Call for Proposals: 11 th Round of Peer Grants

Transcription

1 Who is UHAI EASHRI? Call for Proposals: 11 th Round of Peer Grants Application Deadline: 11.59pm EAT on Monday 27 th June 2016 UHAI is a Kiswahili word for life. UHAI is also an acronym for the words Ujinsia [sexuality], Haki [rights], Afya [health] and Imani [faith], while EASHRI is an acronym for East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative. UHAI EASHRI is Africa s first indigenous activist led and managed fund for sex workers and sexual and gender minorities. UHAI supports civil society organising for and by sex workers and sexual and gender minorities in the 6 Eastern Africa states of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda with flexible grants; capacity support; Pan-African organising and convening; and knowledge building and documentation. UHAI is the largest funder for civil society organising for and by sex workers and sexual and gender minorities across Eastern Africa. In the 7 years since our founding, we have made 400 grants totalling USD 5 million. The majority of these grants have been provided as Peer Grants, which are determined by Eastern African activists. So, who can apply for funds from UHAI EASHRI? UHAI prioritises funding to civil society managed by sex workers and sexual and gender minorities, but we also consider requests from mainstream organisations that demonstrate meaningful engagement of our communities in decision-making, and whose programmes have a direct, large-scale impact on our movements. That s great! But can individuals apply? No. UHAI EASHRI only supports organisations. However, if as an individual you have an innovative idea we urge you to join or collaborate with an existing organisation. OK. But my organisation is not registered. Can I still apply? Yes! UHAI recognises that due to various legal and political restrictions in the region not all activist organisations are registered, particularly in their founding years. We support unregistered organisations through fiscal hosts that they select for themselves. We are also available to help unregistered organisations identify an ideal fiscal host. A fiscal host must have previously been a grantee partner of UHAI, and their reporting and accounting for our support to them must be up to date. If your organisation is not registered, you will need to provide us an organisation name; your organisation position holders (e.g. director, manager, programme officer, Board members); your organisation mission, objectives and activities; and a reference letter from a recognised and relevant human rights or health rights organisation in Eastern Africa stating that they are aware of your organisation and recommend you for funding.

2 What work does UHAI EASHRI support? UHAI is flexible and responsive. We do not pre-determine our funding priorities. We fund in response to the current needs identified from time to time by our movements in their various requests for support. We remain open to funding a diverse range of work in response to the diversity of requests emerging from our movements. Among other things, the issues we have supported so far include: o Institutional Development and Core Support o Coalition Building and Movement Building o Convening and Meeting o Legal and Policy Engagement and Advocacy o Litigation, Legal Representation and Access to Justice o Civic and Political Participation o Security and Protection from Sexual and Physical Violence o Media, Expression and Information Rights o Information Communication Technology o Research, Learning and Documentation o Religion o Arts, Social Networking, Cultural Events and Spaces o Sports and Recreation o Education and Literacy o Entrepreneurship, Economic Empowerment and Career Improvement o Labour Rights o Food Security and Nutrition o HIV Programming and Advocacy o Health and Wellbeing (general, non-hiv) o Migration and Displacement UHAI is eager to receive interesting, new and innovative proposals from sex workers and sexual and gender minorities across Eastern Africa. As such, you should not feel limited to submitting proposals for work that may be considered as part of the common issues listed above. Please stay/be innovative, creative and thoughtful! What grant types does UHAI EASHRI offer? Peer Grants Peer Grants are so called because they are determined in an open and competitive process by a committee of activist peers known as the Peer Grants Committee drawn from the diversity of the countries and communities we support. UHAI issues a call for Peer Grants once a year. Most of UHAI s grants are provided as Peer Grants. Strategic Grants Strategic grants support work bigger in scale and impact than possible through Peer Grants. Chiefly, the grants provide core support to large organisations and coalitions. The grants are flexible in amount and duration, are considered by the Secretariat Grants Committee (that is composed of UHAI staff), and approved by the UHAI Board. Organisations may request for Strategic Grants throughout the year, and UHAI may invite requests too. Opportunity Grants Opportunity Grants provide emergency assistance for security, protection, urgent advocacy and litigation, and other immediate events that may not be expected in an organisation s workplan. These are not direct assistance grants for individuals because we do not support individuals; but we support organisations that may in turn support individuals. These grants are flexible in amount and duration, are considered by the Secretariat Grants Committee, and approved by the UHAI Board. Opportunity Grants are available throughout the year.

3 What grants are available to apply for under this Peer Grants Call? In line with UHAI s new strategic plan , 3 grant types are offered in this eleventh round of Peer Grants. Msingi grants These are 1-year foundational seed grants aimed at initiating new work and supporting small-scale initiatives. Beginning 2016, the funding cap for Msingi grants has increased from USD 3,500 to USD 5,000. Traditionally, Msingi grants have been awarded to organisations that have not before received a grant from UHAI, but preexisting grantees of UHAI are welcome to apply to this category too. If applying for Msingi grants, along with the online proposal submission you will be required to submit: your budget in MS Excel if fiscally hosted, your fiscal host s Finance and Procurement manual/policy your organisation organogram your registration certificate (if you are registered) if fiscally hosted, your fiscal host s registration certificate your insurance policy (if available) Tujenge grants These are 1-year grants with a ceiling of USD 15,000. They are intended to initiate large-scale activities, and/or to contribute to ongoing programme work and the core costs of developing organisations and programmes. If applying for Tujenge grants, along with the online proposal submission you will be required to submit: your budget in MS Excel your Finance and Procurement manual/policy if fiscally hosted, your fiscal host s Finance and Procurement manual/policy your organisation organogram your registration certificate (if you are registered) if fiscally hosted, your fiscal host s registration certificate your insurance policy (if available) Imarisha grants These are 2-year general support grants of up to USD 50,000 allocated as a maximum of USD 25,000 per year. Imarisha grants are geared towards consolidating and sustaining organisations with long-term and and largescale activities. These are organisations that: Have been in existence for a minimum of 3 years Have previously received UHAI funding and are up to date with reporting and accounting for past grants Have a commendable fiscal responsibility Have a good track record of utilising awarded funds on schedule; and reporting and accounting on time If applying for Imarisha grants, along with the online proposal submission you will be required to submit: your budget in MS Excel your Finance and Procurement manual/policy if fiscally hosted, your fiscal host s Finance and Procurement manual/policy your Human Resources and Administration manual/policy (or your fiscal host s if fiscally hosted and do not have one of your own) your latest Finance Audit Report (or that of your fiscal host) your organisation organogram your registration certificate (if you are registered) if fiscally hosted, your fiscal host s registration certificate

4 your current strategic plan two reference letters (at least one from another funder) your insurance policy (if available) Please note: 1. All applicants who have not before received a grant from UHAI, will, in addition to their application, be required to submit two letters of recommendation from two referees speaking about their work. 2. All pre-existing UHAI grantees applying are required to be up-to-date in their reporting and accounting to UHAI for any past grants. All applications from current grantee partners that are not current in their reporting and accounting will be automatically disqualified and not considered. So how does my organisation apply for Peer Grants? We have been working hard to streamline our grant making and grants administration systems to serve you better. Starting June 2016, we are moving all grant applications to an online grants management system, where each organisation will set up an account from which they make an application, track the application status, receive final decisions made about applications and submit reports. The deadline for submitting applications on our grants system will be 11.59pm EAT, on Monday 27 th June To apply for a grant visit the UHAI EASHRI Grants Management System by following or copying this link into your web browser and following the steps below: Choose your preferred language among English, French and Kiswahili. Create an account, if your organisation does not already have one. User your organisation address as your username and the password you created at registration to login into your account and begin working on your application. If you have trouble logging in, have lost your password, or have any inquiries, you can write to us on proposals@uhai-eashri.org. You will receive a response within 48 hours. After logging in the first thing you will have to do is complete the details of your organisation s primary contact person who is typically your organisation lead. Then click on Organisational Details, and go through and complete information under the three sections tabs of: Organisational Information; List of Staff and Board; and Population Reach. You may come back to update your organisational details in the future whenever they change, even after you have submitted this proposal for Peer Grants. Now that you have updated the contact details of your organisation s primary contact person and your general organisation details, you may navigate to the Application Forms tab, and select Peer Grants. Complete the five sections of the application form and upload the required documents at the end. Kindly note that the Peer Grants tab is only accessible during the period when a call is open, and Peer Grants are open to all applicants. However, Opportunity Grants, Strategic Grants and Strategic HIV Grants application tabs are open all year through, and available only to applicants who are previous UHAI grantees. You can save the progress of your application at any time, and return to it later. Kindly note that once you click submit you can no longer access your application to modify it, but you can only download and view or print it for your record. After you submit your application you will receive an from us informing you your application has been successfully received.

5 You can log in anytime to track the progress of you submitted application. An will be sent to you once a final decision has been made about your application. Please remember that sometimes the person reading your application will not have the in-depth knowledge of your work, your region and the problems that you would like to tackle with your activities. Therefore, it s always best to assume that the person who will read your proposal will know nothing about you, your organisation or your work and thus you need to provide a very detailed description to help them understand. UHAI gives grants in USD and so proposal budgets should be done both in your local currency and USD, with an exchange rate noted. Applications done in USD with no foreign exchange rate noted will not be considered. Who will decide if my proposal gets funding or not? A Peer Grants Committee (PGC) makes the decisions on who receives Peer Grants. The PGC is currently made up of 13 persons nominated by Eastern Africa s movements of sex workers and sexual and gender minorities. The 13 represent the diversity of countries and communities we support and include individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, intersex and sex workers, from the 6 Eastern African countries we support. PGC members are volunteers and are required to honour a confidentiality and conflict of interest agreement. When will I know if my proposal has been successful or not, and how can I track my application? Applicants can log into their accounts in the UHAI Grants Management System to check the progress of their application. An will be sent when a final conclusive decision has been made on your application request. Applicants will receive a communication by 10 th July 2016 informing them if their application has been selected for review by the Peer Grants Committee. All applicants selected for review by the Peer Grants Committee will be informed by 1 st September 2016 of the outcome of the PGC review process. You can also log in to track the progress of your application during this period. To track the status of your application, log into your account, click on the My Applications tab and view summary details and status of each of your applications to UHAI. If my proposal is successful, when can my organisation expect to receive funds? If your application is successful and after you have furnished us with any other follow up documents we may require you will receive funds within two weeks after you have signed the grant documents that we will have sent to you for contracting purposes. We expect to begin funds disbursements September October What if I have questions about my proposal? How do I get more information about UHAI EASHRI? If you have questions, kindly navigate to the Support tab to raise a query. Click on New to raise a new query, and on Category to indicate the category your query falls under. Fill in and click Send to send the to us. Click on the Tickets tabs to view details of old queries raised previously, and any actions and responses from us. If you want to talk through your proposal and budget before you submit it, you can contact us via proposals@uhai-eashri.org or telephone / / / Please note, if you wish to receive advice on your proposal contact us by 17 th June 2016 at the latest! Please visit to learn more about our support opportunities. Also, follow UHAI EASHRI on Facebook on Twitter to receive updates on upcoming announcements and calls. Please share this Call for Proposals with other organisations you may know of that are working on the health and human rights of sex workers and sexual and gender minorities across Eastern Africa.

6 Many thanks and good luck from the team at UHAI EASHRI!