Deadline: 6-Dec-24

What Works II is pleased to announce that they are expanding the What Works II portfolio under a second funding window and are now accepting applications for Innovation Grants.

They are interested in testing innovative approaches and developing promising collaborations to take VAWG prevention work in new directions. Innovation grants are intended to support the development and implementation of projects.

Goals

• Design and test ways to prevent forms of violence that have been under-researched (such as conflict-related sexual violence, technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), violence in climate-related or humanitarian emergencies).
• Testing different delivery platforms or modalities such as media and technology etc.
• Testing new partnerships e.g. between a digital rights organisation and a women’s right organisations (WROs).
• Develop approaches to address violence in populations or settings where little experience exists (for example, refugees, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, or LBT populations.)

Priority Areas

• They are seeking proposals that focus on the following priority areas:
  • Prevention of VAWG in fragile and conflict affected settings (FCAS) with a particular focus on countries experiencing protracted crisis. They particularly encourage applications from the MENA region as well as others that have been in protracted crisis.
  • Examples of potential interventions in this priority areas include:
    • Projects using technology/remote interventions to prevent VAWG in conflict/humanitarian situations.
    • Intergenerational efforts that promote working with marginalised groups including adolescent girls and older women in conflict/humanitarian settings to prevent VAWG
    • Projects that seek to reduce sexual abuse, exploitation, and harassment (SEAH) by humanitarian actors and/or to prevent violence and backlash towards humanitarian workers and GBV responders.
    • Projects that integrate VAWG prevention and response in all stages of humanitarian programming (pre-disaster, during disaster and post disaster) through multi sectoral approaches that include health, education and protection and to strengthen early warning systems to assess and respond to risks of violence against women and girls.
  • Technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) is one of the emerging forms of VAWG and terminology, definitions and measures are still evolving with terms like cyber violence, cyber aggression, digital abuse and online victimization used interchangeably.
  • The What Works II Programme is keen to support building the field of TFGBV through supporting a portfolio of grants that will enable the Programme to contribute to generating evidence of what works to prevent TFGBV. Examples of potential interventions in this priority areas include:
    • Interventions seeking to prevent different forms of TFGBV
    • Interventions seeking to shift attitudes and behaviours of perpetrators of TFGBV, including those in the high-risk categories for perpetration
    • Projects exploring the intersection between online and offline VAWG and how to prevent it
    • Projects seeking to increase the digital media literacy of women and girls and to build their capacity and that of the broader online community to address and respond to TFGBV.
    • Projects seeking to establish safe and secure online spaces for women and girls to report and prevent online abuse and exploitation.
  • Addressing VAWG prevention in Climate Change: Based on the recognition of the nexus between VAWG and climate change, the What Works II Programme will prioritize finding and funding grants that aim to prevent and reduce the risk of VAWG in climate change interventions.
  • The climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges of the time, threatening economic, environmental, and social security, particularly in the Global South, where these impacts are felt strongest. Women, girls, and gender-diverse people experience the impacts of climate change differently in terms of their safety and security, in part because climate change exacerbates the conditions that allow perpetrators to commit VAWG with impunity. Addressing VAWG through climate change projects is key to ensuring that deeply entrenched social norms that often perpetuate VAWG are addressed alongside climate change related risks to support whole communities to stay safe and resilient in the face of climate change, do no harm and leave no one behind.
  • They encourage applications with a focus on VAWG prevention in climate change contexts including but not limited to:
    • Efforts to prevent VAWG against climate change activists and environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs), raising the alarm on climate change.
    • Mainstreaming VAWG prevention into projects supporting a Just Transition to a low carbon economy, such as climate-friendly infrastructure and agriculture projects.
    • Mainstreaming VAWG prevention into climate adaptation and resilience programmes such as reforestation efforts and livelihoods programmes.
    • Mainstreaming VAWG prevention into climate change-induced disaster preparedness and response, including through anticipatory action.

Funding Information

• In funding Window 2, What Works II will award innovation grants of up to GBP 500,000 to organisations or consortia led by WROs in the Global South, for up to 3 years, that are designed to achieve a measurable reduction in VAWG in humanitarian or development contexts.

Who do they intend to fund? 

• What Works II aims to award innovation grants to southern-based, women-led, women’s rights organisations with expertise and a track record of working in the field of VAWG prevention. This includes women’s peacebuilding organisations, women-led disabled people’s organisations, LBT organisations, organisations working at the intersection of VAWG prevention and climate change and organisations exploring partnerships to address TFGBV.
• They are looking to fund:
  • New partnerships that bring together unique collaborations, for example, technology organisations or climate change organisations, in partnership with WROs;
  • Ideas/approaches to prevent VAWG that have not previously been implemented and/or evaluated;
  • Existing ideas/approaches that are being adapted for new populations or geographies;
  • Approaches that test different combinations, intensities or duration of approaches to further reduce levels of VAWG and get us closer to ‘zero’ prevalence;
  • Adaptations of existing methodologies (particularly for humanitarian contexts) from other sectors for VAWG prevention;
  • New or adapted prevention delivery modalities and/or different combinations, e.g., moving from community mobilization to implementing prevention through digital spaces/online platforms, or through sector platforms;
  • Approaches that have strong potential to go to scale if proven effective;

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants are national or local level women-led WROs from the Global South, who may choose to partner in consortia with other organisations (e.g., NGOs and SMEs). For the TFGBV interventions, applicants can be led by actors from the digital rights or technology sector working in partnership with women-led WROs.
• What Works II defines women-led, WROs to be organisations that:
• Have a deliberate mandate to protect and promote the rights of women and girls;
  • Have majority women at every level, including at the board level and across all decision-making levels; and
  • Centre women and girls in all their diversities.
  • Applicants demonstrate that their core work is in the field of VAWG prevention, women’s rights, gender equality, conflict, and digital/technology sectors.
  • Applicants are willing to participate in the co-design of implementation and research evaluation in collaboration with the What Works II Implementation and Research Consortia.
  • Applicants are located within the three FCDO priority regions: Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

For more information, visit What Works II.