Deadline: 3 October 2019

Global Affairs Canada has launched a Health and Rights for Women, Adolescent Girls and Children call for proposals as part of Canada’s historic investment to promote the health and rights of women and girls around the world.

Proposals sought under this call will adopt a feminist and sustainable approach to improve the health, human rights and well-being of diverse groups of women, adolescent girls and children.

Objective

This call for proposals will support projects that improve the quality of, access to, and demand for integrated health services and information for women, adolescents and children at the community, health facility and health system levels. At least 50% of the funding will be allocated to projects that address sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), particularly for women and adolescent girls, on identified critical gap areas:

• reproductive health services
• comprehensive sexuality education
• family planning and contraceptives
• safe and legal abortion and post-abortion care
• sexual and gender-based violence (including child, early and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation and cutting)
• advocacy activities for SRHR

Funding Information

The total amount of funding available under this call for proposals is approximately $325 million over five years. Global Affairs Canada may fund any number of proposals or none, up to the maximum funding available.

Outcomes

• Ultimate outcome
  • Under this call, proposed project must contribute to the achievement of this ultimate outcome:
    • Increased enjoyment of health-related human rights by the most marginalized and vulnerable rights-holders, particularly women, adolescent girls and children, in official development assistance-eligible countries.
• Intermediate outcomes
  • Proposed project must also contribute to at least two of the following intermediate outcomes:
    • increased equitable use of health services by diverse groups of women, adolescent girls and children’s rights-holders
    • improved provision of gender-responsive, inclusive and accountable health services by health care providers for diverse groups of women, adolescent girls and children
    • improved effectiveness of key stakeholders, particularly women and girls’ rights organizations, to advocate for evidence-based, accountable and equitable health care policies, legal frameworks and services

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible, Organizations must meet each requirement and, where stipulated, provide supporting documentation. If an organization is submitting a proposal on behalf of a group of organizations that would sign the funding agreement with Global Affairs Canada, each organization (i.e. co-signatories) must meet all of the following requirements and provide documentation:

• Applicant’s organization is a Canadian organization, legally incorporated in Canada and can provide proof of legal status (e.g. a letter of incorporation) along with a Canada Revenue Agency business number.
• Applicant’s organization must provide two separate financial statements for their organization’s most recent fiscal years. Audited statements are preferred. If this is not possible, statements must be signed by a member of the board of directors or delegate or by the owners. As financial statements usually provide comparative information from the previous year, these statements will be used to do a three-year trend analysis.
• As a signatory, applicants may submit only one application under this call. Applicants may also participate as a non-signatory partner on other applicants’ proposals.
  • If the applicant’s organization submits more than one application under this call, as a signatory, they will only consider the application with the earliest submission time stamp.
• Applicants must provide an Organization Attestation signed by their organization’s chief financial officer, financial director or president.

Preference may be given to proposals that:

• Adopt an inclusive, participatory and multi-sectoral approach to comprehensively addressing the health-related human rights of diverse groups of women, adolescents and children, working in conjunction with other key sectors (e.g. education, women’s social and economic empowerment, nutrition, WASH) to increase demand, use of and access to services, and to ensure sustainability.
• Demonstrate collaboration, in the form of partnerships­ with Canadian civil society organizations, local government and other partners, research institutes, community and professional organizations, and the private sector that help to enable the scaling up and sustainability of innovative and evidence-based approaches to address persistent challenges.
• Seek to strengthen the participation of all stakeholders, regardless of age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ethnicity, race, religion, disability, migrant or refugee status.
• Include innovative approaches that are well adapted to the specific context of their implementation.
• Demonstrate clear strategies for addressing sustainability and local ownership, such as by applying a feminist approach to Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) within projects and ensuring that knowledge generated through MEL activities are gender-sensitive, owned and used by beneficiaries and implementing partners in support of their social change agendas.

Required Project Parameters

In order for applicant’s application to be considered for funding, applicants must be able to answer “yes” to all of the following statements:

• Value: Applicants are requesting Global Affairs Canada funding of at least $5 million and no more than $50 million.
• Duration: Applicants proposed project will last at least five years but no more than seven years.
• Geographic alignment: Applicants proposed project would take place in one or more official development assistance-eligible countries. Approximately 75% of the funding from this call will be allocated to projects that include activities taking place in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Cost share: Applicants organization will provide at least 5% of the total eligible direct project costs over the life of the project in cash and/or in-kind in accordance with Global Affairs Canada’s Policy on Cost-Sharing for Grant and Non-Repayable Contribution Agreements.
• Beneficiaries: A minimum of 60% of direct beneficiaries of the proposed project will be women and adolescent girls, taking into account the needs and rights of those most marginalized and most vulnerable. Applicant’s project will also work directly with men, boys and community leaders, recognizing their direct role in advancing gender equality.
• Not-for-profit project: Proposed project would not generate a profit for applicants or any other implementing organization.
• Language: Application package documents are complete and presented in either English or French.

Applicant’s project may also include:

• Construction activities: Refurbishment and minor structural works will be considered where necessary, such as if required for meeting site-specific WASH and biomedical waste management needs in existing health facilities. They will be considered on a case-by-case basis and should not exceed 20% of the total proposed budget. Construction of new facilities/structures will not be considered.
• Engagement activities: Applicants project may include up to 5% of project direct costs that may be allocated to Canadian public engagement activities aimed at strengthening Canadian support for and participation in international assistance. These engagement activities should enable Canadians to better understand women and children’s health and rights programming and encourage them to take action to enable change. Ineligible public engagement activities include:
  • fundraising
  • annual general meetings
  • partisan political advocacy or lobbying
  • activities that take place outside Canada

Required Project Experience

• Applicants must be able to demonstrate in their application that organization has the required experience, as noted below, to be considered for funding under this call. The signatory (ies) and/or non-signatory partners must provide two examples of recent past projects of the application form. Collectively, the two examples must demonstrate the following:
  • at least three years of experience working in women’s, adolescent girls’ and children’s health and rights in developing countries
  • at least three years of construction experience in developing countries, for applicants seeking to undertake structural works, including WASH
• Canadian organizations that do not meet the required project experience are encouraged to partner with other applicants.

How to Apply

If applicants intend to apply to this call for proposals, please send an email at the address given on the website, requesting the budget template for this call.

For more information, please visit https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/funding-financement/health_rights_women-sante_droits_femmes.aspx?lang=eng