Call for Proposals for STAR-Ghana Initiative to Achieve Peaceful 2016 Elections in Ghana: Media Organisations can get Funding of upto US$600,000

Deadline: 17 January 2016

STAR-Ghana invites interested and eligible organisations to design and implement projects aimed at helping to achieve a peaceful, credible and inclusive 2016 Elections in Ghana.

The Strengthening Transparency, Accountability and Responsiveness in Ghana (STAR-Ghana) initiative is a £22 million multi-donor funded programme (supported by DFID, DANIDA, and the EU) to support the creation, utilisation and institutionalisation of spaces for collective civil society engagement in order to increase the responsiveness of the executive and key state institutions at both local and national levels. The long-term programme goal is to develop a vibrant, well-informed and assertive civil society, able to contribute to transformational national development for all Ghanaian citizens in an inclusive manner.

Programme Objective

The purpose of this call is to support the media to work more effectively with other CSOs to provide information and analysis on key issues during the election process and to stimulate debate and discussion. In addition, through this call STAR-Ghana aims to improve media access and voice to all citizens, particularly the poor and socially marginalized/excluded groups and those living in deprived areas of the country.

Applicants are particularly encouraged to explore opportunities for formal/informal alliances/networks/ coalitions in the implementation of their proposed actions. These alliances/networks or coalitions may seek to:

build innovative partnerships with civil society organisations (CSOs), professional associations and/or private sector organisations;
link actors across levels of governance (community, district, regional and national) and/or
enable collaborations between actors working on complementary issues.
peaceful, credible and inclusive elections in 2016. Elections are the hallmark of representative democracy, allowing the people’s regular input in choices about leaders and policy and yet they are also competitive processes, unleashing conflict and tensions that, if not constructively managed, could potentially destabilize the fabric of states and societies.

Funds Available

The overall indicative budget for the media call for proposals is US$600,000.

Thematic focus

The main areas for consideration in this call are:

Peace and security
Voter education
Electoral reform
Adjudication of disputes
Observation and monitoring of elections
Inclusiveness and participation

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants can be

Registered media houses, including rural, community, public, commercial and internet-based media
Registered media associations, media organizations, and institutions providing media and communications training
Interested and eligible organizations are invited to design and implement projects aimed at achieving the purpose of this call. The proposed projects can have a maximum duration of 10 – 12 months but could be of shorter duration. They may either be new initiatives or build on ongoing/previous actions to achieve greater results and impacts.
Applicants are particularly encouraged to submit proposals for projects that aim to achieve the following results:
- Generate critical and high-quality evidence for policy advocacy and influencing, particularly around the elections;
- Provide platforms that raise and amplify the voices of vulnerable, marginalized and deprived communities and groups, and enable them to define and articulate issues of importance to them.
- Deepen and increase media capacity, including local language media, to generate and circulate quality information with which citizens can make informed decisions and choices and hold duty bearers accountable for their actions.
- Strengthen the ability of media to expand and improve coverage and public discussions relating on policy issues
- Enable collaboration between different types of media (print, radio, television, Internet, commercial, community, public) working on complementary issues.
Organisations/networks/alliances submitting applications must clearly demonstrate the following in their applications:
- How the project provides value for money
- Track record of previous or ongoing work in the relevant area of the elections
- Evidence of partnerships or other collaborations with relevant state and non-state actors to implement the proposed project
- How learning from the projects will be feed into future election cycles
- How gender and social inclusion issues will be mainstreamed and addressed in the project.