NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND SUB-REGIONAL IGF INITIATIVES (NRIs)‎
CALL TO APPLY FOR FINANCIAL GRANTS TO SUPPORT IMPLEMENTATION OF ‎THE NRIs ANNUAL MEETINGS

In order to foster the capacity development in Internet governance on local levels, the IGF ‎Secretariat, with the support of its donors, continues to allocate financial grants to the NRIs that ‎‎meet eligibility criteria and procedures. The main goal of these financial grants is to:‎

• Enhance understanding of the Internet governance issues, by ‎strengthening ‎bottom-up ‎and multistakeholder NRIs processes. Of particular interest are local ‎communities ‎in the ‎least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, ‎small island developing ‎states and countries in transition economies; ‎
• Strengthen the global Internet governance network by raising awareness on ‎the ‎‎importance of active and consistent engagement of local and regional ‎communities ‎in ‎the IGF intersessional collaborative work.‎

Eligible national IGFs can apply for grants up to 5,000 USD.‎ 
Eligible sub-regional IGFs can apply for grants up to 6,000 USD.‎ 
Eligible regional IGFs can apply for grants up to 12,000 USD.‎ 
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The amount of grant will depend on the strength of the project proposal. In order to ‎support the ‎funding sustainability of the NRI process, the applicants should demonstrate ‎that funding or ‎donations in-kind also come from other sources. ‎ 
The final number of allocated grants would depend on the funds available. ‎

Eligibility Criteria 
‎ NRIs that meet the following criteria, cumulatively, can apply for financial grants:‎

• ‎Have recognized status with the IGF Secretariat as an IGF process that adheres to the ‎‎IGF core criteria and procedures, as outlined in the NRIs Toolkit. ‎
• Describe effectively the major objectives of the NRIs process, the envisaged meeting ‎outputs ‎and expected outcomes; illustrative participation and programming plans as part ‎of ‎the preparatory processes.  ‎
• Outline expected costs of NRI meeting.‎
• Describe how the NRI process and related work scope extends to communities from ‎least developed ‎countries, landlocked developing countries, small island developing ‎states and/or ‎transitional economies. ‎
• Describe strategic efforts for how to strengthen stakeholder engagement and inclusion ‎of ‎underrepresented and vulnerable groups. ‎
• Include past year’s annual report with a clear outline of the preparatory process, ‎meeting ‎event and participation records (for NRIs that hosted meetings in past).  ‎
• Include URL of NRI website that is up-to-date, populated with process-related ‎‎information, including the information about the entity performing secretariat's ‎role.  ‎
• Show proof that a non-commercial entity with a legal status performs the ‎secretariat’s ‎function for the NRIs. ‎‎(Note: This can be a government entity or a non-commercial non-‎government entity. ‎Legal status of the organization will be proven through submission of ‎appropriate ‎documentation, including the entity’s founding documents and activity ‎record, as well ‎as with a statement of an active bank account to which funds will be ‎transferred.)‎

Selection procedure

• IGF Secretariat will evaluate all submissions based on the above-mentioned criteria, ‎considering also geographical representation and countries of special needs. ‎
• Level of participation of an NRI in the NRIs collaborative work facilitated by the IGF ‎‎Secretariat will be taken into account (meeting participation and contribution to the ‎‎NRIs preparatory work and the annual meeting including NRIs sessions and ‎booth). ‎
• The Secretariat will also evaluate the level of inclusiveness/stakeholder diversity in ‎the ‎organizing committee (if all four stakeholder groups are represented); for ‎those that ‎hosted meetings in past, frequency and quality of discussion; ‎participation diversity, ‎including gender, and quality of meeting outputs.‎
• Priority may be given to the NRIs that are starting their IGF processes. ‎

Application Form and Timeline
All interested NRIs can apply to this Call by 15 March 2021 by sending this form to the IGF Secretariat at anja[dot]gengo[et]un[dot]org. 
Please note that the estimated time for processing of the request is approximately two (2) ‎months.‎