[WiLT] Women and Girls Africa - Comic Relief International - 24th July 2009

[WiL Admin]

Women and Girls

Why women and girls? Although some gains have been made, there is still much to
be done to ensure all the commitments made for women and girls across the world,
and particularly Africa, over the last 25 years, are achieved.

70% of the world's poorest people are women; they own only 1% of the world's
property

55% of those not enrolled in school are girls, 66% of illiterate people are
women and nearly 50% of all sexual assaults worldwide are against girls aged 15
years or younger.

Domestic violence is the largest cause of women's injury and death, leading to
more deaths and disability among women aged 15-44 than malaria, war, traffic
accidents, and cancer.

It is estimated that 1 in 3 women in Africa experiences violence in the home.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that female genital mutilation
(FGM) has affected as many as 138 million women and girls in Africa, and the
numbers continue to rise at a rate of approximately 2 million per year.

27% of girls aged 15-19 in sub Saharan Africa have been married and 28% have
given birth by age 18.

The lack of women's role in decision-making in community affairs and local
institutions remains a challenge, but is a necessary step towards improving
political representation. Women in Africa are generally excluded from
decision-making in the home, in communities and society, and they represent only
a 17% share of parliamentary seats across Africa.

Our Goal Our goal is to contribute to a transformation in the status and lives
of women and girls in Africa so that they can realise their rights and full
potential, and become equal and respected members of families, communities and
society.

How we can contribute to change Comic Relief believes that the lives and status
of women and girls can be transformed by:
* Taking a life-cycle approach and addressing needs and priorities from
girlhood, young adulthood, through to womanhood and old age.
* Understanding and addressing the rights of women and girls.
* Tackling the culture of impunity at the family, community and societal level
that results in women and girls being vulnerable to incidences, and the impact
of, violence, abuse and harmful traditional practices.
* Supporting women and girls whose lives we seek to change as the best people to
drive the work and supporting women and girls to represent their own agendas,
including representative organisations.

We want our support to address change at both the practical and structural
levels and to bring about positive and enduring changes. We believe that for
work to be successful, it must understand and address gender inequalities by
working with both women and girls and men and boys at all levels, and that
supporting girls and women to transform their lives will lead to positive
changes in the lives of their families and communities, and ultimately, in
society, thus breaking the cycle of poverty, exploitation and abuse.

Outcomes Comic Relief wants to know that the projects we fund are bringing about
changes in the lives of poor and disadvantaged people. We call these changes
programme level outcomes, and define them as the 'intended or unintended effects
or changes to people's lives that happen as a result of the project or
organisation's activities'.

During the period covered by this strategy, we anticipate that the lives of
women and girls will be transformed as follows:
* Improvements in girls' access to and attainment in basic education and women's
access to and attainment in adult literacy, leading to improvements in women and
girls' confidence, self-worth and marketable skills.
* Improvements in women's ownership and management of property and productive
assets and the promotion of strategies that advance the economic and social
rights of women in the employment sector, so that they have better control over
their lives and their prospects.
* An improved customary and civil environment that promotes and enforces women
and girls' safety, together with improved support and services available to
those at risk of and affected by gender based violence, resulting in increased
safety and protection of women and girls.
* Increased representation of, and accountability towards, women and girls in
state, customary and civic bodies leading to changes in policies and practices
that contribute to improvements in the quality of life of women and girls.

Where we will fund The Women and Girls programme will focus on any country or
region in Africa.

Who we will fund The overall aim is to support women and girls. Within this, we
expect projects to give priority to:

Girls who are attending or who are not in school and women who've missed out on
education; women and girls in the formal and informal employment sector; women
and girls at risk of and survivors of domestic and sexual violence or gender
based violence including harmful traditional practices; and women and girls with
the potential to take on roles of leadership and decision-making or who already
occupy such positions but could be supported in making an even greater impact.

Priority will be given to work with African organisations that are led and
managed by women as we believe that supporting women and girls whose lives we
seek to change is the best way to ensure that they are better able to represent
agendas and implement work to transform their lives and the lives of their
families and communities.

Download the full Women & Girls programme strategy document
http://www.comicrelief.com/files/cr09/themes/comicrelief.com/grants/pdf/international_grants_women.pdf

How many applications will we consider? You can send in one application for a
project grant in each grant making cycle. Your application can be for any one of
our six programmes. UK registered charities can apply for, and hold more than
one project grant funding different projects.

If you have received an investment grant you can still apply for project grants
and be in receipt of more than one project grant.

Re-applications If you are coming to the end of an existing Comic Relief grant,
you can apply for continued funding. Before you apply, you must have carried out
an independent review or evaluation of the previous grant and given us a copy of
the report and your response to it. We cannot guarantee your application will
receive further funding.

Please remember that even if your project or investment grant application fits
our grant making guidelines, it may not be possible to give you a grant as we
always receive many more applications than we can fund. We encourage everyone
who applies to us to look for funding from other sources as well.

If we reject your application for a project or investment grant, we're sorry but
we cannot reconsider it.

If your application is unsuccessful, we are happy to provide feedback on the
reasons for this. However, you cannot reapply for the same project until the end
of our grants strategy.

Guidelines for filling in the application formTo give your application the
greatest chance of success, we have produced some guidelines to filling in the
form, including details on what we look for in an application. Please read these
in full before completing the form.

The lifecycle of a successful applicationSubmit Application Assessment Decision
Making Agree outputs & outcomes, and budgets Monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation Monitoring and evaluation Decision-making
timetableThere is no need to rush your application. We make sure that we have
funds available for each grant making cycle. To submit an application you will
need to complete a summary application form to meet the deadlines below.

When you submit your summary application you will have the option to choose
whether you want to complete the full application within the same cycle (you
will have 3 weeks from notification of success at shortlisting to complete the
full application) or whether you would like to spend more time compiling your
full application and submit it into the following cycle (approx 4 months later).
Dependant upon which route you chose you should hear whether you application has
been successful in either 4 or 7 months from your summary application.

Below are our first three deadlines. We will post later deadlines on our
website.

Cycle : Application Deadline : Full Application Deadline : Assessment Period :
Decision
Cycle 1 : 24 July 2009 : 11 September 2009 : 14 September - 9 October 2009 :
November 2009
Cycle 2 : 19 November 2009 : 7 January 2010 : 11 January 2010 - 4 February 2010
: March 2010
Cycle 3 : 5 March 2010 : 23 April 2010 : 26 April 2010 - 21 May 2010 : July 2010

Further Information Please contact us if you have any other queries about the
application process:

Phone: 020 7820 5555

E-mail: internationalgrants at comicrelief.com


* Download an application form here
* Guidelines for Applicants - coming soon
* Full Application Information Requirements - coming soon
* Grant making policies - coming soon
* Down load the application budget template here
From
http://www.comicrelief.com/apply_for_a_grant/international/how_to_apply_women_and_girls

If for any reason you find it difficult to read this form please contact
grants at comicrelief.com