Call for proposals: AGENCY

Call for Proposals:

Agency: Action for Gender Equality, Non-Discrimination, Civil Society Strengthening and Youth Empowerment

A community-based protection programme funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)(link is external)

Deadline for proposal submission: by 5 January 2021 midnight (before 11.59 pm Palestine time UTC+2). You can access a summary of Q&A sessions in English and Arabic here.

You are a professional working in Gaza, Palestine.

You are a female or male leader. You are a staff or volunteer with an organisation involved in preventing and responding to gender-based violence (GBV), youth empowerment and/or disability.

You are a young leader, a member of a civil society group committed to gender equality, non-discrimination, civil society strengthening and youth empowerment. You already support or plan to support vulnerable women and men, girls and boys in Gaza through protection and multi-sectorial services in the following areas: economic empowerment (for example grants or small business enterprises supporting survivors of gender-based violence), medical support, psychosocial, cultural, security and shelter, case management, legal aid support.

Terre des hommes (Tdh)(link is external) has announced a new open call for awards aimed at preventing and responding to gender-based violence in Gaza.

This call for proposals is for you.

Problem statement

According to recent statistics obtained from a woman health centre in North Gaza, the demand for services responding to gender-based violence has tripled in the last year. This is corroborated by a call centre reporting a similar spike in calls from victims and survivors. Professionals in Gaza have reported a large negative effect from the Covid-19 lockdown and a breakdown in hand-to-mouth casual work economy.

The same professionals have alerted about the deteriorating situation for a long time.  Findings of the 2019 PCBS survey on violence in the Palestinian society showed that 29% (38% in Gaza, 24% WB) of the currently married or ever married women experienced at least one form of violence by their husbands, and 61% of those women chose to remain silent.[1]

Why Gender-based Violence?

For both the Swiss Confederation and Tdh, GBV constitutes a severe violation of human rights. Protection from and prevention of GBV is a priority of Switzerland’s foreign policy, both in its bilateral and multilateral cooperation. For the new Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, Switzerland advocated strongly for the inclusion of a stand-alone goal on gender equality (SDG 5). This calls for gender-based violence to be addressed as an essential part of achieving gender equality.

Gender-based violence includes any act of violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, girls; men and boys, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. GBV can include but is not limited to, intimate partner violence, sex trafficking, sexual harassment, harmful practices such as early and forced marriage, “honor” killings, violence against LGBT persons or groups.

Objectives of the Call for Proposals

Women, men, girls and boys in oPt are better protected against violence and their rights are upheld through empowered CSOs engaged in delivering effective, multi-sectoral community-based initiatives with a focus on GBV, People with Disabilities (PWD) and Youth.

Outcome 1: Vulnerable women and men, girls and boys improve their well-being through access to adequate and appropriate support and protection multi-sectorial services (economic, medical, psychosocial, cultural, security and shelter, case management, legal aid, etc.) provided by empowered civil society organisations (CSOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs).

Outcome 2: Authorities in Gaza and the West Bank are accountable to the population for prevention, protection and response.

The support will be disbursed annually but can last for up to three years, until December 2023. Terre des hommes Foundation is in charge of administering the fund and providing capacity building and technical support to Palestinian NGOs and community-based organisations.

The objectives are two-fold: on the one hand, the intervention aims at responding to urgent protection concerns; on the other hand at strengthening the service delivery capacity of Gaza actors. The contribution should also allow organisations to move from a project-based planning to a longer term and more strategic one. A longer term programmatic approach will also allow the organisations to build up their institutional capacities and invest more resources in staff capacity and staff well-being.

Types of Projects

A list of possible projects is provided in the full Call for Proposals.

Funding Information

Awards of up to CHF 300’000 are available for a potential duration of three years. All grants will initially be for 12 months. Funding for year 2 and 3 could be conditioned to the successful completion of deliverables in year 1 including recommendations and measures to be taken following risk assessments.

Categories of grants

Category A, primarily for small scale community-based organisations range from 50,000 CHF up to 70,000 CHF per year. They will benefit 7 (seven) recipients.
Category B, primarily for community-based organisations and non-governmental organisations range from 71,000 CHF up to 100,000 CHF per year. They will benefit 4 (four) recipients.

Additional funding information is provided here.

Eligibility Criteria

There are nine eligibility criteria to fulfill before any assessment on the merits of the proposals can be made by Tdh and SDC. They range from legal registration to organisational capability, existence and enforcement of policies including gender equality, written confirmation that statutory social insurance contributions, taxes, etc. provided by the national law have been paid in full for the last fiscal year, bank registration, due diligence, track record of experience, appropriate personnel, prevention of irregularities.

Track Record/Experience: Priority will be given to organisations with a track record in GBV, disability and/or youth empowerment.

Institutions Only: Awards will only be made to Palestinian institutions and not to individuals. All non-profit organisations are eligible to apply, including NGOs, community-based organisations, research organisations. Inter-governmental organisations and international NGOs are not eligible.

Number of Proposals: An organisation can submit only one application within the first year.

How to Apply

Due to the exceptional situation of Covid-19, project proposals may be submitted by email only.

The proposals must be in PDF format with all annexes in a ZIP file sent to agency.proposal@menaprotectionhub.org(link sends e-mail)

Deadline for proposal submission: by 5 January 2021 midnight (before 11.59 pm Palestine time UTC+2)

Proposals received after this time will not be taken into consideration. They will be returned to the Applicant.

The email must mention “AGENCY” in the reference line followed by the name of the Applicant.

Any questions regarding this call can be addressed to: info@menaprotectionhub.org(link sends e-mail)(link sends e-mail), before 29 December 2020.

Language of proposals: English

Relevant Documents:

Reference documents for Applicants:

About Us

Terre des hommes (Tdh) Palestine was established in 1973 in response to child malnutrition in the West Bank. Tdh has been providing multi-sectoral protection services to vulnerable children and their families, targeting especially child labour, injured children, and gender-based violence (GBV), mostly in Gaza. With an ultimate goal of prompting, enhancing and advocating children’s rights who are in contact / conflict with the law, Tdh has launched its Access to Justice (A2J) programme in Gaza and West Bank in 2012.  More information is available here.

 

[1] PCBS, Preliminary Results of the Violence Survey in the Palestinian Society 2019.