A Multilateral Agency is an international organisation formed by several governments that collectively administer aid programs. For instance, the United Nations, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are multilateral agencies.
The United Nations is an international organisation whose main goal is the achievement of world peace, equality, freedom, security, economic development, and democracy. There are several organisations working within the UN targeting specific areas of action.
For instance, UNESCO is the agency dedicated to the improvement of education, scientific research, and culture; UNHRC addresses Human Rights violation; UNDP supports international development by implementing projects towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
It is quite difficult to navigate the UN networks because of the huge amount of information made available online. The best way to discover whether your project could be funded by one of the UN agencies is to:
1) Understand and select the agency that is more likely to fund your project. For instance, if you develop cultural projects, UNESCO would be one of the agencies to select. If you develop cultural projects to engage in peace and reconciliation processes, you might also consider addressing UNDP and UNHRC.
2) Go to the website of the targeted agency and select your country from the list of countries where they operate. Each office will publish calls relevant to your geographical area in their website, so this is the best way to find out whether there is a budget allocated for your country and how to benefit from it.
3) If you find a suitable call and you want to send a proposal, the best thing to do is to contact your local office, introduce yourself and your project and ask whether they believe it could be of interest. This is highly recommended because applications for UN agencies are quite complex and it is advisable to apply only if your project fits within given requirements (consider also that the competition for this funding is extremely tough).
4) Take advantage of any meeting organised by your local office to train potential applicants on how to draft a successful proposal (they normally organise such meetings well before the deadline, if you missed a meeting try to get in contact with other NGO members who participated and ask about what has been said).
5) Consider that you will need at least a month to write one of these applications especially if you have not done it before. Plan in advance!
