The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, International Programs Section (G/TIP) at the US Department of State has announced the available funding opportunity for NGOs around the world to submit projects to tackle trafficking. The G/TIP grant competition is an annual program from the US Government where organizations are provided substantial funding support to combat trafficking or modern-day slavery in their regions or areas of operation by applying the three ‘Ps’ strategy: prevention of trafficking, protection and assistance to victims of trafficking and prosecution of traffickers. Unlike previous competitions, this year, G/TIP has organized a two-stage application process. In this process, all interested organizations have to submit a two-page Statement of Interest (SOI) during the first stage. All SOIs will be reviewed by a panel and based upon the favorable response, full proposals will be sought from selected applicants. The present call is to all NGOs, including US-based nonprofits and organizations in 40 prioritized countries to submit SOIs.
The prioritized countries are listed below according to the regions. These countries have been carefully selected out of the Tier 3 and Tier 2 Watch List where high trafficking problems exist, programmatic attention has been focused and/or there is strong government will to combat trafficking, but there is a severe dearth of financial resources. G/TIP makes an assessment of the trafficking situation every year in these countries and outlines the study results in its annual report on trafficking in persons. The 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report was released in June 2009 and remains a critical document on the basis of which the programs and interventions are designed under this grant competition for the Watch List countries.
G/TIP intends to award US $750,000 as grants for projects covering a period of 36 months. Projects can be proposed for just one country; more than one country if international NGOs are involved and interventions demand reaching out projects beyond borders; and also those addressing global human trafficking by working in different regions around the world.
Submissions will include a two-page SOI and SF-424 and SF-424 B forms (available at grants.gov). The forms will fulfill the technical requirements for participating in the competition. There is some relief for organizations, especially those located outside of United States as they do not require to struggle with grants.gov submission process this time. They have been given the option of using the new website: http://www.grantsolutions.gov/ where applicants can quickly register an online account and submit their application. Applicants previously registered at grants.gov can still continue to submit through it. However, all applicants have been advised to start managing the submission process as early as possible before the deadline.
The last date to submit the SOI is 3 December 2009. For more information, visit this link. A short summary of projects previously funded by G/TIP has been developed at this link – this will give some relevant ideas for building strategies under the new projects proposed. For activities that can be proposed under the current call, visit this link.
