Empowerment projects
Innovate and Learn projects
investing in the self-led transformation of small rightsholder groups have now begun to take the shape of more sustained, deeper empowerment processes at the individual, group, and/or organisational level through the new graduation grants. From pilot-testing the Empowerment Accelerator grants in Tanzania and Indonesia, 6 more countries followed suit and released their own Calls for Proposals (CfPs). Seven (7) countries also continued to reach new grantees working on raising awareness, developing their own leadership, and building self-confidence through the regular Empowerment Grant window. From phase 1 to now, the Empowerment grants comprise 44% of the total number of contracts, but due to their small funding amount, they only amount to 13% of the total fund value. From the year 2020 when the pandemic began up to the present, Empowerment grantees have been coping hardly with unexpected shifts in priorities, beyond their Voice-supported projects, as they experience the direct, harsh impacts of COVID-19. Loss of livelihood, food insecurity, inability to address emergency needs, and lack of access to information and technology are some of the reasons affecting their level of interest and ability to sustain their engagement in the projects and/ or participation in the grant selection processes. Voice initiated internal assessments to understand these changes and gaps, and identified ways to respond to and support the needs of the rightsholders, reflected in the framing of CfPs for the extension phase and some flexibility in implementing the grants. For instance, the Influencing Grant CfP in Laos specifically noted the impact of COVID-19 to the returning migrants from Thailand, and invited applicants to respond to it. In the same way, the Innovate & Learn grant CfP from the Philippines invited projects to address loss of liveli- hoods and reduced source of income. This continues to be an area of learning and exploration in Voice.
Influencing Projects
providing a space for testing, learning, and/or scaling up ideas and approaches, have taken an exciting turn in the extension phase. A total of 23 new CfPs were re- leased to invite new innovations, engage or re-engage organisations called Linking & Learning Facilitators who work hand-in-hand with the other grantee part- ners, and launch the national NOW-Us! Awards. Aiming to localise the successful partnership with Partos and Spindle in 2018, the NOW-Us! Awards are now being implemented in 6 countries, piloted in Tanzania in 2019, to honor and recognise initiatives that promote diversity and inclusion, and trigger the self-empower- ment of rightsholder groups and communities. A new CfP for a global Linking & Learning Facilitator was also released to strengthen the engagement of multi-coun- try grantees in linking and learning activities.
Sudden Opportunity projects
strengthening the lobby and advocacy capacities of organisations to better represent, include, and amplify the rightsholders’ voices continue to be the largest grant type in terms of contract value, amounting to 45% of the total funds. Fifteen (15) CfPs were opened for the extension phase, with priority in approvals due to their multi-year duration. A window specific to repeat multi-country Influencing grants resulted in continued support to 7 regional grantee partners work- ing to build on the gains of their initiatives and further ensure their long-term sustainability. These include the protection and promotion of the civic engagement of young and women activists in Africa, and amplification of the voices and human rights of sex workers, deaf people, and women and young people who use drugs in Asia, among others.
responding to specific, unanticipated opportunities and threats through collective action remain open in the extension phase, with a slow uptake in 2021, seeing only 2 released CfPs. Since 2016, Sudden Opportunity grants have made up 7% of the total fund value of Voice, with largest portfolio in Nigeria. In 2021, Voice supported 6 ground-breaking projects awarded grants under the Beyond a Hashtag Sudden Opportunity call for proposals which was prompted by the threats to civic space seen in the wake of the powerful campaigns and movements mobi- lizing under the umbrella #EndSARS, #EndPoliceBrutality, #EndBadGovernanceinNigeria, etc.
Photo session after a capacity strengthening session in Tillaberi and Tahoua regions
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