Cambodia is at a turning point in 2021. The changes in the political landscape continue to hamper the space for influencing and amplifying the voice of rightsholders with vulnerabilities. The created space finds itself at another important crossroad.  While improvements have been reported in health, education, and other dimensions of human development,  there are still too many people who are disproportionately affected by poverty, particularly women. Stigma and discrimination still remains high among all rightsholder groups in term of accessing employment, health care, education and civic participation.

The Covid-19 pandemic and its implications ia making rightsholder groups even more vulnerable, by increasing stigma and discrimination against them, especially against marginalised women, elderly and people with disabilities. They may be perceived as a burden to their families during the crisis. The increased sense of inclusion or belonging has ironically also broadened the demand by rightsholders for Cambodian society to recognise different groups. For example, respect for the dignity of women also includes acknowledging the work being done by women in the entertainment services, women domestic workers, the LBT (Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgender) perons and women with disabilities in the informal sector. Even within civil society organisations, there is a need to show how their advocacy and campaigns bring in rightsholders and the voices that will ultimately be impacted by changes in the Cambodia context.

In response to these challenges, and continuing to foster inter-movement solidarity and collaboration among rightsholders movement, Voice Cambodia is opening a call for proposals for Influencing Grants focused on responding to discriminatory laws and policies that affect women across Voice rightsholder groups. We invite civil society organisations to help shape local to national discussions on strengthening voice of women across rightsholder groups to pursue an inclusive society in the current context of Covid-19 pandemic.

What is Shine Through about? 

Are you an organisation representing or led by women? Do you see an opportunity to guide or influence national or local bodies to be more open and receptive to the needs and interests of marginalised women in the context of Covid-19? Do you want to inspire attitudinal and policy change among people and governments for marginalised women  in Cambodia, especially those with intersecting vulnerabilities? Do you want to try new and innovative ways to influence? Do you want to strengthen how your group can work better together?

Especially, do you have any creative ideas to expand safe spaces for marginalised women across all Voice rightsholder groups to shine through and have their concerns be addressed and included the context Covid-19 pandemic?

If you answered “YES” to the questions above, then Let’s Shine Through and apply to this Call for Proposals focusing on issues of marginalize women across all Voice rightsholder groups in Cambodia.

COVID-19 pandemic has highly impacted the socio-economic standing of rightsholder groups particularly women across all rightsholder group in access to resources, employment and participate in the decision making process.

Voice is looking for projects or creative ideas to expand a safe spaces for marginalised women across all rightsholder groups to voice out their concerns to be addressed and included in the context of the change in socio-economic and political impact from COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia. The creative ideas or projects will push for the inclusion of rightsholder groups in relation to the following thematic impact areas:

• Improved access to (productive) resources (e.g. finance, land, and water) and employment;
• Improved access to social services, in particular healthcare and education; and
• Space for political participation

Applications are open to locally registered organisations, consortiums, networks, or coalitions either led by or who work with the following rightsholders groups:

• Vulnerable youth and the Elderly
• Indigenous groups and ethnic minorities
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people
• Persons with disabilities
• Women facing exploitation, abuse, and/or violence

From the most recent Voice Cambodia Context analysis , rightsholders have highlighted the following issues and opportunities to focus on:

• To increase political participation of women, people with disabilities, the elderly, the youth, and indigenous communities in inclusive policy-making at the village level and advocating village budgeting that mainstreams rightsholders’ interests and needs;
• Strengthening the networks between the disability movement, women’s movement including women in the informal sectors to advocate against cases of violence against women with disability/LGBTI/Elderly/IP and to provide survivors with inclusive and accessible services in accompaniment, recovery, and judicial processes;
• To advocate for increasing job opportunities for women with disability/LGBTI/Elderly/IP through inter-stakeholder collaborations, supported by national accessibility guideline;
• To promote local/national policies and budget advocacy for increased access to social protection coverage, free health care and pension for marginalized women in the entertainment sector and informal economy.

For more ideas on what issues Voice prioritises, take a look at the Voice Cambodia Context Analysis

Proposals need to be between 18 – 30 months (starts in July 2021 and end 31^st December 2023) with a budget of up to €200,000.  Voice recognises the importance of initiatives that respond to groups facing multiple layers of exclusion that cut across more than one rightsholders group.  We  have a strong preference for selecting projects that intend to work with more than one of the Voice rightsholder groups to address overlapping or cross-cutting challenges and promote inter-and/or intra-group solidarity. For Cambodia, intersectionality will be the prime criterion in reviewing, shortlisting, and accepting proposals.

We will prioritise proposals coming from a strong alliance or coalition at the local or national level.

What do we mean by Influencing? 

Based on the Voice Theory of Change, Influencing is the process where rightsholders and their representatives will use a range of lobby and advocacy tools to influence individuals, families, communities, private business, religious leaders, (social) media, and other decision makers’ policies, practices, and behaviours. Ultimately, the combined interventions will lead to rightsholders:

• claiming their rights as equal citizens;
• having meaningful participation in political, economic, and social spheres, and;
• accessing services and resources.

Influencing should happen and move across multiple levels from individuals to communities to local to national. Actions at the individual level can reinforce actions at other levels.

As observed from previous and current grantee projects, advocacies at the local level are seen to have more impact, especially in the current context. Local-level advocacies responding to national issues may be more strategic.

This Call for Proposals is closed and no longer accepting applications. Come back here at a later stage to learn about the grantee that has been selected in this Call for Proposals.

The current open Calls for Proposals can be found here.