Introduction

UNESCO is launching its second Call for Partnerships to support non-profit organizations under the Global Media Defense Fund (GMDF). The purpose of this initiative to seek particular local, national and international organizations and partner with them in implementing or supporting projects that foster journalists’ legal protection and enhance global media freedom. To this end, it is calling for innovative proposals for the implementation of projects that contribute to the above objective.

Short details

Submission deadline: 15 June 2021 (11:59 CET)

Organizing institution: UNESCO

Sponsoring countries: Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Luxembourg, Serbia, and the United Kingdom

Scope: Global

Target institutions: Not-for-profit

Benefits

• The total amount of grant under the Global Media Defense Fund (GMDF) to be granted to the successful partner(s) is about 1 million US$.
• The fund is given to co-finance the selected partner’s projects.
• Under this call, the requested amount of budget must be between at least 15,000 US$ and 35,000USD a most.

The partnership proposal must address one of the following GMDF three outputs:

2nd output: Reinforce the operationalization of national protection mechanisms and peer support networks to assure journalists’ swift access to legal aid, strengthen their defense and boost their safety, taking into consideration the gendered nature of the threats they confront;

3rd output: Support investigative journalism that leads to reduction of impunity for crimes against journalists, and boosting the safety of those conducting this line of work;

4th output: Empowering structures for bolster strategic litigation for protecting environments where the legal frameworks are beneficial to an independent, open, and pluralistic media ecosystem.

Who are eligible to apply for the fund?

• UNESCO is looking for partnership proposals from specialized non-profit organizations that have been operative and registered as such for at least two years.
• For example, specialized NGOs, media associations/organizations, journalists’ unions, human right defenders, lawyers’ associations and pro bono legal aid organizations, rule of law initiatives, investigative journalism networks, foundations, and academic institutions, amongst other not-for-profit organizations are eligible to apply as a candidate partner.

How to submit your partnership proposal?

In order for the eligible organizations to submit their proposals, they should go to the following link, download the terms of reference & application documents.

Download the application package

Note: Submission of proposals is acceptable only through email.

After that, they should fill out the form and submit it along with supporting documents to gmdf@unesco.org  before the deadline.

For queries regarding the application, contact gmdf@unesco.org.

To get more information and read about the GMDF, go to the Source Link on the UNESCO website.