El Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral (COIN) has announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a gender-based violence (GBV) small grants program in the Caribbean that will work with local civil society organizations to address the root causes of GBV.

Project activities will focus on gender sensitivity training, strengthening civil society organization networks and victim support, and supporting civil society training for local government agencies and service providers that support GBV survivors.

The goal of the project is to address the root causes of GBV in the Caribbean through a series of community-level small grants. To achieve this goal, six objectives have been defined:

• Foster partnerships between civil society and local municipalities to help address the root causes of GBV and improve services to GBV survivors, through the effective management of the Caribbean GBV small grants program.
• Strengthen the capacity of sub-recipients to provide GBV prevention and response services by providing ongoing in-person and virtual training in their own language ( i.e. French, Spanish, English, and/or Creole).
• Improve available data on individual local community GBV prevention and survivor services and on people’s knowledge, attitudes, and practices in the communities where activities will take place, through the development of simple stakeholder maps or gap analyses and KAP surveys.
• Reduce socio-cultural attitudes that lead to GBV by providing intervention activities aimed at youth as part of the small grants’ programs.
• Strengthen civil society organizations (CSOs) and local governments’ abilities to improve access to GBV survivor services and networks by working with and providing training to local government agencies that already participate in the GBV prevention sphere.
• Address GBV issues that result from COVID-19 and emergency GBV care by adapting project activities as required by the regulations already in place in each country and by including specific activities that respond to the challenges that COVID-19 regulations pose to GBV survivors.

Funding Information

• Available budget: $190,000.00 Divided as follows:
  • One sub-award of up to $80,000 for the Dominican Republic to address GBV issues with Dominicans of Haitian descent.
  • One small grant for Haiti of $30,000 to address the root causes of GBV.
  • Four small grants for The Bahamas, St. Lucia, Barbados, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines of $20,000 each to provide training on GBV prevention for civil society and local government officials.
• Project Duration: 10 or 12 months, beginning approximately March 1, 2021. Sub-awards of more than $25,000 will last for 12 months (The Dominican Republic and Haiti) and grants less than $25,000 will have a 10-month implementation period (The Bahamas, St. Lucia, Barbados, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines).

Eligibility Criteria

• Be registered as a non-for-profit organization in the proposed country of implementation. Local public Entities and local accredited universities are also eligible. However, priority will be given to local civil society organizations.
• Have experience in the implementation of GBV projects.
• Country Eligibility: The following Caribbean countries will be eligible for small grant projects: Dominican Republic, Haiti, The Bahamas, St. Lucia, Barbados, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

For more information, visit COIN.