1. UN WOMEN and Elimination of Violence Against Women
UN WOMEN is the women's fund at the United Nations. Established in 1976, it provides financial and technical assistance to innovative approaches aimed at fostering women's empowerment and gender equality. Since September 2007 it has set up an office in Islamabad, Pakistan under the South Asia Regional Office (located in New Delhi, India). Today the organization's work touches the lives of women and girls in more than 100 countries. UN WOMEN also helps make the voices of women heard at the United Nations — to highlight critical issues and advocate for the implementation of existing commitments made to women.
Placing the realization of women's human rights and security at the centre of all of its efforts, UN WOMEN focuses its activities on four strategic goals:
•Reducing women's poverty and exclusion;
•Ending violence against women;
•Reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls;
•Supporting women's leadership in governance and post-conflict reconstruction.
Fighting gender-based violence is a major concern for UN WOMEN, because violence against women is a universal problem and one of the most widespread violations of human rights. The UN WOMEN sub-regional strategy (SRS) promote work around strengthening the capacity building to implement national action plans for women specifically those that address EVAW, including ensuring substantive reporting and implementation of CEDAW, safe migration, home-based and informal work, trafficking. The SRS also focuses on efforts to increase awareness and involvement of boys and men as partners to end VAW.

2. Background: 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women, and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a human rights violation. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates, including November 29, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, December 1, World AIDS Day, and December 6, the Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.
More information can be found at: http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/16days/kit07/kit.html.
The 16 Days Campaign has been commemorated by individuals and groups around the world who use a human rights framework to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women by:
Raising awareness at the local, national, regional and international levels;
Strengthening local work;
Linking local and global work;
Providing a forum for dialogue and strategy-sharing;
Pressuring governments to implement commitments made in national and international legal instruments; and
Demonstrating the solidarity of activists around the world.

3. Invitation for proposals:

In order to support the campaign and ensure that organizations can contribute to it across Pakistan, UN WOMEN is allocating a total of USD 40,000 – from Spanish Government and UN WOMEN Core Funds - and inviting proposals to support activities between 25 November and 10 December 2009.

The call for proposal is meant to support initiatives related to the 16 days of activism at community/grass root level within one of the following areas of focus:
Support to implementation and awareness of legislation and policies around violence against women at local/community level; or
Support to engagement of men and boys in eliminating violence against women at local/community level; but
Both include linkages between violence against women and HIV and AIDS.

Registered organizations can submit proposals (on provided format below) with budgets up to maximum US$ 5000. UN WOMEN will award up to a maximum of 8 grants based on the approval process keeping in view the proposal strength, geographical focus and catalytic and innovative methodologies (see criteria below).

Inter-Agency Programme Appraisal Committee (PAC) will be arranged at the beginning of September to review the short-listed proposal and recommend awards of grants.

INFORMATION ON APPLICATION AND SELECTION PROCEDURES:
1. Eligibility

National/local organisations registered and with legal status based in Pakistan are eligible. Partnerships between government and non-governmental organizations are encouraged.

Who can apply?

•Non-governmental organizations
•Governments, including National or Local governmental agencies
•Local Associations
•Community-based groups
•Education and research institutions
•Women’s groups/networks and groups working with boys and men
•Groups/networks that promotes men and boys’ engagement in gender equality
•Organisations of women/people living with HIV and AIDS

Priority will be given to proposals that are focused at local/community level (particularly rural areas), those which involve multi-stakeholder groups, including collaboration between non-governmental and government organizations.

In cases where two or more organisations submit a joint proposal, the name of the organization that is taking legal responsibility for administering the project must be clearly stated. Relevant details related to the collaborating organization should also be mentioned.

2. Language of submissions

Proposals should be submitted in English or Urdu.

3. Where to submit proposals?

Proposals should be sent in sealed envelops by post (with electronic copies by email if possible) to the UN WOMEN Programme Office in Pakistan

UN WOMEN Pakistan
UNHCR Building, Diplomatic Enclave No.2, Quaid-e-Azam University Road, Sector G-4, Islamabad Pakistan
Email: unifem.pakistan@unifem.org

4. Criteria for selection of proposals for funding

Projects will be selected by an Inter-Agency Programme Appraisal Committee (PAC), composed of representatives from UN organizations, bilateral donors and non-governmental organizations, and experts on ending violence against women.

The PAC will take into consideration the following:

(a)That the proposed programme meets with the overall criteria of the call and of the 16 days of activism campaign;
(b)The extent to which the programme proposed is innovative and promotes implementation of legislation or polices on elimination of violence against women at local level, or promote men and boys’ engagement in eliminating violence against women at local level; with special attention to linkages between the twin pandemics of VAW and HIV and AIDS;
(c)The overall perspective and quality of the proposal;
(d)Outreach of the organization;
(e)Reflection of multi-stakeholder partnership/participation in the implementation of the project (such as government organizations, civil society, community based groups and media);
(f)Representation across provinces and AJK, FATA and FANA included;
(g)Focus on more disadvantaged groups;
(h)Commitment to a follow up process and sustainability; and
(i)Geographical preference is given to applicants from remote rural areas.

Proposals that reflect availability of matching funds will be given priority

The Trust Fund will not consider proposals that are:
•Submitted by individuals or by organizations that do not have a legal status;
•Requesting grants that do not comply with the stated range in the call;
•Requesting funds to cover costs of building, infrastructure including purchase of land, property or towards construction or repair of buildings;
•Requesting funds to support ongoing service provisions – such as medications, ongoing counselling and treatment services, maintenance of shelters, etc;
•Incomplete or submitted after the stated deadlines; or
•Already funded by other organisations in Pakistan.

5. Announcement of the Result

Only short-listed applicants will be contacted by Thursday, 10th September 2009.

6. Deadlines
•Submission deadline: Not later than Monday, 17th August 2009, COB 5:00pm


Proposal Section and Details
I. Organizational Information (no more than 1 page)

(For collaborative projects, information should be provided about each partner organization. It should be clearly specified who is the applicant (only one organization) and who an implementing partner. •Name, address, telephone/fax numbers (with country code), e-mail and web page address, if available, name of the contact person;
•Registration and legal status;
•Type of Organization: Select One: 1) NGO, 2) Men’s or Women’s Org., 3) Government (central, regional, local), 4) Community Based Organization, 5) Research/Academic Institution, 6) Regional Network / body, 7) Org. of women or people living with HIV.
•Goal, mandate and strategies of the organization
•Organizational activities pertaining to issues of addressing different forms of violence against women
•Total annual budget of organization(s)
II. Project Title, duration and amount requested •State Title, time frame for implementation of the project, amount requested to UN WOMEN and location
IV. Brief Description of the project (1/2 page) •Briefly state what the proposal tries to achieve (main results/outcomes/outputs), how (main activities), with whom (activity target group, partners and stakeholders) and who will be benefiting (ultimate beneficiaries).
VII. Justification section
(1/2 page) •Why the particular response being proposed is innovative and relevant to the situation addressed
VIII. Strategy for follow up
(no more than 1/2 page) •What is the key strategy that the project will deploy to ensure follow up?
XI. Work plan
(No more than 1 page) •List key project activities and describe who will take primary responsibility for their implementation.
•How do you plan to track and monitor the event?
XIII. Project Budget
(1/2 page)
•A detailed budget against each activity
•Funds do not cover administrative and overhead costs such as rent, permanent staff salaries, etc. Personnel costs may not exceed 40% of total project budget