The start of the journey! The global launch of Voice took place in The Netherlands, followed by launching events in Voice focus countries.

Following the launch, Voice teams worked on the systems for grant making, linking & learning, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning. This year, the first calls for proposals were launched, followed by the start of the first in-country projects.

In partnership with Partos, the NOW-Us! Awards were organized in The Netherlands. Recognising the expansive potential and invaluable passion of grantee partners and rightsholders, these Awards provided Voice grantee partners a space to further promote their advocacy and showcase their inclusive initiatives at a global level. Eventually, these Awards was further adopted by Voice country teams, and even grantee partners, expanding the reach towards emerging groups and organisations.

The first event Knowledge Exchange was held in Baguio City, Philippines, with the theme “Indigenous Women Rising”. Knowledge Exchange initiatives of Voice intended to deep dive on learning questions and share experiences on rightsholder initiatives, opening spaces for more intersectional collaborations. In this first run, the participants delved on the persistence of indigenous womens’ leadership, the challenges, and future aspirations of women leaders. In the coming years, more Knowledge Exchanges were held both at the global and regional levels.

2020 was a year of major maneuvering. It began on a high note, with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs approving the continuation of the programme for 3 more years following a positive mid-term review. It was very timely that the mid-term review of Voice as a Programme was finalised amidst a significantly shifting context due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only did Voice change gears on grant making, linking & learning, and operations based on the recommendations, but also on its overall way of working following health and mobility restrictions caused by the pandemic, and the overall changes in the socio-political context it brought.

The Voice Programme was originally intended to run for only five years. Fortunately, it was granted an extension of three more years by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs! 2021 marked its fifth year and at the same time the launching of the Programme’s extension phase until 2024. Hybrid celebrations were done across Voice focus countries, while still navigating the nuances caused by the pandemic. With the significant changes here and there, Voice decided to roll out its first grantee partner feedback survey as a way to check-in with partners with a bigger picture in mind, and review its processes according to feedback and programme capacities.

After two years of online meetings, activities, and initiatives, the Voice team was finally able to have its annual face-to-face meeting again! It was held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where discussions focused on the continuance of the Programme following the ‘new normal’, following-through lessons learned, and already looking at the tail-end.

As the Programme neared its closure, a Final Evaluation Report was done, gathering insights, feedbacks and recommendations by grantee partners, rightsholders, Voice staff, operating country offices, and external stakeholders. This report not only provided a view on how Voice performed as a Programme, but also valuable recommendations that may be of use to The Ministry, other funders, and civil society organisations.

What a feat that was! From an initial target of 631 projects funded, Voice was able to fund a total of 745. This would not be possible without the country teams’ hard work and passion, and of course, the grantee partners and rightsholders’ persistence to contribute to transformative and inclusive changes. In this final year, we closed the official Voice journey by having in-country closure events, the last global learning event and final Voice staff meeting, and a final event with The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We could all agree that it has been awesome!