European Commission Call for Proposals: Environment and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources

The European Commission under the Thematic Programme for Environment and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources including Energy (ENRTP) has issued this call for proposals to support civil society efforts in developing countries to address environmental and natural management issues.

The present call will focus on themes that fall under two Priority areas of the Thematic Strategy ENRTP referred to below:

• ENRTP Priority 1: Climate change and sustainable energy
• ENRTP Priority 2: Environment for development

ENRTP Priority 1 / Lot 1: Climate Change mitigation, in particular REDD
The types of actions which are eligible under this lot are the following:

• Actions that support partnerships between civil society and private sector that prevent or reduce deforestation and forest degradation in investments in large scale agricultural commodities.
• Actions that promote independent monitoring by in-country civil society of REDD+ investments and the application of REDD+ safeguards8, based on national best practice where this exists.
• Actions that develop effective links in practice between national FLEGT and REDD+ processes, with regards to stakeholder processes, monitoring, improved governance and law enforcement as well as legal reforms.

ENRTP Priority 2 / Lot 2: Biodiversity
Type of actions eligible for financing include:

• Developing legal, policy and institutional frameworks to enable sustainable financing of parks agencies.
• Developing Public-Private-Partnerships or community-run management plans to ensure the long term financial stability of protected areas and green infrastructures.
• Mobilizing private funding through innovative financial mechanisms by fostering biodiversity entrepreneurship and enabling biodiversity entrepreneurs to experiment, invest and expand creative economic activities such as Payment for Ecosystem Services, markets for green products, business biodiversity partnerships, ecotourism and new forms of charity.
• Developing Access and Benefit-Sharing Policy for Protected Areas to help managers maximise the potential gains from biodiversity research and prospecting.

ENRTP Priority 2 / Lot 3 Forest Governance and FLEGT

Type of actions eligible for financing:

• Implementation of the EU FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade) Action Plan.

The deadline to submit applications is 25 September 2012. For more information, visit this link.

APWLD Call for Proposals: Community Based Participatory Research

• The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) has issued this call for proposals for the Community Based Participatory Research which is designed to build the capacity of rural, indigenous and migrant (RIM) women’s organizations to be vocal and effective advocates for rights based approaches to development.
• Specifically it aims to build the capacity, resources and strategies of RIM women in nine (9) communities to research and document evidence to support national and international advocacy for change on their priority issues.
• Nine partner organisations will be selected to work with APWLD for one (1) year, starting from July 2012 until 2013, to document:
• Economic, social and cultural rights violations that are illustrative of development needs with a particular focus on one of the following:
• 1.       Right to land and resources
• 2.       Right to decent work and a living wage
• 3.       Right to a democratic voice
• 4.       Right to peace and security
• 5.       Climate change impact and coping mechanisms for women
• APWLD will provide a small grant to employ a young researcher and carry out the research including salary and on-costs; and will support the researcher to participate in capacity building workshops and advocacy or network meetings.
• Eligibility:
• A non-governmental, non-profit organisation which:
• •        Works for the realisation of the human rights of marginalised women at community level in countries in Asia Pacific and are able to commit to the one year documentation process. (excluding major developed countries in the region such as Korea, Japan, Brunei, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, which have different contexts of “development”)
• Is committed to the promotion of human rights of marginalised women, particularly young, women (rural, indigenous, migrant, dalit women and/or women in other minority groups), as well as to the participatory methodologies to increase the democratic participation of those women in the research
• Can provide the appointed researcher with regular internet and computer access for online communication with APWLD secretariat and online training

The deadline to submit proposals is 12 July 2012. For more information, visit this link.

UNESCO Doha and Ford Motor Company announce small environmental grants for NGOs

UNESCO Doha and the Ford Motor Company have come together to provide small environmental grants to NGOs focused on conservation engineering, protection of the natural environment and environmental education to apply for small grants. A total of US$100,000 is available for initiatives from the gulf countries and the Levant region, including Jordan.An independent panel of jurors consisting of nine experts and academics from environmental agencies and institutions will choose the winning projects. The jury panel , which has been carefully selected in cooperation with UNESCO Doha, based on geographical coverage, experience  and gender equality, will look for initiatives that demonstrate a well-defined sense of purpose, a commitment to maximizing available resources, and a reputation for meeting objectives and delivering planned programmes and services.

Individuals, community and non-profit groups that have projects currently running in the areas of preservation of the natural environment, environmental education and conservation engineering can apply.

The deadline to submit proposals is 10 July 2012. For more information, visit this link.

Open Society Foundations’ Grants Program: Request for Proposals “Fighting Torture in Health Care”

The Open Society Foundations (OSF) is requesting proposals from NGOs to apply for the new grants program called “Fighting Torture in Health Care.” OSF is the coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care’s Standards and Litigation Working Group. It is seeking proposals from NGOs to implement proposals from organizations interested in using one or more of the mechanisms described in its recently published training manual to advance existing advocacy efforts to address torture in health care and ensure government accountability.

Background to this Context

“A wide range of severe abuses in health care have been documented, for example, the denial of cheap and effective pain relief medications for patients suffering excruciating pain under the auspices of a country’s drug addiction prevention strategy, or women and girls with disabilities and/or those living with HIV being sterilized without their consent or understanding at the insistence of their caregivers or because their doctors make the executive decision that they are not fit to raise children.

It is precisely because health settings are not thought of as places of abuse that they are monitored poorly, and the violations continue. In early 2011, a coalition of organizations working to combat severe human rights violations in health-care settings launched the Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care to increase government accountability for abuse in health settings. The Campaign partners use legal, advocacy, and community mobilization strategies to at once increase awareness of torture in health care and to demand an end to the abuse.”

The training manual that can aid in developing the proposal can be accessed at this link.

NGOs can submit proposals for a grant of up to $15,000. The deadline to submit proposals is 1 September 2012. For more information, visit this link.