Available to Target Group-led groups and organisations in Laos

 Are you an emerging and/or informal target-led group that would like to strengthen your leadership skills, increasing confidence within your group members, or want to embark on a journey to change attitudes and/or social norms in Laos towards your target group.

If you answered “yes” to the questions above, then consider applying to Voice Empowerment Grants.

What do we wish to fund?

Voice Laos seeks to fund projects focusing on at least 01 of the following target groups:

1. People living with disabilities
2. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI)
3. Indigenous people and ethnic minorities

With at least one of the following target groups as a cross-cutting issue?

1. Age discriminated vulnerable groups notably the young or elderly
2. Women facing exploitation, abuse and/or violence

Often the most marginalised and discriminated are those who may be vulnerable due to multiple reasons. Therefore, Voice has a strong preference for projects that intend to work with more than one target group to address overlapping vulnerabilities.

Your project can look at any or all of the following themes:

• Improved access to (productive) resources (finance, land and water) and employment,
• Improved access to social services, health, and education in particular, and
• Fostering space for citizen participation

Your grant can be from €5,000 to €25,000 (approx. 45,000,000 – 225,000,000 LAK) covering 12-14 months in project duration.

Who do we wish to fund?

• Informal groups or no-registered organisations who are hosted by a registered organisation.
• Locally registered Lao organisations as lead applicant.

International organisations are not able to be a lead applicant but can team up as a co-applicant in the case of consortium applications.

The (lead) applicant must be target group-led. An organisation (formal/informal) is target group-led when it is governed and managed by members of the target-group(s). The principle of “Nothing About Us Without Us” guides their work. If the target-group(s) do not play active roles in the governance and management of the organisation, the proposal needs to describe how the target groups are fully involved in the conceptualisation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the project.

Practising the Values of Voice

Voice believes in the principle of Nothing About Us Without Us. In practise, this means Voice target groups need to be at the centre of any effort. They must be involved in the conceptualisation, planning, and implementation of any grant. They are equal partners in any consortium, network, or coalition, playing key governance and leadership roles.

Linking and Learning

Linking and Learning is at the heart and soul of Voice. All grantees are expected to participate in facilitated meetings and gatherings enabling the exchange of ideas and learnings from each other’s experiences.  Applicants must demonstrate in their proposals how they will identify, document, and share their learnings as they implement their project. These may come in many forms such as blog posts, videos, photo essay or audio recordings.

Voice values diversity and inclusion. All grantees are expected to be able to interact with and learn from a diverse group of people coming from different backgrounds, orientations, and experiences. Interested applicants must be willing to work in a diverse community, which includes representatives from all of the Voice target groups.

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

The current open Calls for Proposals can be found here.