New Funding Opportunity: Safe to Learn

The Safe to Learn initiative provides an opportunity to unlock the multiple wins of ending violence in schools, improving learning and health outcomes, increasing economic potential and reducing intergenerational violence. Safe to Learn seeks to better leverage education investments, bring the child protection and education sectors together and promote a strong focus on girls’ education, gender equality and inclusion.

As a part of this initiative, End Violence is requesting proposals focusing on evidence-based interventions to prevent and respond to violence against children in and through schools in Nepal, South Sudan, and Uganda. These countries endorsed the Safe to Learn Call to Action and are undertaking a benchmarking exercise to assess progress on ending violence in schools.

In alignment with these three countries' endorsement of the Safe to Learn Call to Action, the End Violence Fund (the Fund) will support them to deliver on their commitments to:

  1. Implement policy and legislation
  2. Strengthen prevention and response at the school level
  3. Shift social norms and behaviour change

By delivering on these objectives, the Fund can also support delivering on all five points of the Call to Action, including point four, investing resources effectively; and point five, generate and use evidence.

You are invited to apply by filling out the application form here.

The End Violence Fund is seeking a mature pilot intervention (or an add-on innovative and promising practice) to deliver on the Call to Action in certain countries. Successful projects will rely on proven, evidence-based interventions, such as the INSPIRE Seven Strategies. For this funding round, we will focus on certain geographic locations, including Nepal, South Sudan, or Uganda. If you have been invited to apply, please fill out your application here.

Projects should last approximately 6-9 months, with a planned disbursement in quarter one-quarter two of 2020 for each project. The project should be completed by the end of December 2020.

The maximum budget for each project will be USD $1 million. The total funding awarded through this call will be USD $5.2 million. The total amount to be awarded will depend on the quality and volume of received applications; the Fund may decide to slightly increase or lower the amount as a result of the initial assessment of applications.

Projects should incorporate proven tools and approaches that have shown a reduction in children's risk of violence with impact/outcome evaluations, summative evaluations, or process evaluations.

Projects should include components of outcome mapping or process evaluation.

Programmatic objectives should include interventions to end violence against children in and through with at least one of the following focuses:

  • Strengthen and develop school systems
  • Improve teachers’ capacity
  • Enhance students’ empowerment
  • Increase community engagement

Considering the limited project duration, the End Violence Fund will also consider proposals for some components of a programme that has already begun, or a scale-up of already-implemented projects. We will consider a multi-country project (for example, a project that focuses on both South Sudan and Uganda), which could increase the maximum budget.

To be eligible for this funding, prospective grantees should meet both of the following criteria:

  • Be an active member of the Safe to Learn Technical Group, of which member organisations include the Civil Society Organization Forum*, UK Department for International Development, Education Cannot Wait, Education Commission, Global Affairs Canada, the Global Business Coalition for Education, the Global Coalition to Protection Education from Attack, the Global Partnership for Education, UNGEI, UNESCO, UNICEF, and World Bank.
  • Have an existing presence with trained team and staff in the country where activities will take place.

The Secretariat may directly contact organizations for specific interventions to be supported during this funding round.

* The Civil Society Forum consists of 17 organisations, including African Child Policy Forum, Arigatou International, Child Helpline International, ChildFund Alliance, CPC Learning Network, ECPAT, Girls Not Brides, Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment for Children, Internet Watch Foundation, One Third Sweden, Plan International, Promundo, Save the Children, SOS Children’s Villages International, Terre des Hommes, World Council of Churches, and World Vision International.

Special consideration will be given to:

  • Projects with a strong focus on gender sensitivity and an inclusive approach for children with disabilities or marginalized groups.
  • Projects that align with either the National Plan of Action for Education and/or Violence in Nepal, South Sudan, or Uganda.
  • Projects that align with known gaps identified through, for example, UNICEF’s benchmarking tool.
  • Interventions based on comprehensive evaluations.

The End Violence Fund allows you to include a budget line for safeguarding and protection. This can include (but is not limited to) costs for capacity building, policy development, a portion of costs for specialist personnel, as well as costs associated with managing safeguarding/protection concerns.

End Violence defines child safeguarding as the responsibility that organisations have to make sure their staff, operations, and programmes do no harm to children; and that they do not expose children to the risk of harm and abuse.

Safeguarding also includes the responsibility to ensure that any concerns over a child’s welfare receive an appropriate response and action is taken in a timely manner. Where concerns relate to harm or abuse from staff, associates, programmes or operations (internal incidents), grantees are expected to deal with this immediately and ensure a full investigation of any concerns. Where incidents relate to harm or abuse outside of the organisation (external incidents), grantees are expected to, as a minimum, refer the case to appropriate agencies or other support to ensure appropriate follow up interventions.

End Violence is committed to supporting organisations to improve their safeguarding capacity and practice. As part of this, we ask all grantees to complete the Grantee Self-Assessment, which is located on the sidebar to the right. If your organisation has completed a self-assessment within the last two years, you are not required to complete one again.

Required documents include:

  • Proposal application form
  • Log frame/monitoring and evaluation
  • Budget
  • Safeguarding policy or willingness to develop one in written form
  • Grantee self-assessment form
Two children in Uganda sit at a desk.