Theme:
WOMEN’S AUTONOMY
IN CHANGING ECONOMIC SCENARIOS
Call opens: 10 January 2020
Deadline for submission of applications: 10 March 2020
1. Background
The Regional fund in support of women’s and feminist organizations and movements (hereinafter the Regional Fund) is a joint initiative of the governments participating in the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (hereinafter the Regional Conference) and women’s and feminist organizations and movements. The purpose of the Regional Fund is to strengthen women’s and feminist organizations and movements, in coordination with machineries for the advancement of women, with the aim of reducing gender inequalities, strengthening democracy, developing institutions and formulating and implementing public policies for equality, by making resources available, with the ultimate goal of gender equality and full realization of the human rights of women in the region.
In particular, the aim of the Regional Fund is to support the development of projects aimed at contributing to effective gender equality, women’s autonomy, and the materialization of women’s rights throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, within the framework of the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda within the Sustainable Development Framework by 2030, with a view to fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The establishment of the Regional Fund is based on recognition of the invaluable contribution that women’s and feminist organizations and movements make to democracy in the region and of the urgent need to strengthen them at the regional level, in a world where it is increasingly difficult for humanity to address challenges solely from within national borders.
2. Priority areas of work
Latin America and the Caribbean is the only region in the world where, for the past four decades without fail, countries have been holding regular meetings to discuss and make a political commitment to eradicating discrimination against women and girls and gender inequality, and to advancing towards the guarantee of full enjoyment of women’s and girls’ autonomy and human rights. This corpus of agreements on gender equality and women’s autonomy form the basis of the Regional Gender Agenda, which identifies the agreements that relate to a variety of issues, grouping them under certain critical dimensions that are integral to human rights, thereby recognizing women as subjects of law and States as duty bearers, while reaffirming that those rights are universal, indivisible, inalienable and interdependent:
•Right to a life free of all forms of violence and discrimination: violence against women in its various manifestations (private, public, symbolic, institutional, cyber, economic, obstetric, political, in armed conflicts, in natural disasters, deprivation of liberty, harassment in the workplace, sexual harassment, sexual abuse and exploitation, migrant smuggling, trafficking in women, forced prostitution, rape, femicide); forced marriage and cohabitation imposed on girls and adolescents; public safety and cities; legislation and access to justice; educational content and the media; stereotypes, sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, homophobia, lesbophobia, transphobia and discrimination.
•Sexual and reproductive rights with respect to: comprehensive sexual education and information; safe, good-quality abortion services, in those cases where abortion is legal or decriminalized under the relevant national legislation;
contraception; integrated social health-care services; maternal mortality; sexual orientation and gender identity; universal and accessible services; disability and old age; eradication of child pregnancy; prevention of adolescent pregnancy and motherhood; sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS; health emergencies; healthy maternity; technology development; different forms of family.
•Economic, social and cultural rights with respect to: income, employment and integration into the labour force; work and control of resources; land rights; sexual division of labour; unpaid and care work; social protection and security; education; science and communications technologies; transformation of cultural norms; intergenerational transmission of poverty; female heads of household and well-being; time use and allocation; fiscal and macroeconomic policies; social policies; public investment; rural areas; paid domestic work and informality; companies and business ventures; credit; technology and innovation; territory and production models.
•Civil and political rights with respect to: political participation and leadership; political parties and electoral systems; representation and parity; women’s and feminist organizations and movements; migration; conflicts and peace processes; e-government.
•Collective and environmental rights with respect to: land and territory; water and forests; ancestral knowledge; natural disasters and extreme weather events; climate change; rural and urban areas; risk management and mitigation; right to development; international cooperation.
At the thirteenth session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Montevideo Strategy was adopted; it represents a regional political commitment that will guide full implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda and make it the road map for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the regional level in terms of gender equality and women’s autonomy and human rights. Thus, the Montevideo Strategy is a political and technical instrument that will support a qualitative leap towards the implementation and strengthening of multidimensional and comprehensive public policies that ensure the fulfilment of human rights and women’s autonomy and the achievement of gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Montevideo Strategy is aimed at closing the gap between de jure and de facto equality by strengthening public policies to ensure the autonomy and full exercise of the human rights of all women and girls, ending discrimination, prejudice and all forms of resistance. In order to achieve gender equality, it is necessary to overcome certain structural challenges entrenched in the current unequal power relations in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is also necessary to consider the trends and contextual factors now crystallizing into new challenges: slowing economic growth, rising poverty, a resurgence of conservatism, demographic changes and shifts in family structure and composition, and the demise of the prevailing development pattern, which has brought rising inequality and environmental crisis.
The Montevideo Strategy seeks to dismantle these structural challenges, in order to make progress towards substantive equality:
(i)socioeconomic inequality and the persistence of poverty;
(ii)discriminatory, violent and patriarchal cultural patterns and the predominance of a culture of privilege;
(iii)the sexual division of labour and unfair social organization of care;
(iv)the concentration of power and hierarchical relations in the public sphere.
These challenges exacerbate each other and generate complex socioeconomic, cultural and belief systems that hinder and reduce the scope of policies on gender equality and women’s autonomy.
The Montevideo Strategy is aimed at giving effect to the pillars for the implementation of public policies that will help to eliminate gender inequalities and to guarantee the human rights and autonomy of women in all their diversity. The Strategy’s implementation pillars are:
1.Normative framework
2.Institutions
3.Participation
4.Capacity-building and -strengthening
5.Financing
6.Communication
7.Technology
8.Cooperation
9.Information systems
10.Monitoring, evaluation and accountability
These pillars are interrelated and putting them into effect will help to establish sustainable sectoral and cross-cutting policies aimed at eliminating gender inequalities and guaranteeing the effective enjoyment of human rights by all women, without discrimination.
3.Eligibility requirements
(1)Any projects submitted must relate to the priority areas of work. Proposals must indicate the human rights dimension to which they will contribute in order to improve conditions for full enjoyment of said rights. Proposals must also state which structural obstacles they will contribute to overcoming to move towards substantive equality. Lastly, proposals must specify which pillars of the equality strategy they will contribute to, as a tool for implementing public policies that will help to eliminate gender inequalities and to guarantee the human rights and autonomy of women in all their diversity.
(2)Projects must be submitted by associations of non-governmentalorganizations from at least two countries, or by regional networks that have a national presence in the target countries, whose work is related to the Regional Gender Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
(3)Non-governmental women’s and feminist organizations must be legally registered in accordance with each country’s domestic law.
(4)Applicant non-governmental women’s and feminist organizations or networks thereof must have expertise, experience and a proven track record of working for women’s rights.
(5)Organizations with less than five years of experience must present an endorsement from a women’s or feminist organization or network in the region.
(6)Proposals submitted by two or more co-applicant non-governmentalwomen’s or feminist organizations must clearly indicate which of the two organizations will be primarily responsible for project management and contractual obligations.
(7)The period for implementation of the project may not exceed 18 months.
(8)The requested amount should include a budget allocation for an audit, to be performed upon completion of the project.
(9)Applications must specify a contact for all matters related to the project submission process.
(10)The online form must be filled out.
4.Amount of the grant
The minimum amount that may be requested is: xxx to be determined in accordance with the Regional Fund
The maximum amount that may be requested is: xxx to be determined in accordance with the Regional Fund
5.Eligible applicants
•Type of organization: Networks of social women’s or feminist organizations or two or more social women’s or feminist organizations in partnership.
•Legal status: Non-governmental women’s and feminist organizations must be legally registered in accordance with each country’s domestic law.
•Experience: Applicant non-governmental women’s and feminist organizations or networks thereof must have expertise, experience and a proven track record of working for women’s rights. They must demonstrate this experience through a summary of each organization.
•Target country: The applicant network of social women’s or feminist organizations or partnership of at least two social women’s or feminist organizations must operate in at least one country in Latin America and the Caribbean.
•Endorsement: Organizations with less than five years of experience will be asked to provide an endorsement from a women’s or feminist organization or network in the region.
•Funding sources: The applicant women’s or feminist organization or organizations must indicate whether the funding provided by the Regional Fund will be the only source of income or whether any other bodies will be funding the project. If there is another funding body, its name must be given.
6.Assessment criteria
Projects that meet the eligibility requirements and criteria will be assessed based on:
1.Diagnostic of the state of affairs from a gender and human rights perspective.
2.The links of the proposed actions with the Regional Gender Agenda, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda within the Sustainable Development Framework by 2030.
3.The gender and human rights-based approach of the proposal.
4.Whether there are partnerships with less experienced social organizations.
5.Whether the proposal is evidence-based.
6.Whether the proposal includes monitoring tools.
7.Whether the proposal includes actions to ensure the sustainability of its actions.
In addition, the Regional Fund will take into account the balance of regions and of issues addressed.
7.Application procedure:
•Deadline for submission: 10 March
•Application language: Spanish or English
•All documents must be submitted in one of the following formats: doc, docx, pdf, jpg, gif
•For queries please contact: xxx
8.Application stages:
Publication of the call for proposals |
10 |
January |
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Deadline for submission of proposals |
10 |
March |
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Determination of eligibility |
date xxx to date xxx |
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Assessment |
date xxx to date xxx |
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Organizations informed which proposals |
date xxx to date XXX |
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have been selected |
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Publication of selected proposals |
date xxx to date xxx |
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Signing of contract and disbursement |
date xxx |
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