Voice believes in periodically reviewing matters that touch the five rightsholders groups around the three thematic areas. This year we embarked on an exciting journey of giving a closer look at Indonesia.  After an intense and enlightening process, we finalised the Indonesia context analysis that inspired this Call for Proposals and others in the pipeline. Give it a look before applying for this Call. 

POWER IN ARTIVISM (ART AND ACTIVISM) 

Empowerment Grants Indonesia 

Based on findings from the updated 2020 Context Analysis, the civic space has been closing drastically with threats to and of the freedom of opinion and expression and acts of persecution. Criminalisation not only haunts human rights defenders’ (HRDs) activities but also artists who are voicing out people’s expression and aspirations, calling for the removal and threats of acts of repression.  

The exclusion of rightsholder groups still persists, especially when looking at the intersection of group identity and social class. Rightsholders with multiple, intersecting identities still experience the worst situations, some of which Voice has not reached yet. These include: 

• Women with disability who are also survivors of sexual violence but face difficulty in accessing social services.
• LGBT people who are the victims of discrimination and persecution. 
• Young Indigenous women who have never been involved in their community’s decision-making. 
• Elderly persons with disabilities who tend to be confined to their homes due to the lack of inclusive facilities. 

 The contexts they face limit their access to education, employment, or the public space in general.  

Across Indonesia, civil society movements and communities are on the march and expressing collective power amidst increasing intolerance, new discriminatory policies, and concentration of corporate power. At the same time, rightsholder groups need to organise and increase their collective power to dismantle systems of oppression.  

 For the past three years, Voice Indonesia has supported more than 25 groups and organizations in their empowerment journey to organize movements, raise awareness, develop transformative leadership, build confidence and skills, and work against the stigmatization of rightsholder groups. With this new Call for Proposal for new Empowerment grants, through the intersection of art and activism, Voice Indonesia hopes to expand its work and demonstrate the potential of creative interventions. Artivism, as applied in Voice, is a humanist method of engaging a community of rightsholders through arts and other mediums and forms of expression, in order to foster solidarity and influence change, while going through their own journeys of empowerment and self-advocacy. 

 We’re looking for creative project ideas that will encourage artists and rightsholders to use arts as a tool for activism and/or to create pieces (including audiovisual) that will respond to the ongoing struggle and inequality against marginalized groups. Funding available for each grant is within €5,000 – €25,000 and the lifetime of the projects should be for at least 12 and maximum of 18 months.    

 What types of projects do we wish to fund? 

For Voice, empowerment is a process by which people gain power over their own lives and can make their own decisions. So, for us, an empowerment type of project can focus on: 

• Supporting (small) groups to become more resilient, increase their membership, and revitalise their legitimacy towards their national constituencies; 
• Organising trainings in developing (basic) leadership, organisational and/or advocacy skills designed to further connect community leaders, advocates, and/or activists from neighbouring countries; 
• Building new skills to address emerging issues through creative and unexplored gaps in influencing capacities; 
• Establishing solidarity between different rightsholder group-led organisations through collaborative learning processes; or 

• Producing and disseminating participatory and collective arts, in any form, that voice out pressing issues and could potentially raise awareness about the rightsholders groups. 

For ideas on what issues Voice prioritises, take a look at the Voice Indonesia Context Analysis. 

Your project should target any of the following Voice rightsholder groups: 

• Age-discriminated vulnerable groups notably the young and elderly. 
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.  
• Persons with disabilities. 
• Indigenous groups and/or ethnic minorities. 
• Women facing exploitation, abuse, and/or violence 

 Voice has a strong preference for projects that are designed from an intersectional point of view. This means projects will work with more than one of the target groups to address overlapping vulnerabilities and/or forms of discrimination. For example, young women and girls living with disabilities face multiple layers of exclusion at the same time (age, gender, and disability). 

  We will only support 10 best project ideas for this grant.  

 Who can apply?  

Empowerment Grants are open to:   

• Informal, community-based groups or organisations of rightsholders, hosted by a locally registered non-profit Indonesian organisation; 
• Locally registered non-profit Indonesia organisations working closely with rightsholder groups; or 
• Locally registered Indonesia art collective. 

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

 International organisations cannot be lead applicants but can team up as co-applicant in the case of consortium applications. Their support can only be on the technical side and cannot implement direct activities. 

 What do we mean by…? 

Inclusion – It is related to attitude, communication, accessibility & participation. It can be understood as a set of linked, unending processes to do with the participation of individuals: the creation of settings, systems (procedures, policies, and laws) that encourage participation; and with putting ‘inclusive’ values into action. All three are about everyone rather than about a particular group.  Read more here 

Innovativeness – Innovative approaches are sought in all key components of Voice. Being innovative means not only creating new ways of working but also creating spaces for improvement in every step of the implementation of Voice, which can entail different steps in different contexts. This implies flexibility, to allow for the implementation of new ideas. For instance, reaching out to groups that have never been reached before requires creativity and flexibility to respond to new ideas. 

If you have an innovative idea, method or approach, you are welcome to propose it to us!  

 Practicing the Values of Voice  

Voice believes in the principle of Nothing About Us Without Us. In practice, this means Voice rightsholder 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 others 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 rightsholder 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.