• People with Disabilities (PWD)–Specifically, People living with leprosy, people with albinism, community of small men/women (in local terms known as midgets or dwarfs), people with visual and/or hearing impairments, and/or persons with autism and/or Down syndrome ;
• Women facing Exploitation, Abuse and/or violence (WEAV)–Specifically, young women/ girls who face and/or survived sexual violence or any other form of exploitation in the agricultural sector and widows whose lands/properties have been forcibly taken;
• Ethnic Minorities and/or indigenous People-Indigenous communities of Plateau State who have lost their original land to host communities/IDP camps due to clashes with local herders/farmers and who feel that they are not well represented at local/state and/or national governance structures;
• Age Discriminated Groups–Specifically young people from low-income families, or from any of the communities mentioned above; Voice remains committed to the principle to Leave No One Behind. Thus, applications that are able to demonstrate credible instances of intersectionality with at least one or two groups identified above stand a better chance of winning a grant.

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

• Initiatives that raise awareness on the discrimination and marginalisation facing the rightsholders OR barriers limiting them, particularly in health and/or education;
• Actions that facilitate capacity strengthening for informal groups and the rightsholders based on identified capacity gaps;
• Actions that facilitate the process of self-discovery and/or acceptance, leadership skills, building confidence, etc. of the rightsholders as a form of empowerment;
• Ideas that facilitate safe spaces where the rightsholders feel comfortable and free to be themselves, discuss sensitive issues affecting them and strategise how best to form alliances for greater impact;
• Actions that strengthen the lobby and advocacy skills of the rightsholders;
• Rebuilding indigenous groups especially those that have been excluded from local development efforts.

Who do we wish to fund?

In line with the principle of ‘nothing about us without us’ all applications MUST be target group-led. This means that we expect the specific communities of rightsholders to submit their proposals and to implement the project addressing issues affecting them. Empowerment grants are for organisations who have not yet received any donor funding before. We therefore strongly encourage informal groups and newly registered organisations to apply. In instances where an organisation is not registered, the applicant can identify a host organisation to partner with for the management of funds. Voice in Nigeria will support the applicant through this host/applicant partnership process. You may also check all other funded empowerment grants to see what we are looking for and for inspiration.

Where do we wish to fund?

Voice Nigeria will only fund projects from organisations that are based and implemented in Plateau State.

What we won’t fund

The grants within Voice are not for pure service delivery, thus activities that propose the direct payment of services, procurement of equipment, receiving of monies/funds, etc. are not allowed. Voice can only support capacity strengthening activities and processes for the rightsholders in order for them to advocate for these services. In exceptional cases, we allow for some income-generating activities but only in combination with empowerment activities that will strengthen the rightsholders’ influencing capacities.