Minority Rights Group is seeking proposals for local projects that work toward supporting the rights of religious minorities and/or promoting and protecting the right to freedom of religion and belief in the following countries: Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand.

Proposals must seek to prevent or challenge freedom of religion and belief rights violations or discrimination against religious minorities. 

Projects must pilot innovative approaches at the local and national level. Potential areas of approach can include:

• Advocacy: Lobbying authorities, conducting research to inform reporting, producing evidence/reports for advocacy.
• Capacity building: Trainings and workshops to develop the ability of communities to organise and protect their human rights as religious minorities.
• Government accountability: Community-local authority problem solving workshops and dialogues, monitoring service delivery to all, legal aid initiatives.
• Conflict management: Monitoring conflict and community tension, actions relating to identified drivers of conflict, dialogue with local authorities, research into conflict drivers and ways to reduce impact.
• Peace-building: Intercommunity projects; arts, education or sports projects; intercommunity dialogues, problem-solving initiatives.
• Law: Trainings including paralegal and rights training, legal support initiatives.
• Covid-19 Impact research: Monitoring and documentation of government & non-state actors’ response to Covid-19 and its impact on religious minorities and advocacy for how minority rights can be better protected.

Funding Information

• Projects can be a maximum of 5,000 Euros.
• Projects must be implemented between March and August 2021. The project duration is maximum 6 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• Be a non-governmental or community-based organisation working on related issues.
• Have an established track record of similar work in one or more of the project countries.
• Have an organisational bank account.
• Be committed to peaceful resolution of conflict and must not be engaged in or support in any way violent or separatist activities
• Be committed to involving all ethnic and/or religious communities in your broader activities.

Selection Criteria

• Innovative projects that pilot new approaches to promoting and protection religious minority rights.
• Clear project objectives with concrete outcomes & outputs.
• Clearly justified budget that represents value for money.
• Clearly identified target beneficiaries and plan to reach those beneficiaries and advocacy targets effectively.
• Projects that address gender issues, pay attention to multiple forms of discrimination, and include vulnerable groups in project implementation and/or organisational structure.
• Projects that encourage effective collaboration with other CSOs.

For more information, visit Minority Rights Group.