The fifth round of United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) is open to accepting applications from 15 November 2010. Established by the UN Secretary-General in 2005 as a United Nations General Trust Fund, UNDEF provides grant support to projects that strengthen the voice of civil society, promote human rights, and encourage the participation of all groups in democratic processes.
UNDEF provides grants ranging from US $50,000 to US $500,000 for a two-year project in one or more of six main areas of community development, rule of law and human rights, tools for democratization, women, youth and media.
UNDEF supports projects which either take place in one country only, or occur in several specified states of a region or sub-region or intend to operate at the global level. UNDEF will reserve at least 70% of its programmable resources in each funding round for projects taking place in one country and will allocate no more than 30% to global/regional projects.
Civil society organizations, NGOs independent and constitutional bodies such as election commissions, national human rights organizations etc and global and regional inter-government bodies, organizations and associations are eligible to apply for the Fund. While applications from all countries will be considered, strong preference will be given to applicants from countries and regions where the challenge s of democracy are more critical, such as countries emerging from conflict, new and restored democracies, the Least Developed Countries, Low-Income countries and Middle Income Countries.
Applications have to be submitted online (either in English or French) through the On-line Project Proposal System (OPPS) available at the UNDEF website. The OPPS will be opened from 15 November onwards. The deadline to submit the applications is 31 December 2010. For more information, visit this link.
