ABOUT

The United Nations Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund’s (PBF) Gender and Youth Promotion Initiative (GYPI) is an expression of the Fund’s commitment to inclusive peacebuilding. It supports the empowerment of women and the advancement of gender equality and recognizes the important and positive role young people play in peacebuilding.

Through the initiative the PBF seeks to increase its peacebuilding impact and advance the implementation of the Secretary General’s Seven-Point Action Plan on Gender-Responsive Peacebuilding, Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) and others on Women, Peace and Security, and Security Council resolution 2250 (2015) on Youth, Peace and Security.

The aims for the Gender and Youth Promotion Initiatives are to:

Gender Promotion Initiative

• Support innovative projects, focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment with the potential for catalytic effects and peacebuilding outcomes;
• Strengthen the integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment within existing prevention and peacebuilding initiatives;
• Contribute to collective operational learning on gender-responsive programming;
• Accelerate implementation of the Secretary-General Seven-Point Action Plan and its commitment to increase funding of gender-responsive peacebuilding projects; and
• Maintain and improve performance against the Secretary-General’s target of allocating a minimum of fifteen per cent of all peacebuilding funding to gender equality and women’

Youth Promotion Initiative

• Support innovative projects, focused on youth empowerment and participation with the potential for catalytic effects and peacebuilding outcomes;
• Strengthen the participation of young women and men within existing prevention and peacebuilding initiatives;
• Enhance support to youth civil society organizations and facilitate their partnership with international CSOs, Governments and UN entities active in their country;
• Contribute to collective operational learning on youth-inclusive programming; and
• Support the implementation of Security Council resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security.

This year’s GYPI will focus on two specific thematic areas:

1.     Women and youth leadership: Supporting women and youth leadership, representation and participation in peacebuilding processes and implementation of peace agreements.

2.     Protection of women and youth peacebuilders: Promoting human rights and protection of women and youth peacebuilders and human rights defenders.

In addition, preference will be given to:

• Joint UN-CSO projects, projects implemented by national CSOs and projects that demonstrate strong partnerships with women- and youth-led organizations. 
• Projects that specifically target lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) youth.

ELIGIBILITY

The call for proposals is open in countries that are currently formally declared eligible by the Secretary-General to receive PBF funding in 2020:

• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Colombia
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• El Salvador
• Guinea
• Guinea Bissau
• Haiti
• Honduras
• Liberia
• Madagascar
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Sierra Leone
• Solomon Islands
• Sri Lanka
• Sudan
• The Gambia

Types of proposals

The GYPI welcomes proposals from both civil society organizations (CSOs) and UN agencies, funds and programms (UN AFPs). All applicants interested in applying to the GYPI are advised to reach out to the PBF Secretariat in the project country for guidance. In 2020, the GYPI accepts three types of project proposals:

1. Joint UN proposals: with up to three UN entities as direct fund recipients (to be submitted by the convening UN recipient after receiving the endorsement from the RC/SRSG/DSRSG)
2. Joint UN-CSO proposals: with up to two UN entities and one CSO as direct fund recipients (to be submitted by the convening UN recipient after receiving the endorsement from the RC/SRSG/DSRSG)
3. CSO proposals: with one CSO as direct fund recipient (to be submitted by the CSO independently)

For CSO applicants

In order to be declared eligible for the GYPI, CSOs must be assessed as technically, financially and legally sound by the PBF and its fiduciary agent, the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office. CSOs need to meet all the criteria to be deemed eligible for this call and proof will be required at the concept note stage. In previous rounds, the Fund has mostly funded international CSOs and some national CSOs. We urge all CSO applicants to thoroughly check the eligibility criteria before applying.

CSO applicants must provide the following eligibility documents:

1. Proof of previously received funding from the PBF, UN, or any of the contributors to the PBF in the country of project implementation (for example a grant agreement). 
2. Proof of current valid formal registration as non-profit with a social mission for the duration of the proposed project in 1) the country where the headquarters is located and 2) the country of project implementation. NOTE: If registration is done on an annual basis in the country, the organization must have the current registration and obtain renewals for the duration of the project in order to receive subsequent funding. 
3. Proof of tax exemption in 1) the country where the headquarters is located and 2) the country of project implementation. 
4. Audited financial statements of the last two calendar years, including 1) the legal organization that will sign the agreement (and oversee the country of project implementation, if applicable) 2) the signed auditor opinion letter. The letter from the auditor should also state whether the auditor firm is designated as a nationally qualified audit firm and 3) the activities and budget of project country.  NOTE: If the audited financial statements do not clearly include the in-country activities and budget, the organization should provide the latest two audit reports for a programme or project-based audits in the country of project implementation from the last two years. NOTE: The organization needs to demonstrate an annual budget in the country of project implementation that is at least twice the annualized grant amount sought from the PBF, for both years. This means that for the smallest grant available of $300,000 (for an 18-month project), the organization needs to demonstrate an annual budget of at least $400,000. 
5. Latest annual report that includes the activities of the organization in the country of proposed project implementation.
6. Confirmation that the organization has worked at least three years in the project country.
7. Explanation of the organization’s legal structure.  

APPLICATION PROCESS

The application process for the GYPI 2020 is structured in two stages:

1. Concept notes: Applicants should register and submit their concept notes through the online application platform. The deadline for submission of concept notes is the 1st of June at 23:59 New York time. A Project Appraisal Committee will review the applications against the outlined criteria and invite selected submissions to be developed into full project proposals.
2. Full project proposals: Applicants who were invited to the second and last stage will have approximately six weeks to develop and submit full project proposals. Full project proposals will require signatures by 1) the representatives of the recipient organizations 2) the representative of the national counterpart (e.g. Minister) and 3) the senior-most resident UN representative in the country (RC/SRSG/DSRSG). The Project Appraisal Committee will reconvene to review the full project proposals and make its final selection. 

Timeline 2020

Please note that decisions made by the Project Appraisal Committee and communicated by PBSO will be final and cannot be appealed in any way. PBSO also may adjust the timeline during the process.

Organizations

UN agencies, funds and programmes:

• Maximum of two GPI and two YPI proposals per UNCT
• Grants from $800,000 to $1,5 million per project
• UNCTs can submit joint UN proposals with up to three direct recipient UN organizations per project
• UNCTs can submit joint UN-CSO proposals with up to two direct recipient UN organizations and one direct recipient CSO per project
• UN Peace Operations and Special Political Missions cannot be direct recipient organizations but are encouraged to support GYPI projects as implementing partners

Civil society organizations:

• Maximum of two GPI and two YPI proposals per CSO globally
• Grants from $300,000 to $1,5 million per project
• CSOs can apply with independent CSO proposals (submitted by the CSO) or joint UN-CSO proposals (submitted by the UNCT)
• CSOs organized in federations, confederations or umbrella organizations with independent international or national chapters will be considered as one organization for the purpose of this special call

Guidelines for Proposals

• Projects must be submitted in English, French or Spanish
• Project duration is maximum 18 months
• Projects must set aside at least 5 to 7 per cent of the budget for monitoring and evaluation, including final independent evaluation and financial audit
• Projects must allocate at least 40 per cent of the requested grant to national/local civil society partners, in particular women- and youth-led organizations
• GPI projects must be a Gender Marker 3
• YPI projects must be a Gender Marker 2 or 3

Review Criteria for Proposals

Submissions will be reviewed against the following criteria by the Project Appraisal Committee:

• Innovation
• Conflict analysis
• Peacebuilding approach
• Gender / youth approach
• Consultation and partnership with local actors
• Focused interventions
• Targeting
• Linkages between project and existing peacebuilding priorities
• Implementation capacity
• Value for money

Technical guidance

Applicants are highly encouraged to review the provided guidance, particularly the recorded thematic webinars from previous years:

FAQs

Find More Details and Application Link on the United Nations Peace Building Initiative Website on https://www.pbfgypi.org/

Staff Writer

This article was written and edited by a staff writer.