The Open Society Foundations’ International Women’s Program and the Disability Rights Initiative announce a call for proposals addressing the situation of women and girls with disabilities in the following post-conflict countries: Nepal, Palestine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Colombia. Only proposals from these countries will be considered for support.
We invite proposals focusing on one or more of the following objectives:
1.) Reducing discrimination and violence against women and girls with disabilities. We seek to support efforts that improve the status of women and girls with disabilities by:

• Strengthening legal frameworks and enforcement mechanisms to enforce the rights of women and girls with disabilities;
• Strengthening civil society’s capacity to hold governments accountable to implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), particularly CRPD articles 12, 13, 19 or 24 as they relate to women and girls with disabilities;
• Increasing women’s and girls’ capacity to understand and claim their rights under CRPD articles 12, 13, 19 or 24, with priority given to projects that work with populations of particularly marginalized sectors of the disability community, such as women and girls with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities.

2) Strengthening access to justice for women and girls with disabilities. We seek to support efforts that strengthen judicial responses to rights violations against women and girls with disabilities and reduce their obstacles to accessing justice by ensuring:

• Legal aid, counsel and assistance is available and resourced;
• Judges, lawyers, prosecutors and police understand the barriers to accessing justice that women and girls with disabilities face and take steps to ensure these barriers are mitigated;
• Transitional justice mechanisms are equitable and inclusive of women and girls with disabilities.

3) Increasing women’s and girls’ with disabilities self-determination and role as decision-makers and leaders. We seek to support efforts that encourage and increase women’s and girls’ with disabilities role as decision-makers by:

• Challenging policies and practices that limit the right of women and girls with disabilities to be recognized as persons under the law as established in CRPD Article 12;
• Ensuring enforcement of the right to political participation for women and girls with disabilities, and that appropriate accommodations are guaranteed to ensure their free and private exercise of the right to vote, on an equal basis with others;
• Ensuring the active participation of women and girls with disabilities in public policy formulation and implementation.

Please note: The Open Society Foundations does not provide funding for electoral purposes.

Grant Support

Preference is given to:

• Organizations managed and led by women with disabilities;
• Organizations that have a track record of approaching disability from a rights-based perspective and demonstrate sustainability;
• Organizations that forge partnerships with other civil society groups;
• Local or indigenous independent nongovernmental organizations or initiatives that link local and international organizations.

Grant Amount and Funding Timeline

Organizations can apply for one to three year grants from $25,000 to $200,000 per year. Please note that multi-year proposals require an annual assessment report from the grantee, which is used to inform the Foundations' decision whether to obligate the subsequent tranche of funds.

To Apply

Proposals must be received using the accompanying narrative and financial proposal templates in English by email (preferred), fax or mail on or by December 5, 2011. Incomplete proposals or those received after December 5 will not be considered.
Please email the completed templates to: iwpdri@sorosny.org. Please write: December 2011 Call, the country of focus, and your organization’s name in the subject line of your email.
If your organization does not have email access, please fax or mail the application to:
International Women’s Program
Open Society Foundations
400 West 59th Street
New York, NY 10019, USA
Fax: 1.646.557.2601
Successful applicants will be notified of a decision within six months.

Source and More Information:
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/rights-initiatives/focus/disability/news/proposal-call20111007