Are you a locally registered  Ugandan organisation that wants to advocate for effective implementation of laws,  formulation of new policies? Do you want to drive attitudinal change amongst Ugandan people or (central or local) government towards the Voice target groups? Are you passionate about building a network of like-minded organisations to amplify the voices of marginalised and discriminated groups? Do you want to try out innovative ways of influencing policy change in Uganda?

If your answer is yes to the questions above, then consider applying for this Call for Proposals!

We are currently accepting proposals from formally registered organisations, networks, coalitions and consortia for projects between 18 to 36 months, for a grant of between EUR 25,000 to EUR 200,000.  This may be the last national Influencing Call, so grab your chance while you can!

Influencing Grants are very competitive, and priority will be given to organisations led by the Voice target groups based on the principle Nothing About Us Without Us. Equally important in the selection process are proposals that bring in innovative ideas. These may be tried and tested as influencing methods in working with the target groups, audiences and themes. In your innovation, you may also wish to partner with campaigners and artists who  encourage new ways of advocacy and policy influence.

What do we wish to fund?

This Call for Proposals is intended for projects that focus on Voice defined themes and target groups. If the application does not sufficiently address one or more themes, primarily benefit at least one of the Voice target groups, the application will be rejected.

1. Women facing exploitation, abuse and/or violence
2. Persons with disabilities
3. Age discriminated especially the youth and elderly
4. Indigenous people and ethnic minorities

Voice considers the most marginalised and discriminated groups as those with multiple grounds for vulnerabilities. Therefore, a strong preference will be given to projects that intend to work with more than one target group to address overlapping or multiple vulnerabilities.

All projects MUST focus on at least one of the following impact themes:

• Improved access to (productive) resources such as land, water and employment,
• Improved access to social services, particularly health and education, and
• Fostering space for political participation and citizen engagement

Who do we wish to fund?

Applications are accepted from ONLY locally registered not-for-profit Ugandan organisations working in the greater North, Eastern and West Nile sub-regions of Uganda. International organisations are NOT eligible to apply as lead organisations but can be co-applicants in case of consortium applications. The applicant MUST be target group-led, as demonstrated by your governance and staffing structures.

What we won’t fund:

• Proposals that don’t meet the criteria above! In those instances we request you NOT to apply.
• Organisations with an annual turnover of over €2 million.
• An application where the Voice grant represents more than 50% of the total annual income of the applicant’s organisation. The way to calculate this is to divide the requested amount by the annual income. If the result of this calculation is over 50% you can either reduce the requested amount or team up as part of a consortium where you can add up the budgets.
• Funding of commercial services, investment or other commercial activities.

This call for proposals is closed, so application is no longer possible. Please come back here at a later stage to learn about the grantees that have been selected in this call for proposals.

Calls for proposals for Influencing grants will be opened once a year, while for Empowerment, Innovate and Learn and Sudden Opportunity grants we accept proposals on a rolling basis. The current open calls for proposals can be found here.