WUNRN
Increasing Accountability in Financing
for Gender Equality
Civil Society Grant Facility
Call for Proposals
With Support
from the Following Partners:
Table of Contents
Background........................................................................................................................................ 2
The CSOs grant facility....................................................................................................................... 3
Budget and Duration of
Proposals ..................................................................................................... 5
Application and Selection
Process ..................................................................................................... 5
Application Procedures ..................................................................................................................... 6
Appraisal and Selection Process......................................................................................................... 7
Background:
Governments around the world have made
commitments to advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women in many
different areas. Several international and regional conventions, including the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) demonstrate States’ commitment to the realization of women’s rights and
the achievement of gender equality. Implementation of those commitments at
national level can be evidenced by some progress made on development outcomes
related to women’s empowerment and the realization of gender equality across
sectors. Gender equality commitments have been reflected in different types of
government actions including legislation, policies and programmes, planning,
budgeting processes as well as the establishment of national mechanisms on
gender equality. Likewise, national development strategies and line
ministry/sector plans should have clear targets and performance monitoring
measures on gender equality.
Public institutions have a major role to play
in their accountability to citizens, including women. The manner in which
public institutions implement policies or deliver services can have a direct
impact on women’s lives. As such, the extent to which these institutions
implement programmes that are effective, responsive and accountable to the
differential needs of women and girls reflect the commitment of the State to
gender equality in actuality. Public programmes and services should have
adequate budgets in sector and local plans designed to deliver equitable and
non-discriminatory services to women and girls. Furthermore, equitable and
sustainable financing arrangements should be in place to support the
implementation of these programmes.
Financing gender equality commitments is
therefore a necessity in ensuring progress on gender equality outcomes. But it is also critical to understand that
financing for gender equality is a process and not merely about allocation of
resources. The Secretary-General’s report for the 52nd Session of the Commission on the
Status of Women defined financing for gender equality as the process of “Ensuring adequate resource allocations to
translate commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment into action,
including financing of critical stakeholders within national women’s
mechanisms, and women’s organizations”. The CSW agreed conclusions (2008)
identified a set of actions to be taken by various actors to guarantee
financing for gender equality. The actions identified for State actors include
the following:
a) ensure an enabling policy environment for
financing for gender equality, through macroeconomic policies that are
conducive to increased Financing for Gender Equality;
b) address systemic issues to ensure coherence
between economic policies and financing for gender equality requirements;
c) strengthen capacity for gender responsive
planning and budgeting and implementation in the public sector;
d) ensure gender responsive public finance
reform to enable gender responsive accountability in public finance management;
e) strengthen parliamentary oversight and
citizen engagement in monitoring financing for gender equality; and
f)
strengthen systems for
measuring financing for gender equality.
One of the goals of UN Women’s
Strategic Plan (2012-13) focuses on supporting technical
capacity in national planning and budgeting and advocating for
increased financing for gender equality to strengthen the implementation of gender
equality commitments. By working to achieve this goal, UN Women seeks to
support stronger implementation of commitments for gender equality and the
empowerment of women at country level.
UN Women’s programme “Increasing Accountability in Financing for
Gender Equality” (F4GE) aims to “increase
the volume and effective use of aid and domestic resources to implement
national commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment”. The
programme is implemented by UN Women in collaboration with ITC/ILO and with
support from the European Commission (EC) and the government of Spain and is
implemented in 15 countries (Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan,
Nicaragua, occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), Senegal, Ukraine, Cameroon,
Tanzania, Nepal, Peru, Bolivia and Rwanda) in addition to targeted activities
in Zambia (October 2011-March 2015). In the 15 countries, the programme seeks
to mobilize financing towards women’s priorities identified in national
policies and plans by ensuring that these plans are costed and budgeted for in
public budgets and ODA.
Given the focus of the programme, partnerships have been developed
with Ministries of Finance, select line ministries, National Women’s
Machineries, donor agencies and joint coordination mechanisms at country level
as well as UN agencies. The programme also seeks to support a close partnership
between EU delegations, UN Women and ITC/ILO for a strengthened response to
gender equality priorities in EU country development cooperation programmes.
Gender equality advocates have a critical role in informing national
and global policies by engaging in policy dialogue, and advocacy. They continue
to play a key role in strengthening accountability in financing for development
by monitoring service delivery and amplifying demands of their communities and
excluded groups. However, these roles are often constrained by the absence of a
genuine space for participation and negotiation as well as the limited capacity
and resources available for these advocates. This role also requires
availability of information on public investments and performance in addressing
inequality and achieving aspired development outcomes. Such information is often not easily
accessible, and therefore obstructs the ability of citizens to effectively
participate in policy making and monitoring. The programme seeks to empower
women’s organizations and gender equality advocates to exercise their right to
play this role and have a voice in shaping public policy and monitoring public sector
institutions’ investment and performance towards outcomes related to gender
equality and women’s empowerment.
1.
The
CSOs grant facility
Under the F4GE Programme, a grant making facility will be available to
support innovative knowledge building, advocacy, capacity building,
alliance-building and networking for financing for gender equality. This
facility is intended to contribute to one of the programme outcomes, “Feminist
economists and gender equality advocates have engaged effectively in supporting
stronger policy coherence on gender equality in the economic and development
effectiveness policy fora”.
The grant making facility provides a flexible mechanism that allows
civil society organizations the opportunity to test innovative approaches for
generating new knowledge, undertake effective advocacy and perform a critical
citizen monitoring role, in relation to financing for gender equality. The grants provided will support
implementation of activities over a period of one year.
The facility is intended to contribute to the following objectives:
a)
Build
knowledge and evidence on financing for gender equality
b)
Build Capacity
of Gender Equality Advocates to demand and monitor Financing for Gender Equality
c)
Empower
networks of feminist economists and women’s organizations for effective policy
advocacy for accountability and financing for gender equality
Civil society organizations and networks, and academic or educational
institutions are invited to submit proposals under one of the three areas of
action as outlined below.
a)
Build
Knowledge and Evidence on Financing for Gender Equality:
The
facility will support proposals for initiatives that are aimed at building
knowledge and evidence on gaps in financing for gender equality. As such, the
facility will support action oriented research in relation to gaps, trends or
good practices on financing for gender equality.
Proposals
may include action oriented research to generate the following:
-
Technical
analysis and research on measurement and definition of financing for
gender equality.
-
Gender budget analysis of
sector programmes related to women’s economic and
social rights such as social protection, security, health, education, energy, water, roads, transport, agriculture,
information among others. Examples include
sector/programme budget analysis, gender analysis of public expenditures
reviews and other relevant areas.
-
Analysis of financing of women’s organizations
and national women’s mechanisms.
-
Analysis of practices of donors and governments
in relation to financing for gender equality with a view to identifying barriers and proposing
innovative approaches for financing national gender equality commitments.
-
Gender focused research on transparency,
corruption, access to information, citizen monitoring of the delivery of public
services and/or humanitarian and development assistance.
-
Development of specialized and innovative tools
for use by advocates on areas relevant for financing for gender equality,
including but not limited to gender budget analysis, monitoring of public
service delivery, humanitarian and development assistance.
b)
Build Capacity
of Gender Equality Advocates to Demand and Monitor Financing for Gender
Equality:
The
facility will support proposals for initiatives that are aimed at building
capacity of gender equality advocates and women’s organizations to demand and monitor
quality and quantity of financing for gender equality. Civil society can
mobilize towards increased financing for gender equality and women’s
organizations through substantive engagement in policy advocacy and monitoring of public
sector institutions investment and performance towards outcomes related to
gender equality and women’s empowerment. This would require a range of
skills and competencies in order to effectively perform these roles.
Proposals
may include capacity building activities to support the following:
-
Capacity building on gender budget analysis
towards specific areas of women’s rights, or funding of women’s organizations
and gender mechanisms.
-
Development of practical advocacy tools. For
example the development of gender-budget advocacy tool kits to provide them
with practical guidance to support their advocacy efforts for increasing
financing for gender equality.
-
Creation or strengthening of gender observatories
that monitor financing for gender
equality at national, or local levels.
-
Strengthening the
capacity of women’s organizations to participate in monitoring public budgets
and/or service-delivery.
c) Empower networks of
feminist economists and women’s organizations for effective policy advocacy for
accountability and financing for gender equality
The
facility will support proposals for initiatives that are aimed at strengthening
networks of gender advocates to influence policy responses related to financing for gender
equality. It would include activities to increase the access and participation
of gender equality advocates and feminist economists in policy spaces, through
alliance-building, networking at national, regional or global levels Specific
mobilization for effective engagement in policy processes such as national development strategies, the economic crisis,
aid and development effectiveness, the MDGs and beyond are encouraged.
Proposals
may include initiatives that support the following:
-
strengthening networks of women’s organizations including feminist economists to
develop common agendas, and build consensus on key messages to influence
strategic policy development processes.
-
Strengthening
alliances with key social movements and actors for financing for gender
equality.
-
Convening multi stakeholder policy dialogues.
-
Supporting initiatives to advocate for increased
women’s access to public services and to promote gender-responsiveness in the
delivery of services in specific sectors.
-
strengthening networking capabilities that will
lead to stronger policy advocacy for financing for gender equality at national,
regional or global levels including outreach to community based organizations.
-
Strengthening information and knowledge
exchange/sharing capacity among networks of feminist economists and/or
gender-budget advocates.
2.
Budget
and Duration of Proposals
The size of the grants provided
will range from $20,000 to $50,000 for initiatives that do not exceed one year
(ending in November 2013). Funds cannot be requested to cover costs of
infrastructure such as purchase of land, property, acquisition of office space,
construction or repair of existing buildings or offices, including for example,
the building and furnishing of service facilities.
3.
Reporting
Requirements
Applicants will be requested to submit one final narrative and
financial report. 80% of the grant will be disbursed to grantees with the
balance of 20% to be provided after submission of a final narrative and
financial report.
4.
Application
and Selection Process
Applicants should take note of the following:
·
Applicants may apply under one or more areas of
action.
·
Timeline for the proposals should not exceed one
year.
·
The scope can be either national, local or
international.
·
Proposals can be
submitted by one organization or jointly by two organizations
or more.
·
Applying organizations must be legally
registered.
·
Eligible applicants may be non-governmental
organizations, academic or educational institutions.
·
For proposals on research and analysis, research
methodologies should be clearly outlined and evidence of capacity in conducting
research and analysis should be included.
·
Applications from organizations that have
experience in the subject of the proposal are encouraged.
The following applications will not be considered:
-
Proposals received from individuals.
-
Proposals received from organizations that do not
have a legal status.
-
Government entities, including national women’s
machineries.
-
Proposals that have incomplete documentation.
5.
Application
Procedures
Applicants are requested to complete that attached proposal template
(Annex) which contains the following components:
1)
A narrative proposal section consisting of the
following:
•
Context and problem analysis (1½ pages or less): A brief
summary of existing gaps, barriers, and challenges in one of the three areas of
action.
•
Project design and justification (2 pages or
less): A description of what the proposal is seeking to achieve to address the
gaps, barriers and challenges and strategies and approaches that the
organization proposes to follow to ensure results. Innovative approaches to be
utilized can be outlined in this section.
•
Expected results (½ page): Expected
outputs and outcomes of the proposal.
•
Partnerships (½ - 1 page): A description and roles of the partners needed to
implement the project should be provided.
2) A
Budget Proposal fulfilling the following requirements:
•
An output based budget – i.e. budget showing how
much is required to achieve each output.
•
The budget should include an allocation for
preparation of a certified financial report.
•
The administrative /indirect/ cost should not
exceed 10% of total budget.
Other:
·
Applicants must attach a workplan, and annex
additional supporting documents such as organizational brochure, previous
annual reports and latest audit report. Reports on
activities and programmes previously implemented in areas related to the call
are also welcomed.
Deadline for Submission: Proposals are due on 31 October 2012.
Please
send proposals to gender.budgets@unwomen.org .
6. Appraisal and
Selection Process
The appraisal process will involve review and selection by a Proposals
Review Committee at UNW. The Review
Committee will undertake the appraisals guided by the following criteria:
· Extent to which the proposal fulfills the requirements of the Call for
Proposals as outlined in this document (20%)
· Technical quality of the proposal and the extent to which the proposed
activities are relevant to the areas of action in the Call (25%)
· Extent to which the proposals are innovative, creative and are
catalytic (10%)
· Extent to which a participatory process was used to bring together
various relevant partners (10%)
· Realistic work plan to complete the activities (15%)
· Applicant’s institutional capacity and relevant experience (20%)
Annex
|
Proposal Template Civil Society Grant Application “Increasing Accountability in Financing for
Gender Equality” Send proposals to: gender.budgets@unwomen.org by 31
October 2012 |
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Contact Information
*Name of the applicant
organization. In case there is more than one organization applying, only
include the name of the organization that will be responsible for project
management and contractual obligations. There will be an opportunity to list
names of co-applicants later.
2. Organizational
Information
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Context
and problem analysis (1½
pages or less): A
brief summary of existing gaps, barriers, and challenges in one of the three
areas of action. |
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Project
design and justification (2 pages or less): A description of strategies and approaches that
the organization proposes to develop to address the gaps. Innovative
approaches can be outlined in this section. |
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Expected results (½ page):
Expected outputs and outcomes of your project. |
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Partnerships (½ - 1page): A
description and roles of the partners needed to implement the project should
be provided. |
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Monitoring and Evaluation (1/2 page): Provide details of how baseline data will
be collected to measure progress, and how the project will be documented and
monitored. Indicate what oversight mechanisms will be in place. Describe how
project results/outcomes will be measured, what measurements will be used and
who will be responsible for measuring them. |
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Budget Proposal: • An output based budget
– i.e. budget showing how much is required to achieve each output. • The budget should
include an allocation for preparation of a certified financial report. • The administrative/indirect
cost should not exceed 10% of total budget. |
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Workplan: (12 months) |
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