical advisors. The final decision for the grants will be made by the AWDF board with contributions from technical advisors.
  4. Short-listing, review and selection process will take approximately 15 weeks from the submission deadline. Successful applicants will be contacted the week of 19 November 2018.
  5. Grants will be disbursed in January 2019
  6. Note that we are not able to provide feedback on individual applications.

To apply, download the relevant forms, guidelines, budget and financial management templates below:

For more information, visit AWDF.

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