Defenders in Development Policy Grants

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. 

(We set the deadline as our system does not allow posting a funding opportunity without a deadline)

The Defenders in Development (DID) campaign is awarding a limited number of small grants to support groups from the Global South to carry out work to prevent and address risks human rights defenders face, when raising their voices about projects financed by development banks.

n addition to the financial support, the Campaign is also ready to offer technical support and guidance on research and advocacy on reprisals related to activities supported by development banks.

Goals

• The grants can support projects which align with the goals of the DID campaign, including but not limited to the following:
  • supporting human rights defenders in conducting advocacy with development banks on their reprisal-related and civic space concerns, pushing development banks to have better policies and practices to prevent and respond to reprisals, or to address civic space issues;
  • supporting advocacy actions and campaigns to hold development banks accountable to their commitments on reprisals;
  • supporting human rights defenders in researching and documenting reprisals against defenders in the context of development projects;
  • supporting human rights defenders in researching and documenting the bank’s lack of due diligence on reprisal risks in the context of their projects.

All countries are eligible, but proposals must meet the following criteria:

• have a component related to civic space, the security of defenders or reprisals (such as threats, attacks, judicial harassment, etc) against human rights defenders;
• involve at least one development finance institution or have the potential to involve at least one development finance institution.
• Examples of the types of projects which the policy grants could support include (this is a non-exhaustive list):
  • supply chain research: support for salary for a staff person or external consultants to identify linkages between cases of reprisals and projects funded by development banks;
  • advocacy: Support for a staff person to raise cases of reprisals or civic space issues with the development banks;
  • convening: funds for meeting and logistical costs associated with facilitating a meeting, conference or consultation on a topic related to the development banks and reprisals and/or the campaign’s objectives;
  • research and documentation: Conducting research which supports the goals of the campaign such as into what failures by the development banks have led to a specific reprisal, or into trends in a region related to reprisals linked to development projects.