Call for Proposals: Combating Modern Slavery Through Civil Society

• See the full call in MFA/Norad’s Grants Portal.
• The application deadline is 1 October 2020 at 13:00 CEST.
• Norad aims to complete the assessment of applications in early 2021.

General Information

The call for proposals Combating Modern Slavery Through Civil Society is a component of Norway’s Development Programme to End Modern Slavery, which will be published shortly. The programme’s main objective is to reduce the prevalence and scope of modern slavery in selected partner countries and sectors and with three related outcomes (see below).

This aligns well with Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking, and end child labour.

Combating modern slavery contributes to ensuring that the most vulnerable are not excluded from development, in line with the leave no one behind principle.

Civil society actors play pivotal roles at both a country level and internationally in monitoring and holding authorities and businesses accountable and challenging power structures. Futhermore, they set the agenda and develop policy, and bring people together around a common agenda, in order to prevent and end modern slavery. Additionally, civil society plays a role in delivering services to marginalised and discriminated groups and individuals. The rehabilitation of survivors of modern slavery is one example.

This call for proposals provides up to NOK 190 million in funding for the period 2020/2021-2023. The call is to support civil society organisations’ work within this thematic area over a project period of up to four years. Only organisations who have an ongoing grant agreement with Norad may apply for projects starting from 2020. Other applicants may apply for projects starting from 2021.

Objectives and Target Groups

The call for proposals will contribute to achieving the overall vision of ending all forms of modern slavery. The planned impact is that the prevalence and scope of modern slavery in selected partner countries and sectors is reduced. There are three related outcomes that contribute to the impact:

• Outcome 1: Governments have implemented efforts to prevent, identify and address modern slavery, and to protect vulnerable groups and survivors.
• Outcome 2: The corporate sector has implemented efforts to prevent, identify and address human trafficking and forced labour, including the worst forms of child labour, in their company operations and supply chains.
• Outcome 3: Vulnerable individuals and groups are resilient in the face of recruitment to modern slavery.

The prioritised target groups include the most vulnerable in society that are easy targets for recruitment into modern slavery, and the survivors of slavery-related situations.

Women and girls are in many places particularly vulnerable to recruitment into slavery. The gender dimension must be addressed in all efforts under this grant scheme.

Children make up approximately 25 per cent of all survivors/victims of modern slavery. The particular vulnerability of children must be addressed explicitly in the supported efforts.

Country and Sector Priorities

The targeted countries under this call for proposals should be in Sub-Saharan Africa and among the Partner Countries in Norway’s Development Policy.

Given the complexity and the risk involved in the efforts to end modern slavery, countries that are also pathfinder countries of Alliance 8.7, or that that have documented interest to become pathfinder countries, and therefore have expressed a political will to combat slavery, will also be prioritised.

Based on the above, the following countries in Sub-Saharan Africa will be prioritised under this call for proposals: Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi and Uganda. Applications covering other Sub-Saharan African countries may be considered if they demonstrate a particular contribution towards the stated impact and outcomes.

For sector-specific projects, this call for proposals will give priority to the agricultural sector. The agricultural sector is a high-risk sector for forced and child labour. 70 per cent of all child labour occurs within this sector, with the highest prevalence seen in Africa.

Forced labour and child labour are driven by poverty in agricultural areas, migration and a lack of alternative job opportunities. Climate change and conflict also influence working conditions in the agricultural sector.