Are you a national organisation, network or movement seeking to influence education reforms in Kenya? Do you firmly believe that a relevant education system remains the only way to break the cycle of underdevelopment and poverty in Kenya? Can our education system be more inclusive? Do you want to influence and change public’s attitudes towards proposed education reforms? Do you plan to work with a network of like-minded organisations, individuals and/or the unusual suspects to amplify the voices of marginalised and discriminated groups within the educational ecosystem?

If YES, we encourage you to apply for an Influencing Grant to help realise the potential a relevant education system has to increase the employability or income generating capacity of Kenya’s majority poor thereby enabling them to be employed or be entrepreneurs in their own right mitigating the high inequality levels in Kenya.

We are currently accepting proposals from formally registered national organisations, networks or movements for projects spanning a minimum of 18 months and a maximum of 24 months with a budget ranging from EUR 25,000 to EUR 200,000.

What do we wish to fund?

Your project should focus on one or all the Voice target groups, with young people/youth as cross cutting;

• Ethnic Minority and Indigenous People
• LGBTI (Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) people
• Women facing Exploitation, Abuse and Violence (WEAV)
• People with Disability (PWD)

Preference will be given to applications that are able to demonstrate credible instances of intersectionality with at least one or two other Voice target groups.

Your project should also focus on improving access to social services, in particular education.  Using nontraditional lobby and advocacy techniques to influence policy or attitude change within the community in Kenya on the proposed education reforms is encouraged.

Who do we wish to fund?

Applications will be accepted from locally registered not-for-profit organisations, networks or movements working in Kenya. International organisations are NOT eligible to apply as lead organisations but can be co-applicants in case of consortium applications or as technical experts in application from individual organisations.

What we won’t fund:

• An application requesting more than 50% of the total annual income of the (lead) 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.