United Nations Democracy Fund issues call for applications for funding
Date:
On 15 November 2012 the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) opens the call for applications for its seventh round of funding. UNDEF's primary purpose is to support democratization around the world; it supports projects that strengthen the voice of civil society, promote human rights and encourage the participation of all groups in democratic processes. Ensuring that projects secure greater participation of women in democratization is an important requisite for UNDEF. The majority of UNDEF funds go directly to local civil society organizations (CSOs) and Government agencies.
UN Women has played an important role working with UNDEF and implementation partners since its first round of funding in 2006. UN Women and UNDEF work together to build women's engagement in democratic governance and political decision-making. UN Women, leveraging the organization's comprehensive expertise in gender equality and democratic governance, supports UNDEF grantees that focus on achieving specific gender equality goals by ensuring that women play an equal role in processes of decision-making, peace and country rebuilding and in all aspects of fostering democratic governance.
UN Women's role has ranged from providing technical assistance to grantees who have applied directly to UNDEF for funding to serving as an UN-Executing Agency, which entails supervision of monitoring, evaluation and reporting. Through this support UN Women has guided the implementation of dozens of projects working in close collaboration with government agencies and civil society groups in all regions of the world.
These have sought to: promote women's empowerment and political participation at local and national levels, enhance women's involvement as voters and in post-conflict development and rebuilding of their societies, raise awareness, improve women's visibility in the media, deepen women's role in the democratic development, monitor the implementation of gender equality laws and policies, and ensure the human rights of marginalized and vulnerable groups of women.
For more information, please see the UNDEF website which include the guidelines for application: https://www.un.org/democracyfund/
The application window will be open between 15 November and 31 December 2012.