The US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor has issued the Request for Proposals under the “Elections, Political Participation and Consensus Building for countries in Africa, the Near East, and South Asia.” Only US-based nonprofits, research institutions and universities can apply for this grant opportunity. However, since the focus of this funding is on developing countries across Africa and Asia, which includes building the capacities of civil society organizations, local NGOs can propose partnerships to US-based organizations for jointly applying for this call for proposals.
Countries that are covered under this funding are:
Africa: Cote d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Togo, and Uganda
Near East: Lebanon and Tunisia
South Asia: Afghanistan
Funding allocated for each country falls within the range of US $400,000 and $800,000 and covers activities such as building the capacities of local NGOs in human rights (using approaches such as radio in Central African Republic), civic education, public awareness campaign, media monitoring and other mechanism which promote democracy, human rights and civil society participation. The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor “supports innovative, “venture capital” programs that uphold democratic principles, support and strengthen democratic institutions, promote human rights, and build civil society in countries and regions of the world that are geo-strategically important to the United States. HRDF funds projects that have the potential to have an immediate impact leading to long-term sustainable reforms. Projects should have potential for continued funding beyond HRDF resources. HRDF projects must not duplicate or simply add to efforts by other entities.”
The deadline to submit proposals is 14 September 2009. All applicants have to be registered at the Grants.gov website through which the final application will be processed. For more information, visit this link.
