Short-Term Grants: supporting CSO initiatives to address urgent gaps on women’s influence in peace processes.  

Français Español العربية Русский Português

Apply for support today. Email your application to WPHF-RRW@unwomen.org.

doc iconRRW Call for ApplicationsEnglish doc iconShort-Term Grants Concept Note Application FormEnglish

The Short-Term Grants stream of the Rapid Response Window (RRW) is a tool for local women’s rights organizations (WROs) to implement urgent projects that address diverse barriers to women’s meaningful influence in peace process or the implementation of a peace agreement.

  • Grants are awarded up to 100,000 USD
  • The maximum period is six months
  • Legal registration is required
  • Exceptionally, a registration in another country can be accepted if the registration in the country of intervention is complicated due to conflict or security risks
  • Exceptionally, projects funded through a short-term grant that show high impact or catalytic results and identify an opportunity to capitalize on those results can request an extension of up to 50,000 USD for three additional months. These promising initiatives refer to direct interventions that will enhance and leverage actions carried out during the implementation of the project in order to significantly improve opportunities for women’s influence in a peace process or the gender provisions of a peace agreement.
The grant is provided through an INGO partner of the WPHF RRW.
The INGO partner will also provide technical and strategic support or any useful guidance to the WRO initiative, if needed.
Explore the role of our RRW INGO partners

Initiatives can include:

  • Advocacy campaigns and shuttle diplomacy missions for women’s participation in a peace negotiation or the implementation of a peace agreement
  • Preparatory sessions and capacity-building for women participating in decision-making processes
  • Strategic planning to access and engage with key decision-makers
  • Organization and drafting of participatory declarations to influence a peace process
  • Mechanisms to monitor the gender provisions of a peace agreement

There is no deadline for applications. The RRW is demand driven and accepts submissions on a rolling basis.

See below some examples of Short-Term Grants:

Strategic engagement of key actors

  • In Libya, an initiative led by a local women’s civil society organization, Together We Build It (TWBI), increased the active participation of 37 women in the implementation of peace agreements, facilitating their engagement with a total of 54 international and national actors and civil society leaders. In 2023, the project also held five successful meetings with key national actors (all men) from Libya and Tunis with a focus on increasing women’s participation in the implementation of peace agreements, especially in relation to the new UN initiative on elections and the political agreement. To inform these meetings, the project consulted with seven women civil society actors, gathering valuable inputs to inform the recommendations provided to key national and international actors. These meetings resulted in increased collaboration between a diverse range of stakeholders, fostering productive relationships to fuel Libyan women’s participation in the peace agreements.

Inclusion of marginalized groups

  • In Guatemala, the RRW – together with its INGO partner NIMD – supported Asociación Mujer Tejedora del Desarrollo (AMUTED), a women’s rights/led organization, to increase the participation and inclusion of indigenous women, mediators and activists in the implementation of the country’s Peace Accords of 1996.
  • In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), two short-term grants were implemented by local women’s rights organizations to increase the participation of women, including forcibly displaced women, in the Third Inter-Congolese dialogue (Nairobi III) and the Nairobi IV peace consultations. The first initiative focused on engaging DRC’s leadership to advance women’s representation in the formal peace negotiations in Kenya, known as the Nairobi Peace Talks. The project brought together 258 women peacebuilders, 56 young women, and 17 men activists from women’s CSOs in eastern Congo, where they were able to unify their demands and develop an advocacy framework and action plan to engage with key stakeholders and channel their needs and recommendations regarding their participation in the peace negotiations. Following the conference, participants presented the terms of reference and demands of women from eastern DRC to key actors. These advocacy efforts were translated into a book of demands that was shared with the leaders of the East African Community (EAC) force in DRC. The second initiative, implemented by a consortium, brought together women mediators, peacebuilders, and network representatives to implement lobbying and advocacy efforts at the national and international levels to increase Congolese women’s influence and leadership in the implementation of formal peace agreements, as well as to influence the upcoming Nairobi IV peace process.

Provision of key recommendations

  • In Palestine, the RRW – together with its INGO partner GPPAC – supported the Palestinian Center for Peace and Democracy (PCPD) to create evidence through i) youth-led research on the status of women in participation in peace processes; ii) drafting recommendations for negotiation teams and political leadership through three workshops; and iii) training young women to effectively engage in peace processes as a technical advisory unit or as direct representatives to a future negotiation team.
  • In Syria, the RRW – together with its INGO partner WILPF – supported three different projects:
    • Through dialogue meetings with influential women in local communities within Syria and in asylum countries (Turkey, Germany and France), Zenobia Association for Syrian Women collected recommendations and suggestions from Syrian women and submitted them to the Constitutional Committee and its international sponsors to ensure gender and women’s rights are satisfactorily represented in the new Syrian constitution, which is under preparation.
    • Through meetings and advocacy initiatives, BADAEL has brought together a group of peace process advisors (academics, NGOs, and civil society representatives) and grassroots leaders (local women peacebuilders, women human rights defenders, and women-led CSOs) to exchange knowledge and collaborate to influence the peace process and develop an advocacy message that puts the voices of grassroots women peacebuilders and human rights defenders at the center.
    • Dawlaty has supported women leaders belonging to families of political detainees and forcibly disappeared persons in Syria (part of the “Families for Freedom” movement) to channel their voices and needs through meetings with relevant stakeholders and decision-makers and increase their participation in formal peace process negotiations during the UN Peace Conference on Syria, which was hosted in Geneva.