The Africa Regional Office of Open Society Foundations (AfRO) Call for Proposals Youth and Democratic Governance in Africa.

Application Deadline: July 15, 2019.

The Africa Regional Office of Open Society Foundations (AfRO) works alongside OSF’s four regional foundations and fourteen thematic programs. AfRO conducts programmatic work which complements other programs and takes the lead on advocacy and research at regional and continental level.

The Africa Regional Office works in three ways: responding to challenges impeding Africa’s political and economic progress, for which a continental approach is relevant; complementing and maximizing the Open Society Foundations’ work in Africa; and enabling the OSF regional foundations to respond to unanticipated developments and opportunities on the continent.

Progress and Challenges of Democracy in Africa
Democracy in Africa today faces several critical challenges:
a. Informal Power versus formal power: Many elections in Africa are marred by unofficial groups, individuals, foreign interests and commercial companies which play a hidden role in election processes in order to gain undue influence in the governance of countries.
b. Violence: Elections in many African countries are marred by violence. The zero-sum nature of elections and power makes political competition a desperate and deadly affair.
c. Intolerance and Exclusion: In many African countries, constituencies are almost exclusively mobilized on the basis of ethnic prejudice, fear of exclusion and victimization. Voting has been reduced to tribal arithmetic. A casual audit of the ethnicities of senior civil service, directors of successful public contracting companies and awardees to lucrative licenses in historical governments indicates that the function of state is restricted to the ethnicity/ies that win an election.

Proposed Duration
• 4 Months for research
• 24 months of Action
Funding priority
This year, AfRO will award grants of between USD 30,000 and USD $60,000 each, to selected organizations working at the intersection of youth and democratic governance. Selected organizations will demonstrate use of creative tools to enhance youth momentum and engagement on issues of interest to them. Priority will be given to projects whose planned activities are led by, and impact young people. The emphasis will be placed on projects which transcend national, cultural, gender, economic, language barriers and provide the rural and urban young people from across different African countries with the opportunity to learn from each other and effect meaningful social change on the continent.

Eligibility criteria
This call is only open to civil society organizations whose mandate covers youth-related interventions. A past record of work with young people in Africa will be required.
Organizations are invited to submit a one page summary of their idea, a detailed proposal and budget.

Submission
All documents should be submitted to odieng@osiwa.org and fasuke@osiea.org by July 15, 2019.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the AfRO Call for Proposals Youth and Democratic Governance in Africa.