NOFO: Empowering Angolan Public Defenders to expand access to Justice (Angola)

The project aims to create a unified vision for the legal defense of human rights in Angola.

While the law states that all detainees have a right to legal counsel, either chosen by them or appointed by the government on a pro bono basis, legal professionals report that there are an insufficient number of lawyers to handle the volume of criminal cases. This situation is exacerbated for vulnerable populations (women, youth, underrepresented ethnic groups), detainees outside of Luanda, and cases involving sensitive human rights issues.

This project should complement and build upon prior and ongoing work in these areas by international organizations, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but ideally would seek to meet challenges not currently being addressed by other projects.

Objectives 

• Objective 1:  Foreground access to justice and provide support to legal professionals and civil society through technical trainings on constitutional guarantees for fundamental rights, including access to legal counsel. Potential activities could include workshops in Angola’s different regions to train lawyers and legal professionals who may not have a background or experience in human rights defense on fundamental concepts related to this area of the law. Mobilizing like-minded voices from civil society would be important to help organize roundtable dialogues, public debates, and broader sharing of access to justice issues among local populations.
• Objective 2:  Provide tailored capacity building to empower lawyers to advocate for better public defense policies with relevant government bodies. Programming should include relevant  national, provincial, and municipal government officials to both share the view from within the  justice systems and provide an opportunity for lawyers to advocate for their needs when called  on to be public defenders.

Funding Information

• Funding will be limited to a maximum of $350,000 per implementation period of October 2024 – September 2025.  The award can be split into multiple awards at the discretion of the grant selection committee.
• If a proposal is selected for funding, the Department of State has no obligation to provide any additional future funding. Renewal of an award to increase funding or extend the period of performance is at the discretion of the Department of State.

Anticipated Outcomes 

• Participating lawyers and legal professionals will acquire new skills and knowledge, leading to a more unified approach to human rights defense and access to justice. By developing a unified approach to access to justice, lawyers and legal professionals will be empowered to take on cases that may be politically sensitive and identify people in vulnerable situations who in the past may not have had the same level of access to justice. Trainings will also provide legal professionals with the opportunity to network and strengthen ties between like-minded lawyers, legal professionals, and relevant civil society actors across the country to coherently address human rights challenges.  Competitive proposals should list the anticipated outcomes of proposed activities along with a strategy to quantify and measure outcomes.

Ineligible Projects

• Projects relating to partisan political activity. While this funding is intended to promote access to justice, it is not intended to promote the political agenda of any party. Proposals must be inclusive of persons regardless of political affiliation or lack thereof;
• Purchase and set up of surveillance equipment;
• Duplication of other U.S. Government programs;
• Projects that would benefit, either personally or politically, to any employee (e.g. direct hire, contractor, part-time) of the U.S. Government, or the spouse or family member of a U.S. Government employee;
• Production of agricultural commodities for export that can be expected to have a significant impact on competing U.S. exports;
• Contributing to the violation of internationally recognized rights of workers;
• Charitable or donation related activities;
• Projects that support specific religious or military activities, as well as those relating to police, prisons, or other law enforcement;
• Fund-raising campaigns;
• Projects intended primarily for the growth or institutional development of the implementing organization;
• Projects that duplicate existing efforts;
• Support for private businesses, private crèches, or public/government schools;
• Purchase or production of toxic or otherwise unsafe products such as pesticides or hazardous chemicals;
• Assisting any individual or entity involved in illegal drug trafficking as noted in Section 487 of the Foreign Assistance Act;
• Support, benefit, or other services associated with those persons or entities listed under Executive Order 13224, or determined to be subject to this order or other subsequent laws or orders, who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism;
• Support for any activity barred under the Foreign Assistance Act and legislation appropriating funds for foreign assistance;
• Purchase of luxury goods and gambling equipment.

Eligibility Criteria

• Proposal applications are welcomed from U.S.-based and foreign-based non-profit organizations/nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and public international organizations; private, public, or state institutions of higher education; and for profit organizations or businesses. Entities with prior experience working in Angola and implementing projects of this nature are preferred, but not required.
• Preference is to work with non-profit entities; however, there may be some occasions when a for-profit entity is best suited. Applications submitted by for profit entities may be subject to additional review following the panel selection process. Additionally, the Department of State prohibits profit to for-profit or  commercial organizations under its assistance awards.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.