News

Global Enthusiasm for the UN Democracy Fund

The second round of applications for UNDEF project grants closed on 31 December 2007 with a resounding vote of enthusiasm from global civil society. Whereas there were 1300 applications for funding in the first round (2006), there were 1873 applications in the recently completed second round, representing an increase of 44%. The UNDEF team wishes to thank applicants for their interest and enthusiasm.

Statistical Breakdown

Civil society organisations were by far the largest category of applicants accounting for 85.9% of projects:

	Appliant Type	Number of Applications	Percentage
	Civil Society Organisation or Non Governmental Organisation	1,610	85.9
	UN Entity	131	6.9
	Other Public Institutions	55	2.9
	Global or Regional Inter-governmental body or association	43	2.3
	Government Agency (Local or National Government)	34	1.8
	Total	1873	100

All the themes covered by UNDEF were well subscribed but civil society empowerment was the most popular followed by human rights:

	Theme	Number of Applications	Percentage
	Civil Society Empowerment	540	28.8
	Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms	420	22.4
	Democratic Dialogue and Constitutional Processes	368	19.6
	Civic Education, Electoral Support, and Political Parties	230	12.3
	Accountability, Transparency, and Integrity	164	8.8
	Access to Information	151	8.1
	Total	1873	100

Applications were received from all parts of the globe with sub-Saharan Africa submitting over one third of all applications:

	Region	Number of Applications	Percentage
	Sub-Saharan Africa	698	37.3
	Asia and Pacific	413	22.0
	The Americas	330	17.6
	Europe	218	11.6
	Global	108	5.8
	Arab States	101	5.4
	Other	5	0.3
	Total	1873	100

Applications were received from 137 countries. The countries from which the highest number of applications was received were:

	Country	Number of Applications
	Nigeria	111
	Nepal	101
	Democratic Republic of Congo	78
	Colombia	66
	Sierra Leone	53
	India	50
	Cameroon	45
	Ghana	36
	Liberia	36
	Cambodia	30

Among the applications were over 358 focused on global or regional projects broken down as follows:

	Project Location	Number of Applications	Percentage
	Global	108	30.2
	Latin America and the Caribbean	83	23.2
	Sub-Saharan Africa	74	20.7
	Asia and Pacific	49	13.7
	Europe	29	8.1
	Arab States	15	4.2
	Total	358	100

What Happens Next?

                                                                                                                                                                                    The UNDEF team is already busy at work assessing the applications. A team of seven assessors (five women and two men) has begun the task of assessing the projects by applying the eight selection criteria. In view of the high number of project proposals, this task will not be completed until early February.

The UNDEF team will whittle the list down to a rather lengthy short list of the highest scoring projects. In doing so, the global and regional projects will be considered separately from the various national project proposals.

This short list will then be vetted by other agencies of the United Nations, including the relevant Resident Coordinators, as well as the UN Department of Political Affairs, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the UN Development Programme, the UN Development Group Office, the UN Development Fund for Women, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (members of the UNDEF Programme Consultative Group).

This process will result in a short list which will be submitted to the Advisory Board for discussion from which a list of proposed projects will be recommended to the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon. The Secretary-General, assisted by the Deputy Secretary-General, Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, will take the final decision.

Successful project applicants will be contacted by the UNDEF team early in the second quarter of 2008 to begin the process of preparing project documents. Guidelines for the preparation of these project documents will be placed on the UNDEF website soon.

In view of the large numbers of project proposals, we wish to request applicants to be patient and not email the UNDEF team asking for progress reports on the fate of their particular application. Please consult the website for updates on the project selection process.

Once again, many thanks for the enthusiasm displayed by global civil society. It augurs well for the building of robust and high-quality democracies.

 

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