Grant requests can be made anytime
Established in 1997, Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights is a global women’s fund that protects, strengthens and sustains women and transgender human rights defenders at critical moments.
Urgent Action Fund accepts requests 365 days per year, in any language, from activists around the world. Urgent Action Fund does not require organizations to have official registration.
Eligible Countries
Urgent Action Fund has three Sister Funds that cover all countries throughout the world.
- If you are applying for funds in Africa, apply to Urgent Action Fund-Africa.
- If you are applying for funds in Latin America or the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, apply to Urgent Action Fund-Latin America.
- Urgent Action Fund USA provides funds to all other regions, including the English and French speaking Caribbean, Asia, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Canada.
Thematic Areas
- Women & Gender
- Human rights defenders
- Disability
- Education
- Environment
- Indigenous Communities
- LGBTQ
- Peace & Conflict Resolution
- Sexual violence
- Economic justice
Grant Categories
- Rapid Response Grant: To receive a Rapid Response Grant, your proposal must fall under at least one of these categories:
- Potentially precedent-setting legal or legislative actions, or actions that aim to protect a precedent that has already been set.
- Protection and security of women human rights defenders.
- Evacuation Grant: Evacuation Grants are designed for women’s human rights activists who are in urgent need of relocation funding because of threats, persecution and/or an extreme security situation.
Grant Size & Duration
- Rapid Response Grant is awarded to women and transgender human rights defenders in Asia, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, and North America. Applicant may apply for grant of up to $5,000 USD.
- The Fund provide grants for efforts that take place over one day or up to three months.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants can be Women’s groups responding to an urgent situation and working towards the overall goal of promoting, advancing, and protecting women’s human rights.
- To receive a Rapid Response Grant, proposal must fall under at least one of these categories:
- Potentially precedent-setting legal or legislative actions or actions that aim to protect a precedent that has already been set.
- Protection and security of women human rights defenders. Note that Evacuation Grants fall under this category. Evacuation Grants are designed for women’s human rights activists who are in urgent need of relocation funding because of threats, persecution and/or an extreme security situation.
- Within these categories, you may be working on peace-building, environmental justice, land rights, sex worker rights, LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, or many other issues.
- They have to show how they will protect women’s rights.
- Proposed projects must meet 5 criteria:
- Be strategic: your short-term intervention should be written in line with the long-term goal of enhancing women’s rights.
- Be time urgent: your project should clearly respond to a situation of emergency.
- Be sustainable: your project should state how the proposed project could be followed up or give born to other relevant activities in your community.
- Be supported: the applicant should provide evidence of collaboration with other women’s organisations in the same area or region.
- Be women’s led: the organisation must be led by women.
How to Apply
- Applicants can either fill and submit online application form or download the form and send it via email.
- Applicant will get response within 72 days of submitting the application.
- Once a grant has been approved, funds can usually be delivered within a week.
For more information, please visit this Link.
