Call for Proposals: WPHF and Women Have Wings Fourth CSO Peer Learning Awards

Building on the innovative partnership between WHW and WPHF and on CSOs’ demand and interest in learning opportunities, the fourth edition of the Peer Learning Awards aims at continuing supporting peer learning among CSO representatives working on women, peace, security, and humanitarian action.

In the framework of the WPHF Global Learning Hub (L-HUB), which enables WPHF-supported civil society partners from around the world to connect with each other and deepen their skills and capacity, WPHF seeks to fund qualifying proposals that contribute to the following objectives:

• to amplify the voices, promote the work, and recognize the leadership of ten women working or collaborating with a local CSO engaged in women, peace, security, and humanitarian action (WPSHA); and
• to foster peer learning, networking, and solidarity between ten local CSOs working on WPSHA.

Benefits

• As such, the awardees of the Peer Learning Awards 2024 will benefit from (a) recognition and visibility, and (b) a small grant for peer learning:
  • Honorary awards 
    • The WPHF will offer honorary awards that will recognize the efforts of 10 women CSOs’ representatives working on WPSHA (5 tandems of two CSO representatives), their engagement in peacebuilding and/or crisis response in a remarkable way and their unique contributions to their CSOs’ mission and goals. The profiles of the 10 women will be spotlighted in WPHF website and communication channels and WHW website to expand their visibility and amplify their voices, including through social media and as part of WPHF Invest in Women campaign. All the collaborations will be presented in an online meeting at the end of the process.
  • Small grants 
    • In addition, each tandem of CSOs will receive a $8,000 grant to develop a peer learning project based on solidarity. Peer learning projects will aim at exchanging experiences and knowledge as well as collaborating with the other CSO to learn from each other and support mutual growth. Each tandem will elaborate an outline of their collaboration’s goals and activities in the application process. The women CSO representatives will be implementing these activities together with their respective organizations to ensure that the newly gained skills and experience also benefits the CSO’s institutional capacities. This will be achieved by involving several members of the organization in the peer learning activities, and/or by ensuring that the CSO representative transfers the new knowledge, approaches, and practices to other CSO members and colleagues. The WPHF Secretariat and UN country focal points will follow up with the CSOs’ representatives to track progress and capture evidence from the peer learning projects and how they collaborate to transfer skills and knowledge.

Duration 

• Peer learning activities should take place within a maximum of 6 months.

Eligible Activities 

• CSOs are encouraged to suggest collaboration activities that contribute to mutual learning, capacity development and the growth and resilience of their organizations (e.g., visibility, outreach, influence, and impact). Peer learning activities may include training (e.g. both CSOs’ representatives attending a course, or one CSO’s member providing training to the other CSO’s team), technical support, field visits, joint campaigns on a topic of common interest, or similar initiatives.
• CSOs are encouraged to include activities contributing to the CSOs’ staff mental health, self-care, and well-being and/or enhancing the staff’s ability to understand and deal with emotions in conflict situations (emotional consciousness) and/or to increase the staff’s digital literacy, if relevant.
• The specific roles of each CSO in peer learning should be clearly indicated in the proposal.

Location 

• To diversify the geographic scope of awards’ beneficiaries, in 2024, the grants will cover peer learning activities in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda, Ukraine.

Eligibility Criteria

• The peer learning projects are expected to involve 10 CSOs in total, involving 5 tandems of 2 CSOs. All CSOs must be local women rights’ organizations working on women, peace, security, and humanitarian action (WPSHA). Each tandem will be composed of a lead applicant (an active WPHF CSO partner) and a second applicant (both based in the same country or in different countries). The eligibility criteria for both are as follows:
  • Lead applicant 
    • The lead applicant woman must be:
      • At least 18 years old
      • Working (as staff member, volunteer, board member, etc.) with an active WPHF CSO partner which ends after 31 December 2024, in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda, Ukraine.
  • Second applicant 
    • The second applicant woman must be:
      • At least 18 years old
    • Working (as staff member, volunteer, board member, etc.) with an active or previous WPHF CSO partner or another local women’s rights organization working on WPSHA that has not yet been supported by WPHF, based in one of the following countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda, Ukraine. The second CSO does not have to be legally registered.
  • Important eligibility considerations 
    • Only two CSOs can apply jointly. Proposals including more than two CSOs will be disqualified.
    • Youth rights focused and youth led organizations and women working in youth rights, youth led, grassroots and local community-based organizations (CBOs) working on WPS-HA are encouraged to apply as leads or partners. CSOs headed by someone who is forcibly displaced (refugee, IDP, returnee, or asylum seeker) and CSOs working with a focus on climate change resilience, climate security and/or food security are also encouraged to apply as leads or co-implementers.
    • Partnerships between women leaders across generations or involving CSOs that have different backgrounds and skills (e.g., between an organization of women with disabilities and a youth organization, or between a disability focused CSO and an indigenous rights focused CSO) are encouraged to apply.
    • CSOs that have collaborated/partnered in the past are eligible, however proposals involving new partnerships will be prioritized to encourage new relationship building and learning opportunities.
    • Women working in international organizations are not eligible for the award.
    • CSOs that have already received a peer learning grant from WPHF (a peer learning award, a peer learning and mentorship project and a joint advocacy action) as leads or co-implementers, are not eligible to apply for the 2024 Peer Learning Awards.

For more information, visit WPHF.