IHRDA’s Legal Defence Fund

The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) has issued a call for applications for the Legal Defence Fund in Africa. The fund seeks to support individuals/groups litigating cases before the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights. It has received financial contribution from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

The fund covers travel, accommodation and other related expenses. Applicants to this fund must fulfill the following criteria:

• Must be a national/organisation of an ECOWAS state, Cameroon, Chad or Mauritania;
• Must have a communication before the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACmHPR) [cases before the ACmHPR are referred to as ‘communications’].

Applications should consist of the following:

• An application letter;
• Description of the communication including detailed information on the progress of your communication with the ACmHPR – approximately 800 words;
• Evidence of nationality [e.g. copy of ID, NGO or company registration document].

Deadline for applications is Friday 31st August 2012. For more information, visit this link.

The Robert Carr civil society Network Fund First Call for Proposals

The Robert Carr civil society Network Fund has has announced a new funding opportunity for civil society organizations and community networks. This is the first Request for Proposals launched by this fund. It seeks to support NGOs, CBOs and other charitable organizations which have a focus on HIV/AIDS and directly related issues.

Organizations eligible to apply are:

• Global networks, regional networks and alliances of networks (a combination of global and regional, or otherwise) that:
• Are non-profit organizations (e.g., NGOs, CBOs, and other charitable organizations);
• Focus in their work on HIV/AIDS and directly related issues (75% of activities and spending); and
• Have strong management and leadership, and have the capacity to carry out the proposed activities, monitor contribution to outcomes within an agreed results framework, and to effectively manage the requested grant.

Global and regional civil society and community networks can apply for a grant to support core‐funding and/or programmatic needs of the network for up to three years, depending on review of performance after one year against a results framework and availability of funds. Only one application may be submitted per organization. Proposals must clearly demonstrate how support will enable the network to contribute to the identified outcomes and how they will track relevant indicators. It is expected that additional proposals for new activities or scale up can be submitted in subsequent years. These submissions will be subject to competitive review.

Applicants must clearly demonstrate how core support and program funding will contribute to achieving defined outcomes, and how progress will be monitored. Applicants are encouraged to seek the establishment of relevant collaboration, synergies or division of labor with other global and/or regional networks, as well as with those at national level, as appropriate. Applications from individual global and regional networks organizations are also welcome and will be reviewed with careful attention given to the distinction between these two types of organizations (global or regional).

All proposals must be received by 1 September, 2012. No applications will be considered after this date. For more information, visit this link.

Population health vulnerabilities to vector-borne diseases: Increasing resilience under climate change conditions in Africa

Research groups or consortia from African national institutions are invited to express interest in undertaking multidisciplinary research to elucidate population health vulnerabilities due to vector borne diseases (VBDs) in dryland socio-ecological systems. The research will also need to explore how state-of-the-art, VBD control tools and strategies can be used more effectively to reach remote or otherwise marginalized populations (especially women and children), and conceive, strengthen and improve their adaptation and resilience strategies to climate, environmental and socio-economic and demographic change.

The overall objective of the call is to support research groups in Africa to undertake research to improve the understanding of climate change impact on population health vulnerabilities to VBDs and develop tools and strategies for adaptation to climate change.

The selected research groups will undertake retrospective and prospective multi/trans-disciplinary research involving epidemiology, public health, medical sciences, entomology, malacology, parasitology, meteorology, climatology, environmental sciences, economics, social sciences, agriculture sciences and statistics, etc. Multi-disciplinary project teams are thus essential.Up to 8 research proposals will be selected for funding for up to 3 years with a maximum  annual budget of US$ 200 000 per project  (total up to US$ 600 000).

Deadline for submissions: 10 September 2012. For more information, visit this link.

AusAID: ADRAS Funding Round 2012 now open

The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) is now accepting applications for the AusAID Development Research Awards Scheme (ADRAS) Funding Round 2012.

ADRAS is the key component of the AusAID Research Strategy 2012-2016. The purpose of ADRAS is to improve the quality and effectiveness of Australian aid in developing countries. AusAID promotes fairness, transparency and value for money from our research investment including through the use of competitive mechanisms to fund research.

The ADRAS is designed to attract high quality, innovative research that informs policy development.

The 2012 funding round will allocate funding for research in the following priority theme areas:

• Africa
• Disability-inclusive Development
• Education
• Gender
• Health
• Mining for Development
• Scholarships
• Water, Sanitation & Hygiene

The Funding Round is open to all Australian and international not-for-profit institutions or organisations where research is a core component of the 4 organisation’s mandate and where the organisation has a demonstrated capacity to carry out quality research and manage grant funds according to AusAID’s policies. The funding round will accept proposals of up to three years in duration except under the Africa theme which will be up to two years duration.

Successful projects are eligible to receive funding between AUD200,000 and AUD400,000 per year.

Applications for AusAID to be an industry partner under the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage project scheme will also be considered under the ADRAS.

The deadline to submit proposals to this opportunity is 5pm AEST, Friday 21 September 2012. For more information, visit this link.