Funding Opportunity: The Youth Challenge Fund for Girls led or girl-centred NGOs| Plan International (up to $5,600)
5 min read
Deadline: 01 December 2021
KEY FACTS
This fund is for Community services, Materials, Campaigning and advocacy costs, Salaries, Emergency / Quick Access Funding, Event costs, Technical Support, COVID-19, Administrative costs, Transport costs, Equipment in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. The amount is a total of $0 – $5,600.
NB: the application link is found at the end/towards the end of this publication
ABOUT THIS FUND
Please read the whole page before you apply!!!
After our first pilot, we’re thrilled to launch another round of the Youth Challenge Fund! This Fund is about supporting the innovation, creativity, and energy of young activist groups working in their communities in West and Central Africa. The Fund will provide up to 5,000 EUR to around 50 unregistered and registered groups, collectives and/or organisations led by girls or young feminists working towards gender equality in their communities. These funds are flexible and groups can decide how they spend these funds. Groups will have six months to implement their activities with the funding.
In this funding round, we are accepting proposals from six key areas of activism. Some of these areas were chosen as they are historically underfunded and others have been included as they are doing something completely different or addressing urgent needs. The six areas of focus are:
- Climate Action
- COVID-19
- Civic Technology and Digital Innovation
- Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR)
- Disability Rights
- Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship
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We also welcome proposals that are gender transformative, which means that they challenge social norms that reinforce gender inequality and address the root causes of that inequality.
Please note that a certain percentage of the funds will go to collaborative proposals; these are proposals that include 2+ groups. These groups can be within the same country or from different countries. If you decide to submit a collaborative proposal, make sure to select one group who will be the point of contact and will be responsible for receiving and managing the funds. Just follow the instructions in the application.
Have you already received funding from the Youth Challenge Fund? Don’t worry, you can still apply. However, we only accept collaborative proposals from groups that have received prior funding – you’ll need to pair up with another group (or more) to apply.
So what are the steps for funding?
- Applications close on December 1st
- A peer review process will take place from early December and will take several weeks
- We will contact you during December and January if you application is successful and will ask you to send us the documents to confirm your eligibility for the fund
- All unsuccessful groups will be informed by January 31st
- Groups will be funded in two cohorts (the first cohort will receive funding in February 2022 and the second cohort will receive their funding in April 2022)
- One they receive their funding, groups will have six months to spend the funding and implement their proposals
Please remember that we may receive up hundreds of applications and we can only accept 50. We wish we could support all eligible groups but there is limited funding. Please be patient as there may be minor delays but we will work hard to meet the deadlines above.
From the Youth Challenge Fund pilot, we’ve learned a lot about how to improve the process for young activists. For this round, we improved this process so that it is more participatory, accessible, and intuitive for activists. We want to keep improving so let us know if we can do better!
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REQUIREMENTS
To apply you must be based in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central Africa Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone or Togo to apply. We can only accept applications in English, Portuguese or French. Groups don’t need to be registered, but need at least 3 members and to be led by girls or young feminists ages 15-30. We accept applications from individual groups, and joint applications from multiple groups. However, each group can only apply once to the Fund (whether it’s an individual or joint application). If you apply more than once, only the first application will be considered.We encourage all groups to apply online. However, if you are unable to due to a disability and/or a lack of access to the internet, please email maimouna.badji@plan-international.org and we’ll do our best to accommodate you. For reasons of capacity, we might not be able to accommodate everyone.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
- Your group works to promote gender equality and is primarily led by girls, women and people who identify as trans, non-binary, intersex and/or gender non-conforming between the ages of 15-30 (groups led by young feminists from 15-24 will be prioritised)
- Your group’s budget is less than 50,000 USD annually
- Your group is independent of government institutions, political and religious organisations, and corporations.
- Your proposal centers on at least one of the Youth Challenge Fund areas of focus:
- Climate Action
- COVID-19
- Civic Technology and Digital Innovation
- Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR)
- Disability Rights
- Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship
EXCLUSIONS
If your group is selected, we will have to check that your group is who they say they are. We have a simple and quick process which will include contacting at least two references and checking your registration documents (if your group is registered). We will also need identification documents from two group representatives. The safest way to transfer funding to selected groups is through a bank transfer. We are working to find new ways to transfer the funding to groups but for now, in order to receive the funding, your group or a member of your group will need to have access to a bank account.
CLICK HERE TO APPLY
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Berinyuy Cajetan is the founder and publisher of Human Rights and Legal Research Centre (HRLRC) since 2017. He has intensive experience in strategic communications for Civil Society Organizations, campaign and advocacy, and social issues. He has an intensive experiencing in human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting.
