United Nations Democracy Fund: Seventh Round of Funding from 15th November 2012 onwards

The United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) is going to open its Seventh Round of Funding from 15 November 2012 onwards. The Fund will provide grants ranging from US $50,000 to US $400,000 for projects that strengthen the voice of civil society, promote human rights, and encourage the participation of all groups in democratic processes.

The primary purpose of this UN body is supporting democracy through empowering civil society. UNDEF projects exist in developing countries, in societies in transition and in challenging environments, and are in six main areas: Community development; rule of law and human rights; tools for democratization; youth; empowering women; and media.

Among these, NGOs and civil society organizations are expected to receive the bulk of funding. Besides, UNDEF allocates 70% of its programmable resources in each funding round for projects that take place in one country while the rest of the 30% is for global/regional projects. This means that local NGOs have better chances of receiving grants for their projects than international organizations working in different regions.

Applicants from all countries can submit project proposals, but UNDEF will give strong preference to proposals submitted from countries and regions where the challenges of democracy are more critical, such as countries emerging from conflict, new and restored democracies, the Least Developed Countries, Low Income Countries and Middle Income Countries.

Applications have to be submitted online through the UNDEF website. The deadline to submit applications is 31 December 2012. For more information, visit this link.

MIUSA’s Empower Partnerships: Opportunity to collaborate with US organizations

MIUSA (Mobility International USA) has launched the ‘Empower Partnerships for Inclusive Communities Professional Exchange Program’ which seeks to reduce barriers and forging sustainable international partnerships to promote inclusive communities.

The Empower Partnerships project is a two-way international exchange program for organizations working on or interested in working on disability-related issues and inclusion as articulated in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This project aims to create sustainable organizational partnerships between U.S. and international organizations, expanding the capacity of each organization to promote disability inclusive communities, and to advance disability rights. MIUSA will select and match organizations from the U.S. and 20 other countries, and will provide ongoing technical assistance, opportunities for international exchange, small grant support to implement collaborative projects, and foster long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

The objectives of the Empower Partnerships project are to:

•        Remove barriers to community opportunities and resources;

•        Support the ability of individuals and organizations to serve as leading disability advocates and promote policies and programs benefiting people with disabilities;

•        Promote civil society by enabling individuals and organizations working with people with disabilities to share best practices and facilitate cross-sector cooperation through two-way professional exchanges;

•        Ensure that people with diverse disabilities and their families and communities benefit from the transformational power of international exchanges; and,

•        Build or expand sustainable networks of individuals and organizations serving people with disabilities.

Twenty partner teams will be selected by MIUSA and each will include three organizations: one U.S. organization and two organizations from another country. Non-U.S. organizations will include one focused on disability inclusion such as a Disabled People’s Organization (DPO) and one non-disability-specific institution for which disability inclusion is a priority. The 20 international partner teams will share knowledge and expertise through reciprocal exchange programs to maximize outcomes of collaborative projects and ongoing partnerships.

Participating Countries- Australia, Argentina, Albania, Algeria,  Burkina Faso, Brazil, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burma, China, Cyprus, Croatia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Egypt, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Israel, India, Japan, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Libya, Latvia, Lithuania, Lebanon, Morocco, Mali, Malaysia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Mexico, Mongolia, Maldives, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Nigeria, Philippines, Pakistan, Romania, Rwanda, South Africa, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey, Thailand, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Tunisia, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Ukraine, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Yemen and USA.

The deadline to apply is 7 January 2013. For more information, visit this link.

Call for Proposals: Designing the 2015 Global Climate Change Agreement

The European Commission (EC) has issued a call for proposals for ‘Designing the 2015 Global Climate Change Agreement’ under the Thematic Programme for Environment and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources including Energy (ENRTP). The programme helps developing countries and partner organisations to address environmental and natural resource management issues.

The global objective of this call for proposals is to support the negotiations under the ADP (Durban Platform for Enhanced Action). This will include arranging for dialogue, research and in-depth analysis. In addition, on the basis of this work and progress in the negotiations, the programme will develop a draft new international agreement, with explanatory memorandum and supporting papers on its key elements. This work must be carried out by organisations such as NGOs, think tanks or centres of academic excellence from a broad and representative range of countries, including major emerging economies, Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. The outputs of this call for proposals will be used within an international negotiations forum.

The specific objective is the development of options on how the new agreement should address all elements of the ADP workstream on the 2015 Agreement, including mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer, transparency of action and support and capacity building.

This is a restricted Call for Proposals. In the first instance, only Concept Notes must be submitted for evaluation. Thereafter, applicants whose Concept Notes have been pre-selected will be invited to submit a Full Application Form.

The deadline to submit applications is 22 December 2012. For more information, visit this link.

Catalyst Grants 2012: Unlocking the Potential for Groundwater for the Poor

The Unlocking the Potential for Groundwater for the Poor is a £10m international programme to fund interdisciplinary research, generating evidence and innovative tools to enable developing countries and their partners in sub-Saharan Africa to use groundwater in a sustainable way for the ultimate benefit of the poor. It is funded by DFID, NERC and in principle ESRC.

This call is for outline Catalyst Grant proposals which will provide an opportunity for the world’s best researchers to develop and test new innovative ideas for addressing the programme’s aim of enabling sustainable use of groundwater for the benefit of the poor. It is also an opportunity to facilitate the development of new interdisciplinary teams that bring developing and developed country scientists together.

Proposals are invited for funding of up to £150,000 (FEC). This call has a total available budget of up to £1•5m. Projects will be funded for a maximum duration of one year.

Submission of an Outline Proposal is mandatory in order to participate in the funding round at the full proposal stage.

All Outline Proposals will be assessed by an Assessment Panel and successful applicants will be notified by the start of February 2013 that they are able to proceed to the Full Proposal stage.

The closing date for outline proposals is 16:00 UK local time (GMT/UTC) on Thursday 10 January 2013. For more information, visit this link.