• Are you an organisation that is led and governed by one of Voice’s rightsholder groups? (See further below for five Voice rightsholders groups)  
• Are you a local registered organization with those documents available? 
• Are you a recognized local organization/association by the local authorities with proof documents? 
• Are you a team who has the creative ideas with approaches to address on the stigmatization and discrimination issues? 
• Do you want to test and try innovative, creative approach or new ways to influencing the change? 
• Do you want to explore of any learning as well as data that have never been explored before, so that it will benefit to any of Voice’s rightsholder groups and the community? 

 If you answered “yes” to the questions above, then consider applying to this Call for Proposals.  

 WHAT KIND OF PROJECTS ARE WE LOOKING FOR? 

Voice is looking to support innovative ideas where rightsholder groups are able to have:  

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

Your idea should be looking at one or more of the above themes! 

THE FIVE VOICE RIGHTSHOLDER GROUPS ARE: 

• Primary focus for: 

• The elderly; 
• Women facing exploitation, abuse and/or violence 
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) groups 

• Secondary focus for: 

• People with disabilities 
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) groups 
• Ethnic minority groups 
• Youth 

 Intersectionality:  

Voice believes in a world where diversity and inclusion are a reality. Often the people most marginalised and discriminated are vulnerable due to multiple reasons. Voice has a strong preference for projects that are designed from an intersectional point of view. This means that projects should aim to work with the intersection of two or more of the above groups to address overlapping vulnerabilities and/or forms of discrimination.  

For example, if the project aims to work with persons with disabilities, it is also possible to consider engaging women with disabilities, indigenous youth with disabilities, LGBTI with disabilities, and others.  

 As Voice has seen increasing vulnerability of the elderly in Laos throughout 2020 combined with few organisations actively supporting this rightsholder group, Voice particularly encourages applications that focus on the elderly.  

 Furthermore, Voice encourages networks, partnerships, and consortia applications because each organisation may bring new ideas to the project and each partner can learn from the other.  You may also wish to partner with “unusual suspects” like media companies, campaigners, and artists who may encourage new ways of advocacy and influence.   

Still in need of more inspiration or ideas? We invite you to take a look at the different Innovate and Learn projects supported by Voice via our Grantee page.  

 GRANT AMOUNT: 

This grant is available up to €200,000 maximum per project and from 18 to 21 months in duration.  

 WHAT DO WE MEAN BY INNOVATION?  

Voice is always looking for innovative ideas. For us, innovation means anything that has not been tried before in a particular context. If you have a new idea, method, or approach, you are welcome to propose it in your application. Innovation also means using tried and tested influencing methods but for new purposes and with new rightsholder groups, audiences, and themes.  

 WHO DO WE WISH TO FUND?  

The lead applicant needs to be a (locally registered) Lao organization (civil society organization). Ideally, they are led by members of one or more of the five Voice rightsholder groups. This means the rightsholders that the organisation aims to represent govern and manage the organisation, while the principle “Nothing About Us Without Us” guides its/their work.  

 Moreover, the organisation(s) wishing to apply should be well structured and have proper policies in place, such as organisational governance, financial management, safeguarding, and other policies. 

The current VOICE in Laos grantees who are the lead-applicant to a certain project, with ongoing projects are not eligible to apply as lead applicants, BUT can be included as co-applicants in the case of network, partnership, and consortia applications.  

 WHAT KIND OF ACTIVITIES WILL NOT BE FUNDED?:  

Please note that Voice will NOT fund initiatives that focus on the provision of cash or any forms of financial and/or in-kind support to the project participants. For this Call, strengthening economic empowerment may be centered on supporting the participation of the rightsholders groups, testing mechanisms and structures to enable them to have increased access to productive services, strengthening capacities, and other similar approaches.  

 Voice is a non-institutional development fund and does not support any of the following:  

• Infrastructure building;  
• Purchase of heavy-duty equipment (transportation vehicles, agricultural machines, security equipment);  
• Humanitarian COVID-19 response;  
• Disaster relief  
• Funding of commercial services, investment, or other commercial activities  

• Service delivery type of project/activity. 
• For profit-organizations/companies/social enterprises or individual initiatives. Unless, the particular social enterprises can prove with the proper alibi that you have an organization’s social mission and how you have become a social enterprise.  

  We will also NOT fund organisations with an annual turnover of over €2 million.    

  Please take our ELIGIBILITY TEST in the next tab to make sure that you qualify for the grant.