NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND SUB-REGIONAL IGF INITIATIVES (NRIs)
CALL TO APPLY FOR FINANCIAL GRANTS TO SUPPORT IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NRIs ANNUAL MEETINGS
In order to foster the capacity development in Internet governance on local levels, the IGF Secretariat, with the support of its donors, continues to allocate financial grants to the NRIs that meet eligibility criteria and procedures. The main goal of these financial grants is to:
- Enhance understanding of the Internet governance issues, by strengthening bottom-up and multistakeholder NRIs processes. Of particular interest are local communities in the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, small island developing states and countries in transition economies;
- Strengthen the global Internet governance network by raising awareness on the importance of active and consistent engagement of local and regional communities in the IGF intersessional collaborative work.
Eligible national IGFs can apply for grants up to 5,000 USD.
Eligible sub-regional IGFs can apply for grants up to 6,000 USD.
Eligible regional IGFs can apply for grants up to 12,000 USD.
The amount of grant will depend on the strength of the project proposal. In order to support the funding sustainability of the NRI process, the applicants should demonstrate that funding or donations in-kind also come from other sources.
The final number of allocated grants would depend on the funds available.
Eligibility Criteria
NRIs that meet the following criteria, cumulatively, can apply for financial grants:
- Have recognized status with the IGF Secretariat as an IGF process that adheres to the IGF core criteria and procedures, as outlined in the NRIs Toolkit.
- Describe effectively the major objectives of the NRIs process, the envisaged meeting outputs and expected outcomes; illustrative participation and programming plans as part of the preparatory processes.
- Outline expected costs of NRI meeting.
- Describe how the NRI process and related work scope extends to communities from least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, small island developing states and/or transitional economies.
- Describe strategic efforts for how to strengthen stakeholder engagement and inclusion of underrepresented and vulnerable groups.
- Include past year’s annual report with a clear outline of the preparatory process, meeting event and participation records (for NRIs that hosted meetings in past).
- Include URL of NRI website that is up-to-date, populated with process-related information, including the information about the entity performing secretariat's role.
- Show proof that a non-commercial entity with a legal status performs the secretariat’s function for the NRIs. (Note: This can be a government entity or a non-commercial non-government entity. Legal status of the organization will be proven through submission of appropriate documentation, including the entity’s founding documents and activity record, as well as with a statement of an active bank account to which funds will be transferred.)
Selection procedure
- IGF Secretariat will evaluate all submissions based on the above-mentioned criteria, considering also geographical representation and countries of special needs.
- Level of participation of an NRI in the NRIs collaborative work facilitated by the IGF Secretariat will be taken into account (meeting participation and contribution to the NRIs preparatory work and the annual meeting including NRIs sessions and booth).
- The Secretariat will also evaluate the level of inclusiveness/stakeholder diversity in the organizing committee (if all four stakeholder groups are represented); for those that hosted meetings in past, frequency and quality of discussion; participation diversity, including gender, and quality of meeting outputs.
- Priority may be given to the NRIs that are starting their IGF processes.
Application Form and Timeline
All interested NRIs can apply to this Call by 15 March 2021 by sending this form to the IGF Secretariat at anja[dot]gengo[et]un[dot]org.
Please note that the estimated time for processing of the request is approximately two (2) months.