Call for proposals on gender equality

The Fund for Gender Equality is unique in its focus on sustainable strengthening of organisations that promote gender equality and women’s rights at the country level — including national machineries for women, women’s parliamentary caucuses, and women’s NGOs and networks.

It will support government and civil society organisations in developing countries to fast-track actions in support of gender equality through a new multilateral initiative to fight discrimination, reduce poverty, and advance the Beijing Platform for Action, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Types of grants

• Implementation Grants will range from US$2 million to US$5 million distributed over a period of two to four years. These grants will support programmes in countries with agreed upon national or local plans, policies or laws that advance gender equality and women’s empowerment and that are ready for implementation.
• Catalytic Grants will range from US$100,000 to US$500,000 distributed over a period of one to two years.  These grants will support the establishment of strategic coalitions or partnerships to catalyse the development and endorsement of gender equality national or local plans, policies or laws. Once a plan, policy or law is developed and endorsed, successful institutions will be eligible to apply in the future for a larger Implementation Grant.

The Fund will accept applications from governmental and non-governmental organizations and/or partnerships between or within these sectors. A maximum of 30 innovative, impact-oriented programmes from around the world will be prioritised.

The application deadline is September 30, 2009, 23:59 EDT (New York time).

For further details, please contact the Fund for Gender Equality Secretariat, New York at fund.genderequality@unifem.org.

Source: UNIFEM