Women’s Voice and Leadership Nigeria Project - Special Grants

It is no news that Nigeria through ActionAid Nigeria is benefitting from the Canada-Funded Women’s Voice and Leadership (WVL) Project currently being implemented in 30 countries of the world. What is news, however, is the approach that the Nigeria Project has adopted to make impact and achieve desired results. Do you know that WVL Nigeria has multiple grant opportunities for Nigeria-based Women’s Rights Organizations? Do you know that some of these grants are not limited to WVL Nigeria project states?

Below are the three Special Funds that the Nigeria Project provides:

The Multi-year Grant

This is a 5-year predictable funding arrangement aimed at supporting the core mandates of 100 Women’s Rights Organizations and Networks at the state level, and Community Based Organizations at the Community level. This provision allows beneficiary organizations to continue implementation of either an on-going intervention or  new/novel interventions in the Women’s Rights space. So far the state level funding has been disbursed as 28 organizations and Networks have been selected from 6 states and the FCT as State and National level partners for the project. Remember that the funding is yet to extend to the community level. This means that in a very near future, 72 Community-Based Organizations (CBO) will be coming on board as grant beneficiaries. If you are a CBO making impact in Women’s Rights and based in any of the WVL Nigeria project state (Cross River, Bauchi, Enugu, Lagos, Kwara, Kebbi,), be on the look out because your organization could be one of the 72 CBOs.

The Strategic Opportunity Fund

If you have been in the NGO world for quite a while, you will agree that winning grants is not just about bank credit alerts. There are processes that spans across proposal development, review, pre-selection, due diligence, final selection, Work Plan development, and Work Plan Approval, before granting finally happens. These processes could take months, and sometimes years, but imagine all these including implementation, reporting, and funds retirement happening in seven (7) days? Yes, 7 days – we present to you WVL Nigeria project Strategic Opportunity Fund (SOF).

The purpose of this grant is to allow for agility in responding to women and girls’ rights issues. It is a rapid response fund that is quick to access by Women’s Rights Organizations/Movements/Networks to better respond to rights violations as well as to seize unanticipated opportunities to create change in the lives of women and girls in the promotion and protection of women and girls’ rights. Remember the recent “Justice for Salome” Campaign in the FCT in November, 2019; the “50% Women Representation in Cabinet” protest in Abeokuta in December, 2019; and the “Justice for Goodness” Campaign in the FCT in February, 2020, that was the Strategic Opportunity Fund in Action.

If you are a Women’s Rights Organization with urgent need to carry out interventions that will have a Multiplier effect on the issues of Women and Girls, and contribute to the broader achievement of Gender Equality in Nigeria, the Strategic Opportunity Fund is for You!

The Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) 

The Strategic Innovation Fund is designed to support new and innovative ideas and initiatives from Women’s Rights Organizations beyond WVL Nigeria project states. If your organization is not a beneficiary of the Multi-year granting and the Strategic Opportunity Fund, then put on your thinking Cap – the Strategic Innovation Fund might just be for you!

This funding opportunity targets innovative ideas which can serve as a catalyst for new ways of doing things within the Women’s Rights movement in Nigeria. It will support actions at any level or any Women’s Rights Actor, so long as it is innovative and aligns with WVL project goal. 

The Good News is that this Fund is about to be rolled out through a competitive Call for Proposals mechanism, where organizations will be expected to provide a brief concept note outlining their request. As we eagerly await this announcement, this is the time to come up with innovative concepts relevant to women and girls’ rights with demonstrated capacity for effective implementation.

Watch this Space for the Strategic Innovation Fund!