This grant aims at strengthening the influencing, lobby and advocacy capacity of Voice target groups, so that they can amplify their voices and influence policies at grassroots level.

This grant is available for a minimum of €25, 000 and a maximum of €200, 000. The life of projects under this grant must not exceed 24 months. This may be the last national Influencing Call, so grab your chance while you can!

Unlike last year, where the target was on influencing state actors at national level, Voice Nigeria is looking for proposals strategised to influence unusual stakeholders such as professional bodies, private sector, community gate keepers etc. for inclusive policies, practices and procedures.

What do we wish to fund?

This Call for Proposals is intended for projects that focus on Voice defined themes and target groups.

• Age Discriminated vulnerable Groups: Youths and Elderly
• Ethnic Minorities and Indigenous People
• LGBTI (Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) group
• Women facing Exploitation, Abuse and/or Violence (WEAV)
• People with Disabilities (PWD)

Voice remains committed to the principle of leaving no one behind. Thus, while this call targets WEAV & PWD specifically, applications that are able to demonstrate credible instances of intersectionality with at least one or two other target groups identified above stand better chance.

All projects MUST focus on at least one of the following impact themes:

• Improved access to (productive) resources such as land, extractives and employment,
• Improved access to social services, particularly health and education, and
• Fostering space for political participation and citizen engagement

Examples of interventions that will interest this type of grant include but are not limited to:

• Raising a community of citizens (especially Nigerian Youths) who are challenging norms, policies, practices etc. that are not inclusive;
• Bridging gender gaps, power differences, resource imbalance etc. as it affects the Voice groups at grassroot level;
• Actions advancing rule of law, good governance, inclusive, transparent/accountable governance at grassroot level;
• Effective implementation of existing laws that promote inclusiveness and rights of Voice groups;
• Campaign for the passage of justice bills that address issues affecting the Voice target groups;
• Actions that facilitate platforms for strategic and effective engagement with duty bearers both at state and community level;

Who do we wish to fund?

Applications will be accepted from ONLY locally registered not-for-profit Nigerian organisations working in Abuja and Enugu states of Nigeria. Applicants registered outside these States are nevertheless eligible to apply as far as they have a project base/office in the focal States and can provide the intervention there without undue travel cost on Voice. International organisations are NOT eligible to apply as lead organisations but can be co-applicants in case of consortium applications. The applicant MUST be target group-led (Voice target i.e. PWDs, Women, Youth, Elderly and Ethnic minorities) with local Board and governance structures.

What we won’t fund:

• Organisations with an annual turnover of over €2 million;
• 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.