FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: Violence Against Women - Pre-Application - Specific Countries
What Works To Prevent Violence is a global programme administered by a consortium led by the Medical Research Council of South Africa, in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Social Development Direct, on behalf of DFID. Its aim is to build knowledge on what works to prevent VAWG1. This spans knowledge on (i) primary prevention strategies2 and programmes, (ii) interventions to strengthen women's and girls' resilience to violence, and (iii) specific response mechanisms that seek to prevent VAWG.
We will be making innovation grants to support 10-14 national organisations or international NGOs working in DFID priority countries to fund innovative approaches to preventing violence or meeting the needs of victims/survivors. In the process, the grants will strengthen the capacity of researchers to conduct rigorous evaluation research on VAWG interventions. We will also be undertaking operations research and impact evaluations of promising existing interventions to assess their effectiveness, or if proven effective, to better understand the economics of scale up.
We request expressions of interest to apply for an innovation grant or to apply for an intervention to be evaluated (either by the MRC's consortium, or in collaboration with the MRC's consortium). Pre-application notices are requested prior to the issuing of a Request for Applications (RFA) in June 2014.
What will be supported?
1. Innovation grants will range between £ 300 000 and £ 1 million, but will be made in different categories (small, medium and large). We will make 10-14 grants. Awards will be made in late 2014 for up to three years. The grants may cover the development, implementation and evaluation of the intervention, M & E, and capacity development of staff from the in-country lead organization. About half of the projects supported will be eligible for funding for very rigorous impact evaluation. All interventions must aim to prevent intimate partner or sexual violence against women and girls. We encourage:
i) interventions, or combinations of interventions, that have a clear theory of change
ii) interventions, or combinations of interventions, that have greater potential for scale up if proven effective
iii) applications from consortia that include implementing organisations and researchers (from outside the MRC consortium)
iv) applications from organisations with small or medium budgets, and we reserve the right to work with promising organisations to negotiate changes to budgets and scope of work in keeping with needs of the overall programme
2. Operations Research and Impact Evaluation of existing interventions or combinations of interventions: we would like to hear of existing interventions that aim to prevent intimate partner or sexual violence against women and girls, either as their primary goal or a secondary goal within a wider programme, and would benefit from robust operations research or impact evaluation. We have funding for such evaluation and it would be conducted by the MRC Consortium in collaboration with in-country partners. We would particularly like to hear of interventions that already have some evidence of promise from preliminary research.
We welcome interventions that seek to work with disabled women and girls or other socially excluded groups, or interventions that will enable us to better understand how dimensions of social exclusion may affect both risk of violence and effectiveness of interventions.
Advantages of submission of a pre-application notice: We are requesting these in order to assist programme planning. All those who submit them will: (i) be informed of the Request for Applications (RFA) when it is issued; (ii) receive feedback on how to strengthen the proposal for the final applications. Feedback will take the form of a newsletter advising on how to improve commonly found problems, and up to three bullet points of individual feedback. Beyond this we will not be able to give individual feedback.
Eligible countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, India3, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, South Africa3, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe; projects working across more than one priority country or across a region will also be considered.
Location of eligible applicant institutions: applications from organisations in-country will be preferred, but all institutions are eligible. Applications will not be considered from individuals.
Content of the pre-application notice (1-2 pages) :
Name and address of lead applicant organisation and lead individual
Name of co-applicant organisations and lead individuals (if any)
Country (or countries) of intervention
Expertise in VAWG prevention, research and or intervention evaluation (max. 150 words)
Description of the intervention including: type of intervention, intervention timeframe, methods to be used, setting, risk factors to be addressed, target group(s) for intervention, preliminary
work the intervention, intervention scale up potential. If a combination of interventions, provide this information for each component.
Plan for using the resources of the innovation grant, including distribution of responsibilities among co-applicantsor
Justification for why the intervention would be suited for operations research, impact evaluation or research on scale up
Total sum envisaged to be requested for innovation grant (if applying)
Submission of pre-application notice: A failure to submit a pre-application letter will not preclude application when the Request for Applications (RFA) is issued.
Closing date: The closing date for pre-application notices is 25 April 2014
Contact: whatworks@mrc.ac.za
Submit a pre-application notice by email to: whatworks@mrc.ac.za