Call summary :

The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) is pleased to invite proposals for grants as part of its ongoing project to safeguard civic freedoms and address democratic backsliding that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. Grants of up to $45,000 USD are available for up to six-month long projects meeting the criteria discussed below.

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until available funds are depleted.

Background

Three years on from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, civic freedoms in the Indo-Pacific remain under threat. Years of ongoing emergency measures, restrictions on freedom of expression, security-driven pandemic responses, and economic and geopolitical instability have weakened the non-profit sector and sapped its resources in many countries. Despite these challenges, civil society has persevered and proven its worth, not least through its integral role in COVID-19 response, often fulfilling critical service and humanitarian needs and compensating for state and private sector failures. And yet, governments continue to use COVID-19 as an excuse to restrict civic space, enforcing gathering bans and quarantining protesters, or introducing restrictive NGO registration laws in response to protests triggered by the pandemic.

Despite a hostile operating environment, civil society actors in the region continue their efforts to safeguard civic space and human rights, push back against restrictive government measures, and highlight best practices and better alternatives to governance than authoritarian repression.

Whether or not the pandemic is formally ‘over,’ many of the emergency and restrictive measures implemented by Indo-Pacific governments over the past two years are unlikely to be easily reversed, along with expansions of executive power.

In this context, the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) seeks to support civil society organizations (CSOs) in the Indo-Pacific in undertaking forward-looking projects focused on

1) strategies for addressing COVID-19 authoritarian policies, including reviewing and repealing emergency measures;
2) activities to promote civic freedoms-oriented best practices around emergency, disaster response, and pandemic policies; and
3) efforts to highlight the innovative work of civil society in advocating against COVID-19 related encroachments on fundamental freedoms, as well as civil society’s critical role in COVID-19 response.

In support of these objectives, applicants may select from a broad range of activities designed to achieve the grant’s objective, including, but not limited to:
• Identifying points of leverage and specific strategies to repeal emergency and rights-impacting COVID-19 measures, and planning concrete activities to achieve these objectives;
• Researching and analyzing COVID-19 related technology, such as contact tracing apps and surveillance tools, and preparing advocacy activities to roll back the use of technologies that violate privacy and other freedoms, while promoting rights-respecting alternatives for crisis management;
• Developing toolkits, publicity materials, multimedia, or digital campaigns to highlight and promote the work of civil society in resisting authoritarian COVID-19 governance while continuing to provide critical services;
• Conducting research, fieldwork, or case studies to compare best and worst-case scenarios and practices around pandemic governance response, with recommendations for how to better address crises while respecting civic freedoms;
• Organizing national and/or regional convenings to disseminate successful civil society advocacy strategies to resist closing civic space stemming from COVID-19 approaches over the past two years;
• Identifying regional best practices for ensuring avenues for participation in public affairs during COVID-19, and developing recommendations for the institutionalization and wider adoption of such practices;
• Organizing national and/or regional dialogues with governments to advocate for best practices and reforms governments can undertake to create more enabling civil society environments.