Deadline: 02-Sep-2024

The European Union and UN Women have partnered to launch a new programme called Advocacy, Coalition Building and Transformative Feminist Action (ACT) to End Violence Against Women.

As part of the Advocacy, Coalition Building and Transformative Feminist Action (ACT) to End Violence Against Women Programme, UN Women is in the process of identifying one or several programme partners (Responsible Parties) for the creation and co-organisation of a new global ACT CSO platform. The aim of the platform is to bring together women's rights organisations and women and civil society working to end violence against women and girls, develop a shared advocacy agenda to increase momentum and broaden the advocacy priorities of women's rights organisations and movements, and carry out priority actions related to upcoming key advocacy moments and opportunities.

The ACT programme focuses on strengthening global and regional advocacy, coalition building and transformative feminist action for EVAW. ACT will be implemented over three years, initially in two regions: Africa and Latin America, with a global component to accelerate impact and position the priorities of women's rights movements in global forums on a wide range of related issues.

It will build on the results and lessons learnt from the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative in 26 countries to strengthen women's rights movements at regional and global level and to raise women's rights priorities in regional and global policy-making and intergovernmental forums to create greater momentum globally on EVA.

Its overall aim is to accelerate efforts to eliminate all forms of VCM, with two overarching objectives:

• Strengthen coalition building and networking, leadership and the resilience of global and regional feminist movements for women's rights; and
• Increase and improve advocacy and campaigning to influence policy-making on EVAW through multi-sector partnerships and coalitions.

The ACT programme will achieve its results through direct investments in global and regional feminist women's rights organisations to strengthen their institutional capacities, resilience, coalition building, networking and leadership. It will also coordinate and scale up a shared advocacy agenda, designed in collaboration with women's rights organisations, bringing together multi-stakeholder partners and new actors to accelerate efforts to end violence against women and girls. ACT will ensure strong links and engagement with women's rights movements at the national level to ensure that advocacy at the global and regional level is informed by grassroots activists, as well as to generate impact and results at the national level.

The platform's main objectives include: 

• Facilitate networking, strategising and coalition building between WROs in all regions to strengthen the global EVAWG movement.
• Strengthen the EVAWG's global defence by building consensus around a shared defence agenda to increase the EVAWG's momentum.
• Raise and amplify the voices and advocacy priorities of grassroots WROs and survivors to drive transformative change.
• Strengthening solidarity and collective care in the fight against retrogression.
• Facilitate cross-sectoral and cross-industry alliances to promote partnerships between WROs and CSOs in various sectors, including, for example, digital rights activists, climate justice, rights people with disabilities LGBTQI+, indigenous women, women of African descent, youth-led movements, among others.

Structure, Governance and Management 

• Structure of the Global CSO Platform 
  • The ACT Global CSO Platform will be civil society-led, co-organised by UN Women and a feminist women's rights organisation or a consortium of feminist women's rights organisations with diverse capacities and areas of expertise, such as convening and coordinating networks, advocacy, communications and policy analysis. UN Women will provide incubation support to the ACT CSO Platform as it establishes its operations and develops the shared advocacy agenda and work plan.
• Governance and Decision Making
  • As a first step, UN Women and the ACT Programme's Civil Society Steering Committee will act as an advisory group to the CSO Platform to enable continuity and clear links with the ACT Programme. The role of the Civil Society Steering Committee is to be a sounding board and guide the platform as it develops its structure and work plan. Over time, the ACT CSO platform will determine, in collaboration with members, the best structure based on available resources, needs and the desired involvement of members. The platform's governance and decision-making should be streamlined while ensuring the meaningful participation and involvement of structurally marginalised and cross-sector, local and grassroots groups, addressing unequal power dynamics and ensuring transparency and accountability.
• Affiliation 
  • The ACT CSO Platform to End Violence against Women and Girls will be open to all feminist women's rights organisations working in the EVAWG committed to the shared advocacy agenda. In various discussions with feminist women's rights organisations, there was a strong call for an inclusive and open platform that incorporates the experiences of grassroots women and girls, especially from the global south/majority. Members must fulfil one of the descriptions below:
    • Women's Rights/Feminist Organisations involved in defending the EVAWG.
    • Women's Rights/Feminist Organisations working at the intersection of EVAWG and other intersectional issues: For example, LBTQI, disability, young women, indigenous women, survivors' networks and organisations led by young women, to name a few.
    • Women's Rights/Feminist Organisations working at the intersection of EVAWG and other sectoral issues; e.g. sexual and reproductive health rights, digital rights, climate justice, empowerment economic women, etc.
  • Once implemented, the ACT CSO Platform, with the support of UN Women, will invite WROs to join the platform and will manage the involvement and coordination of members.

Information on financing

• The total budget for this proposal must be a maximum1 of 850,000 USD (the maximum budget for each Action Area is: 300,000 USD for Action Area 1 and 550,000 USD for Action Area 2). Applicants can apply for one or both action areas. Applicants/consortia with the capacity to realise both action areas are strongly encouraged to submit proposals for both action areas.

Deadline

• The duration of the partnership agreement with the responsible party will be from October 2024 to June 2026

Roles and responsibilities 

• UN Women: will serve as a strategic partner of the ACT CSO platform and as a co-organiser. This includes:
  • Facilitate political engagement with high-level decision-makers, policy-makers, governments and donors
  • Building bridges and facilitating collaboration with other multisectoral platforms, such as the Generation Equality Action Coalitions.
  • Facilitate engagement and collaboration with the EDVAW Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on Violence against Women to promote greater accountability of member states' commitments to the EVAWG
  • Building bridges between CSOs and other sectoral players, e.g. private sector, technology sectors, etc.
  • Convene CSOs during important strategic moments
  • Support the Platform in developing strategic communications: UN Women can support the Platform to work with advertising agencies and other experts, for example behavioural experts, to create strategic and impactful messages and campaigns.
  • Involving influencers to support the dissemination of priorities and campaigns for the defence of rights
  • Mobilising resources for the Platform and the ACT Programme more broadly

expected results 

• UN Women seeks to involve one or several programme partners (responsible parties) for the creation of the ACT Global Civil Society Platform. The overarching roles and functions of the ACT CSO Platform to be carried out are described in the two action areas below:
  • Action Area 1: Strengthen coalition building, networking, leadership and resilience of global and regional feminist movements for women's rights 
    • Maximum budget: US$ 300,000
    • This area of action involves working with UN Women to ensure the creation and co-organisation of the ACT Global CSO Platform on EVAW, convening women's rights and civil society organisations to create space for solidarity, organisation and strategy-making, including through cross-sectoral initiatives and cross-sectoral alliances. The ACT Global Platform on EVAW will be set up as a virtual network. The responsible party should work with UN Women to identify the best possible platform/tools for engaging with members of the ACT Global CSO platform.
    • This could include
      • Convene women's rights organisations to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experiences on the EVAWG to promote interregional learning, as well as to create a space for feminist networking, strategising and co-creation.
      • Supporting collective care and solidarity action: Providing a space for collective care and for sharing information and strengthening access to protection mechanisms, relevant training (such as for digital security), providing a space for activists to explore the challenges of feminist activism and supporting activists and organisations to incorporate individual and collective care and protection into their work.
      • Facilitate skills sharing and capacity building: The platform will be a space for members to share their skills and knowledge and build the capacity of WROs to improve their advocacy and leadership in the EVAWG, including through dedicated learning sessions (e.g. on VAWG data, accountability mechanisms, communications , technology and innovation to name a few) and facilitate intersectoral and cross-sectoral spaces to enable learning and cross-fertilisation in various fields, e.g. climate justice, digital rights, disability rights, to name a few.
    • The main indicators of success over 2 years include:
      • A more cohesive and coordinated global movement for the EVAWG.
      • Number of coalitions, networks and organisations that become members of the ACT CSO Platform in the EVAWG and actively collaborate in the space.
      • Number of spaces created for feminist and women's rights organisations to meet, share knowledge and learning, exchange policy advocacy priorities and develop self-care practices and ways of working.
      • Number of civil society organisations that have strengthened their capacity to play a leading role in the EVAWG.
      • Number of organisations representing diverse and interconnected sectors of women's rights organisations involved and/or number of interconnected sectors involved in the ACT Global CSO platform in the EVAWG.
  • Action Area 2: Strengthen advocacy and campaigning to influence policy-making on EVAW 
    • Maximum budget: 550,000 USD
    • This Action Area focuses on development and implementation of a shared advocacy agenda to increase momentum to end violence against women and girls and amplify the advocacy priorities of women's rights movements in global advocacy spaces. The organisation/consortium will work with UN Women and the ACT CSO Platform to coordinate and implement EVAWG advocacy and communication strategies. This includes:
      • Develop a shared advocacy agenda through inclusive processes to agree advocacy requests and messages at global and regional level to influence policy and legislative changes and institutional practices related to EVAWG, as well as to mobilise resources for the field of EVAW.
      • Develop a roadmap/action plan, identifying key advocacy strategies, carrying out consensus building around key priorities, messages and actions; developing expert papers, shadow reports, policy advocacy papers, engaging and lobbying decision-makers, developing joint statements, as well as advocacy strategies for key moments and events, including global and regional intergovernmental and policy-making forums, among others. This should be anchored in the Beijing+30 review process and should be developed in a participatory, collaborative and inclusive way with ACT CSO Platform member organisations. Key advocacy moments could include; International Day for the Elimination of EVAWG, AWID 2024, CSW69/Beijing+ 30, Financing for Development 2025, High Level Political Forum and UNGA80), the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro 2024, among others.
      • Mobilise solidarity actions in response to threats, crises, setbacks in laws and policies or other EVAWG-related opportunities, including through the development of joint statements, petitions in the EVAWG
      • Facilitate cross-sectoral collaboration and advocacy: Forge strategic partnerships with relevant organisations and stakeholders, including cross-sectoral sectors, to advance the joint advocacy agenda.
      • Co-create a comprehensive communications strategy in cooperation with UN Women to engage relevant stakeholders and mobilise support for the joint advocacy agenda, using innovative and strategic communications approaches.
      • Develop and disseminate policy advocacy campaigns, communication and advocacy products and materials on specific advocacy priorities in cooperation with UN Women.
      • In partnership with UN Women, we provide communications support to members of the ACT CSO platform in the EVAWG to support members with training and communications tools and to help them design convincing advocacy messages and adapt EVAWG campaigns to their contexts.
    • The main indicators of success over 2 years include: 
      • A clear and shared agenda for the defence of the EVAWG was developed, with the support of women's rights movements worldwide.
      • 2-year advocacy plan developed taking advantage of key strategic opportunities to promote key advocacy priorities.
      • Number of actions coordinated by women's rights organisations/coalitions and multisectoral partnerships at global and regional level to jointly defend the EVAW.
      • Number of intersectoral alliances between experts in ending violence against women (EVAW) and other sectors established and/or strengthened.
      • Number of defence and communication products that create awareness and visibility for EVAWG priorities developed.
• Depending on the proposals received, UN Women will identify:
  • One party responsible for both areas of action, which could be a global feminist women's rights organisation or a consortium of global and regional feminist women's rights organisations, which will be responsible for both areas of action described in the following section.
  • Two responsible parties, i.e. one responsible party per area of action. In this case, it could be two global feminist women's rights organisations (one organisation per action area) or consortia of feminist women's rights organisations, each responsible for a specific action area of the ACT Global Civil Society Platform.
• The selected programme partners are expected to work in close coordination and collaboration in the implementation of the respective Action Areas for which they are responsible, including convening women's rights and civil society organisations working to end violence against women and girls as part of the activities within each Action Area.

Competences

• For the ACT Global CSO platform to be successful, the global feminist organisation for women's rights, or the consortium of global and regional organisations, must meet the following criteria:
  • It must be a global feminist organisation for women's rights or a consortium of global and regional feminist organisations for women's rights.
  • You must have demonstrable experience in building and coordinating movements and the ability to convene women's rights organisations in all regions of the world.
  • Expertise and at least five years' experience in the area of ending violence against women and girls with diverse skills and areas of expertise such as policy analysis, global advocacy and feminist campaigning to influence policy decisions (including through the development of joint statements, shadow reports, briefs and other policy advocacy), engaging in accountability mechanisms and global policy spaces. In exceptional circumstances, three years' experience may be accepted.
  • Demonstrable ability to bring together feminist women's rights and civil society organisations to build consensus, manage diverse perspectives, co-create strategies and tactics to advance a collective advocacy agenda in all regions of the world.
  • Experience in strategic communication, developing advocacy campaigns, raising awareness.
  • Experience and capacity to carry out grant management, if the awarding of grants is included in the proposal.
  • Experience in Partnership Development, including experience of engaging with different stakeholders, including governments, policy makers, donors, CSOs, etc.
• Note: As this call for proposals is for the creation and hosting of a Global ACT CSO Platform, proposals must be global in scope. Applicants from country-level organisations or proposals focused on country-level interventions or interventions in only one region are not eligible for this call. specific call for proposals .
• If you're applying as part of a consortium, please note the following:
  • The lead organisation must be specified in the proposal, so that it is clear which organisation is the lead organisation and which organisations are sub-partners. There can only be one lead organisation. The other consortium members are considered sub-partners. Note: organisations at national level are not eligible for this call for proposals.
  • The lead organisation must meet the competence criteria described above or must clearly demonstrate the extent to which, collectively with the subpartner(s), it meets the above criteria.
  • The lead organisation must also meet all the minimum criteria described in Annex B-1.
  • The lead organisation must be a global or regional women's rights organisation that pursues feminist goals.
  • International Non-Governmental Organisations whose main mandate is not the promotion of gender equality and women's rights are not eligible, because the ACT Programme seeks to strengthen feminist organisations for women's rights.

For more information, visit  UN Women .