Deadline: 23-Oct-2024

The Digital Democracy Initiative (DDI) team at CIVICUS is looking for regional partners to lead on the implementation of the DDI support mechanism prototypes in the Sub-Saharan Africa Region.

The Financial Support Mechanism should aim to provide sub-grants to grassroots civil society actors in eligible countries within the region, and to facilitate initiatives focused on improving inclusive democracy and maintaining a healthy civic space at national, sub-national, or regional levels.

The Non-Financial Support Mechanisms are expected to offer technical assistance and accompaniment at both individual and institutional levels, ensure local civil society actors are adequately equipped to work on the project’s thematic focus.

Objectives

• General: To enable local civil society in the Global South to utilise digital technology to amplify efforts to promote inclusive democracy by providing holistic financial and non-financial support to local civil society actors that:
  • enables them to experiment, learn and take action; and
  • strengthens collaboration and local support ecosystems for civil society work on civic space and inclusive democracy.
• Objective 1: Adapt, develop, launch, and implement one financial and one non-financial support mechanism prototype for strengthening civil society working on promoting inclusive democracy in the digital age in the Sub-Saharan Africa Region. These mechanisms have been co-designed by relevant local civil society organisations and groups in the region.
• Objective 2: To actively engage local civil society actors’ leadership and agendas in the delivery of these interventions and ensure that the mechanisms are widely used by and benefit relevant local civil society in eligible countries within the region, especially those involved in the co-design process.
• Objective 3: To advocate for policies and practices that support the long-term sustainability of the resourcing mechanisms implemented in each region and encourage other civil society organisations, allies and enablers to contribute to and strengthen the general and digital support infrastructure for local civil society promoting inclusive democracy in the global south.

Scope

• The Digital Democracy Initiative team at CIVICUS seeks an experienced civil society organization or consortium in the Sub-Saharan Africa region to act as a regional host partner. The selected partner will engage in a one-year project to adapt, develop, launch, and implement two prototyped financial and non-financial resourcing mechanisms co-designed by local civil society.

Funding Information

• $1,100,000. Initial contract will be split with incremental funding based on performance.

Timeframe

• Selected partners will have one year between January 2025 and January 2026 to complete the assigned project.

Geographic Focus

• They are looking to engage a partner (or two in the event of joint proposals) based in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

Expected Outcomes

• By the end of this grant, the following outcomes are anticipated in each region:
  • Strengthened and more accessible support infrastructure and ecosystems that enable increased use of digital technology to promote inclusive democratic spaces by a diverse range of local civil society actors.
  • Enhanced capacities of diverse local collaborators through financial and non-financial resources, including locally tailored and resilience-building technical assistance.

Outputs

• To achieve the above outcomes, the following outputs are expected from the implementation of this grant:
  • Financial Support Mechanisms:
    • Expansion or strengthening of existing financial support mechanisms, or creation of new mechanisms if needed, based on regional co-design exercises.
    • Engagement of local collaborators by regional host partners, including both formal and informal civil society representing diverse and traditionally excluded communities.
  • Non-Financial Support Mechanisms:
    • Expansion or strengthening of existing non-financial support mechanisms, or creation of new mechanisms if needed, based on regional co-design exercises.
    • Engagement of local collaborators by regional host partners, including both formal and informal civil society representing diverse and traditionally excluded communities.
  • Sub-Grants Utilization:
    • Use of sub-grants by resourcing mechanism host partners to design, develop, and implement financial and non-financial support mechanisms.
    • Use of sub-grants by local collaborators to develop digital capacities that strengthen inclusive democracy both online and offline.
  • Campaigns and Advocacy:
    • Implementation of campaigns and advocacy actions at all levels to influence civil society, donors, enablers, and allies, aiming to further strengthen the ecosystem supporting local pro-democracy civil society actors.

Eligibility Criteria

• Interested applicants must:
  • Be a recognised civil society organisation with extensive experience implementing medium-to-large-scale civil society projects at a regional level where they are applying –in this case, in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.
  • Have strong knowledge and experience launching, implementing, operating and supporting the establishment and long-term sustainability of civil society resourcing mechanisms.
  • Have substantial and impeccable experience managing major grants ranging between USD 500,000 – 1,000,000 and also providing sub-grant funding ranging between USD 2,500 and USD 5,000. For Consortium applications, the consortium lead should have a minimum annual programme budget of USD 1,000,000.
  • Have an extensive network of and direct experience working with civil society, including DDI target groups in the regions where they are applying.
  • Have proven ability to convene civil society organisations and activists on a regional level.
  • Be formal/legally registered organisation in a country within the region or have legal rights to operate from within any eligible country within the region.
  • Have excellent written and verbal communication skills in English. While selected partners will implement all the work in the relevant local languages in their region, they will communicate and submit all deliverables to CIVICUS in English.

For more information, visit CIVICUS.