Deadline: 18 February 2019

Fondo de Mujeres del Sur is pleased to announce the Second Call for Proposals to invite groups, organisations, and consortia led by women, working at local, national, sub-regional and/or regional levels to present innovative and high impact proposals, focused on the defence and promotion of women’s rights and gender equality.

Leading from the South (LFS) is a special fund created to resource women’s rights activism in the Global South for a period of four years (2017-2020). It’s a joint programming initiative implemented by four Women’s Funds: Fondo de Mujeres del Sur – Women’s Fund from the South (FMS) in Latin America and the Caribbean , the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) in Africa and the MENA Region, the AsiaWomen Fund (AWF) in Asia and the International Indigenous Women’s Forum (IIWF) at the global level. It’s financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

Leading from the South intends, through grantmaking, capacity development and other strategies, to strengthen women’s movements in the global South to resist, influence and impact on public policies, confront unequal power relations and eliminate exclusion, discrimination, violence and unequal treatment. The fund’s focus on women’s rights, advocacy, and the elimination of marginalization and discrimination highlights a strong alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), to which the UN Member States are committed, particularly with Sustainable Development Goal 5 on the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls of the 2030 Agenda.

Main Approaches

• Women’s Human Rights-Based Approach
• Feminism, Gender Perspective and Women’s Empowerment
• Diversity and Inter-Sectional Approaches

Geographical Scope

• For the implementation of the Leading from the South Programme, the FMS will finance proposals from women’s groups, organisations, and consortia located and working in one or more of the 23 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean listed below.
• For operational purposes and geographical balance in the selection of proposals, the Latin American and Caribbean region will be divided in three sub-regions:
  • Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean: Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Suriname.
  • Andean Sub-region: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.
  • Brazil and the Southern Cone: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguayand Paraguay.

Priority Thematic Areas

• Area 1: Leadership, Voice-Agency and Women’s Political Participation
• Area 2: Women’s Economic Justice
• Area 3: Violence against Women (VAW)
• Area 4: Climate Change and Environmental Justice

Target Population

• Special attention will be given to those proposals that show a strong commitment to working with women and girls from the marginalized sectors at political, economic, social, cultural and territorial levels. This may include: women living in extreme poverty; peasant, indigenous, black/afrodescendants, rural women; women from marginalized urban areas; migrants; women workers in precarious sectors (domestic, sewing, maquilas, others); women with disabilities; women living with HIV/AIDS and/or other sexually transmitted diseases; environmentwomen’s defenders; lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI); union leaders; young women; among others.
• The FMS will promote initiatives led by or that involve the participation and agendas of these groups.
• In this second call and in accordance with the International Decade of People of African Descent (2015 – 2024), proposals submitted by organisations led by black women / afro-descendants will be prioritized.

Eligible Strategies

The proposals can include some of the following strategies: Dissent and resistance, activism and mobilization, lobby and advocacy, accountability, organisational capacity development, dissemination and communication, strategic partnerships, knowledge generation and learning management, among others.

Eligible Organisations & Funding Information

For the purposes of this call, there have been established three categories of organisations to be selected: Large-sized organisations, Mid-sized Organisations and Consortia of Grassroots Organisations.

• Large-Sized Organisations: The organisations that shall be considered to be large-sized organisations are those civil societyorganisations (CSOs) which have an annual budget equal to or greater than 100,000 euros. They can apply individually or as networks or consortia. In the case of networks and consortia of organisations, the applicant organisation is the one that needs to have the specified annual budget. This requirement does not apply to the rest of the members.
• Mid-Sized Organisations: The organisations that shall be considered to be mid-sized organisations are those civil society organisations (CSOs) which have an annual budget equal to or greater than 50,000 euros. They can apply individually or as networks or consortia. In the case of networks and consortia of organisations, the applicant organisation is the one that needs to have the specified annual budget. This requirement does not apply to the rest of the members.
• Consortia of Grassroots Organisations (CGO): Grassroots organisations may apply in consortia with other grassroots organisations. Grassroots organisations are women’s groups or organisations that work directly with community actors and are usually the first to respond and provide support in cases when women’s rights violations take place (front-line defenders). They are usually based in small and isolated villages or towns far away from capitals or mid-sized and large cities. This category includes emerging organisations, community-based groups or organisations, and women groups in organisations or mixed communities that generally have limited access to resources but which make important contributions to advance women and girl’s rights at local levels. Every member must have an individual annual budget of less than € 50,000. The sum of the budget of the organisation members of the CGO must be equal to or greater than € 35,000. The CGO must be composed of at least 4 grassroots organisations.

How to Apply

• Applications must be submitted online via given website with the attachment of the mandatory documentation (listed below):
  • Certified/audited financial reports of the past 2 fiscal years (2016and 2017) approved by local authorities. This is only applicable for large and mid-sized organisations (Consortia of Grassroots Organisations are excluded).
  • Copy of the legal registration/legal entitlement certificate.
• Applications can be submitted in Spanish, Portuguese and English. The Call for Proposals is also available in French for a greater coverage.

For more information, please visit http://mujeresdelsur.org/leading-from-the-south-second-call-for-proposals/