Policy Influencing and Advocacy Grants
Job Reference Number/Emploi de consultance: : NA
Job Category/Catégorie d'emploi: Call for Proposals
Job Location/Pays: NA
Job Expiry Date/Date d'expiration: 04/07/2025
WomenPower2030 –Feminist Accelerate Actions for Sustainable Development
About FEMNET
The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) is a pan-African, feminist and membership-based network based in Nairobi, Kenya with over 800 individual and institutional members across 50 African countries and in the diaspora. FEMNET envisions a society where African women and girls thrive in dignity and well-being, free from patriarchal and neoliberal oppression and injustices. FEMNET recognizes that the commitment to alter relations of power, structural injustices, and systemic oppression lies at the heart of feminism. FEMNET is therefore committed to pushing towards altering power structures that perpetuate gender inequality by nurturing the African women’s movement to enable women and girls in their diversity to effectively claim, affirm, and use their collective power to end all forms of exclusion, oppression, exploitation, and injustices against them.
About WomenPower2030: Feminist Accelerate Actions for Sustainable Development
Women power 2030 – is a joint action by Women Engage for a Common Future International (WEFC), African Women’s Communication and Development Network- FEMNET (Africa) Asia-Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development- APWLD( Asia – pacific), Women Environmental Programme – WEP( Africa) and Fundacion de Estudios y Investigacion de la Mujer -FEIM (Latin America and the Caribbean.
The WP2030 consortium, led by WEFC aims to ensure that women’s and feminist civil society networks, movements and organisations have strengthened capacity and increased resources to fight inequalities and advances gender-equal sustainable development by claiming space in global and regional policy spaces including on climate change governance decision- decision making, to influence legislation and improve women’s rights in their countries and communities while mobilising women, youth, feminist and gender-diverse activists. Specifically, the action aims to achieve the following objectives:
- To strengthen the capacity of women’s and feminist civil society networks and (grassroots) organizations to advocate for accelerated implementation of gender-just climate action and sustainable development (2030 Agenda) and address structural barriers to gender inequality.
- To ensure that policies, laws and programs on sustainable development, climate and environment are more gender responsive and include recommendations from women and feminist organisations, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 5.
- To ensure that more women, youth, feminist activists are acting as agents of change for gender-just sustainable development, climate and environmental action, thanks to feminist movement building and campaigning from local to global and back.
Overview of the Policy Influencing and Advocacy Grants
In alignment with the consortium objectives, FEMNET is inviting proposals from youth/women-led organizations and women’s rights organizations, networks, and/or coalitions to implement targeted policy advocacy and influencing activities at global, national, and sub-regional levels. They will also mentor grassroots CSOs in policy advocacy, influencing, and leadership.
Granting Guidelines: Purpose and Rationale
This call specifically targets national- level Civil Society Organisations that are FEMNET members and working on national or regional and global level policy influencing and advocacy to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. Specifically, we are looking for organizations working on gender transformative climate change policy influencing and advocacy.
**National level CSO are non-governmental/non – profit organisations that operate primarily within the boundaries of a single country and work across regions or provinces within that country, aiming to influence policies, mobilize citizens, or deliver services at a national scale.
FEMNET will support the national WRO’s with €25,000, each to build and strengthen their institutional capacity to be able to address barriers to structural gender inequality and to advocate for, and engage in, accelerated implementation of gender-just sustainable development (2030 Agenda) and climate action.
Who Can Apply?
This call is open only to registered FEMNET members who are in good standing with their membership for the year 2025 as of the date of this call’s publication
Please refer here to the list of members who are eligible to apply:
The following FEMNET Member organisations are eligible to apply
- National Women rights/Women Led Civil Society Organisations
- National level Feminist Youth-Led Civil Society Organisations
- National Level Organizations (co-)led by women, youth or women with disability
Proposed activities that will be supported
The grant will support both policy influencing and advocacy activities and institutional strengthening on gender responsive climate and EU Gender Action Plan(GAP)III priority themes which are (sexual and reproductive health and rights; economic and social rights; equal participation and leadership; the women, peace and security agenda; and gender equality in the green and digital transition) women and girl rights,
The following types of activities will be eligible for financial support:
- Organizational Development, including staff capacity, board governance, strategic planning, digital skills and tools, and fundraising.),
- Capacity building especially for grassroots, WROs and women-led organizations on policy advocacy, leadership and organizational strengthening (training, mentoring, demonstrating solutions, monitoring, evaluations and digital skills and tools)
- Participation, analysis and monitoring, and in policy advocacy processes and practices that address structural barriers to gender equality. (analysis, research, organizing meetings with policy makers, travel, experts, publications)
- Policy dialogues between women’s and feminist organisations and decision-makers on the design, implementation and monitoring of gender-transformative policies, laws and programs in the fields of sustainable development, climate action and inclusive digital and green transition. Campaigning at sub-regional, national, regional and global level (communication materials, digital tools, awards, experts, travel, events).
- Engaging in the promotion of feminist values and gender- transformative actions in the framework of sustainable development policies.
The grant shall not support the following activities:
- Activities Outside the Grant’s Thematic Focus: Proposals that do not align with the Women Power 2030 objectives EU Gender Action Plan (GAP) III priority themes, or those that do not center gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights.
- Activities that promote specific religious beliefs or political parties.
- Activities with no clear link to broader advocacy or institutional development strategies.
- Organizations Without Legal Registration or Clear Governance Structures
Reporting Requirements: The partners will be required to submit quarterly narrative and financial reports. The reporting templates will be collaboratively developed.
Please note that this funding is provided under the European Union’s funding framework, FEMNET will provide support to the sub-grantees to ensure successful reporting.
Communication and Visibility Requirements: All chosen proposed actions must comply with the visibility and communication guidelines by incorporating the project logos in all publications, references, documents, news, and any other visibility and communication activities related to the project. For further details, you can refer to the EU visibility and communication plan.
Duration of the Grants
The grant will run for 12 months.
FEMNET sub granting Principles
The Sub-granting principles anchor FEMNET’s sub granting approach which is outlined in the FEMNET sub granting manual
Mutual accountability: Accountability rests on transparency in terms of vision, values, and procedures of the organisations and clarity on terms of roles and responsibilities. Both parties will aim to have open and honest communication channels and a willingness to engage in dialogue in case of disagreement.
Mutual learning: Each party will be open to self-reflection and suggestions from the other party and encourage creativity and the sharing of ideas.
Mutual perspectives: The Sub-grantee will be part of and contribute to; mobilise and build the capacities of feminists, women’s rights organisations, activists and their allies to build evidence and knowledge for advocating for human rights and sustainable development to be reflected in national, regional and global policy agendas.
Who Are Not Eligible?
- Individuals
- For-profit entities
- Political parties
- Government institutions (national and sub national
- International non-governmental organizations (INGOs)
- Nonregistered entities
Geographical Scope
This call for proposals is open to FEMNET members drawn from the 5 subregions of Africa
Guidelines for eligibility
| Please review carefully the guidelines on the table below to determine if you are eligible for the funding: |
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| Clear alignment and relevance of the Women Power 2030 consortium objectives |
| Stakeholder engagement: Ability to reach grassroot community members in excluded and marginalized parts of their countries such as rural, remote areas and informal settlements. |
| Inclusivity and diversity: Demonstrate that you work with marginalized groups e.g. persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, youth, etc. |
| Innovation and sustainability of the action- Have innovative and sustainable approaches and/or concept related to the EU GAPIII priority areas (sexual and reproductive health and rights; economic and social rights; equal participation and leadership; the women, peace and security agenda; and gender equality in the green and digital transition), |
| Additional guidelines for women and youth-led CSOs |
Women-led:
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Youth-led:
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Persons with Disabilities:
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Indigenous Persons:
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Application Process
To apply for the policy advocacy grants, please read the Grant Application Form( narrative proposal template) here. Fill in the required information and submit the completed application to recruitment@femnet.or.ke by 4th July 2025. Proposals received after the deadline or incomplete proposals will not be considered.
Evaluation and Selection of Criteria
The evaluation and shortlisting process will of the following steps:
- Verification of eligibility requirements and proposal completeness: The selection committee will review all submitted proposals to ensure they meet eligibility requirements and include all necessary application documents. Ineligible, incomplete and irrelevant proposals will not be considered further.
- Review and ranking of short-listed proposals: Preliminary results will be communicated to applicants via email. Shortlisted applicants will be subject to a partnership assessment, to evaluate their organizational, operational and financial capacity, and will be required to submit additional documentation as part of this assessment.
- Final approval: The selection committee will make the final decision on the proposal to be funded through this call.
- Request for changes: The Selection Committee may engage in a process of mutual communication with the shortlisted applicants to discuss potential adjustments or improvements to their proposals. Applicants will then have the opportunity to refine and resubmit their proposals based on this dialogue.
- Notification of results: Successful and non-successful applicants will be notified of the results, via email, no later than August 31, 2025.
Inception Phase: Following selection and signing of the Grant Agreement, FEMNET will support the organization for three months to operationalize its proposal and finalize the workplan and other key elements for successful project implementation.