It is very important to explain the specific value of your project and its potential to make a significant and lasting impact in ending violence against marginalized women and girls. A clear demonstration of the organization's expertise and experience in addressing this issue, specifically with the selected groups of beneficiaries and proposed strategies should be included. The project's scope should be specific, realistic, and evidence-based, incorporating tailored strategies, coherent planning, and a commitment to safety and sustainable long-term impact. 

Below are some practical tips to consider when developing the project concept note:  

Follow instructions and provide specific responses: 

• Follow all instructions carefully and provide all required documents. 
• Give clear and specific answers to each question. You answers can be shorter than the maximum word limit as long as they are clear and respond to the question.  
• Before submitting your proposal, carefully review each section, and make sure you clearly responded to the question asked.  
• Your project concept should make sense to people who are not familiar with your work, your context and your organization. Ask for feedback from people with different expertise.   

Clearly explain what your project’s unique value is, based on analysis and data: 

• Provide analysis on local context, issues and needs of marginalized women and girls in relation to violence against women and girls, with data/evidence.  
• Explain why your project is relevant and why it will be effective.  
• Highlight the project's added value in filling critical gaps to end violence against marginalized women/girls.

Outline your organization’s expertise and experience in addressing violence against women and why it’s best suited to implement the proposed project. 

Be specific:  

• Be specific about the groups of marginalized women and girls to be focused on, the forms of violence they face, and explain how the proposed strategies will meet their needs and address the violence they face. Do not try to address all forms of violence generically. Avoid selecting the maximum types of beneficiaries and forms of violence solely for the purpose of ticking as many boxes as possible. 
• Clearly define your project's goal, objectives, expected results, and activities. 
• Demonstrate a clear articulation of the results to be achieved, for and with whom, where and how, and for what ultimate goal.  

Be realistic:  

• Keep the project scope realistic, based on your experience/expertise and on your available resources. Avoid being over-ambitious. 
• Ensure the budget aligns with your project scope and absorptive capacity of your organization. 

Ensure coherence throughout your project concept: 

• Ensure coherence between the problem analysis, the beneficiaries selected, the forms of violence selected, and the project’s strategies.  
• Ensure proposed activities/strategies contribute to expected results/objectives. 

Explain how you will identify and mitigate risks to ensure the safe implementation of the project, including to ensure the safety, dignity and well-being of staff and beneficiaries. 

Plan for systemic and sustainable impact: 

• Articulate how your project will contribute to systemic change and long-term impact.  
• Explain with concrete measures how the project will contribute to lasting change beyond the project's timeframe. 

• Annex 2: Project Concept Form that can be found in the Application Guidelines lists the questions that applicants will have to answer in the online application. Those questions have been developed to guide applicants in their reflections and project planning. Therefore, it is important to allocate enough time to review these questions, discuss and analyze them with the relevant project partners and beneficiaries, and (co-) write the Project Concept accordingly.  
• Useful resources on project design are also listed in the Call for Proposals. 

By specifying the groups of marginalized women and girls and the specific forms of violence they face, you can develop interventions that are tailored to their unique needs and circumstances. By focusing on specific groups and forms of violence, you can develop strategies that are more relevant and effective, increasing the likelihood of achieving meaningful and sustainable results. This approach allows you to allocate resources more effectively and address the root causes of the targeted issues, ultimately leading to a more successful and impactful project. 

An external analysis, commissioned by the UN Trust Fund and co-produced with former grantees4, finds that organizations employing intersectional approaches to working with women and girls experiencing intersecting forms of discrimination typically include one or more of the following aspects:  

• They identify the specific group or specific groups of women and/or girls who are at high risk of violence because of overlapping aspects of their identities, status, or situation 
• They identify the specific forms of violence they face and they specific needs 
• They ensure the engagement of women living with intersecting forms of discrimination wherever possible in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project,  
• They engage with individuals, groups and systems that may put women and girls at risk of violence and  
• They work collaboratively with partners, including women’s movements, that engage with different groups of women to build synergies and maximize resources and learning.  

All proposals are expected to embody UN Women EVAW/G programming principles5 within project design as contextually relevant and feasible. 

1. Adopting a human rights-based approach that places paramount priority on promoting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of all women and girls. A human rights-based approach requires developing the capacities of ‘duty-bearers’ and ‘rights- holders’. 

2. Ensuring a survivor-centered and women’s empowerment approach that integrates women’s and girls’ own experiences and inputs within all initiatives and strategies as an essential part of successful programming. A survivor-centered approach is fundamental to the protection and promotion of the human rights of women and girls affected, and to their empowerment.

3. Operating under ethical guidelines that ensure interventions and services prioritize, and guarantee women’s and girls’ rights to safety and security, confidentiality and privacy, expression of opinion and autonomy to make decisions.

4. Ensuring gender responsiveness and transformative approaches that seek to create or strengthen equitable gender norms and dynamics for fundamental, lasting changes for women and girls.

5. Employing culturally and contextually relevant entry points through interventions that involve cultural, community, faith-based, youth and other leaders. All project proposals should aim to include clear community feedback mechanisms with participation of women from the communities where the projects are to be implemented.

6. Addressing specific forms and settings of VAW/G through a clear understanding of specific contexts in which violence takes place for effective programme design and implementation, with knowledge about specific forms, settings, and population groups affected.

7. Adopting an intersectional approach and focusing on groups most at risk of being left behind especially excluded or disadvantaged women and girls (such as women and girls with disabilities, LBT, internally displaced and refugees, indigenous, older and members of ethnic minorities).

8. Operating within a socio-ecological model of understanding violence which aims to ensure that interventions consider and address the conditions across different levels (e.g. individual, family, community and society), which affect women and girls’ risks of experiencing violence.

9. Working in partnership with different stakeholders such as government, donors, UN agencies, civil society and community-based groups, inter-sectorial actors, academic and research institutions; and importantly, women and girl survivors and women-led organizations.

10. Drawing on existing evidence of “what works” (or does not), to respond to and prevent violence against women and girls, drawn from formal evaluations and assessments, research and studies, expert consensus and recommendations, shared practitioner experiences and – importantly -  the feedback of survivors, and women and girls at risk.   

For more information on how to embody EVAW/G principles, you can find information on the UN Women Virtual Knowledge Center to End Violence Against Women and Girls. 

By way of illustration only, proposals might consider:  

• Primary Prevention: Primary prevention means implementing initiatives to stop violence from happening in the first place. Examples include community or school-based programs and working with men and boys to change gender norms and reduce the acceptance of violence. 
• Ensuring survivors have access to quality justice, social and health services, and overall support through setting up hotlines, safe spaces, psychosocial support, legal aid, and crisis counseling services, advocating for the development or implementation of national standards and laws, and training of service providers.  
• Economic Empowerment: Promoting economic empowerment opportunities and programmes that provide employment training, job placement, and financial literacy education, enabling survivors of violence to gain financial independence and escape violent situations. 
• Advocacy and Policy Change: Advocating for the inclusion of ending violence against women and girls in national laws, policies and frameworks as well as development and funding frameworks (e.g. National Development Plans or Crisis Prevention, Response and Recovery Plans) and other relevant plans and strategies.  
• Engaging New Partners: Involving new, important partners who can help prevent and address violence against women and girls, including working with men and boys, young people, religious groups, employers, trade unions, the media, and others that have untapped potential to make a positive impact.  
• Human Rights Instruments Implementation: Supporting the implementation of internationally and regionally agreed human rights instruments, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Maputo Protocol, Istanbul Convention, and Convention of Bélem do Pará, relevant to preventing and ending violence against women and girls.  
• Coordination and partnerships: Establishing and supporting local coordination groups that bring together various stakeholders to work collectively on ending violence against women and girls. 
• Strengthening Partnerships: Strengthen partnerships with and supporting organizations working to end violence against women and girls, emphasizing a coordinated approach to ending violence against women. Advocate for recognition, funding, and participation of organizations in decision-making roles to ensure the continuity of their work. 

By way of illustration only, proposals might consider:  

• High-Quality Services Provision: Improving access to comprehensive services for survivors of VAW/G, including case management, mental health support, legal assistance, and economic empowerment, tailored to women and girls affected by crisis. 
• Capacity building and Engagement: Investing in building the capacity of women and girls affected by crisis, and women’s rights organizations to engage effectively in local, regional, and national coordination and accountability mechanisms. This including through improving community feedback systems, participating in efforts to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), and collaborating in gender-based violence risk mitigation. 
• Advocacy and Capacity Building: Enhancing the advocacy and humanitarian skills of CSOs and women's rights organizations to actively participate in humanitarian and crisis management processes. This involves strengthening their institutional capacity, ensuring accountability, and accessing funding for crisis prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. 
• Building Alliances: Building alliances to boost the influence, visibility, and resources of CSOs and women's rights organizations while recognizing the specific needs of women and girls affected by crisis. Removing barriers for their participation in humanitarian coordination by providing training, transportation, translation services, and coordination staff support. 
• Amplifying Women's Voices: Amplifying the voices of women and girls from crisis-affected communities in decision-making forums. Support the issuance of Charters of Demand and Gender Alerts to address violence against women and girls issues in crisis response. 
• Strengthening Women's Networks: Establishing networks for women's rights organizations and national NGO networks involving women's organizations. Orienting them to play key roles in decision-making processes and facilitate their access to funding for ending VAW/G. 
• Supporting grassroots movements and women-led civil society organizations in preventing, mitigating, and addressing VAW/G during crises, emphasizing bottom-up approaches that empower women's leadership. 
• Prevention of violence: Continuing efforts to engage men, boys, and community leaders in ending harmful practices and violence against women and girls. 

Applicants are encouraged to dedicate some resources from the overall grant for building their organization’s capacity and resilience.  

By way of illustration only, activities could include:  

• Advocacy and Influence: Strategically advocating for women's rights and navigating resistance when challenging sensitive issues related to gender equality and ending violence against women and girls. 
• Networking, Partnerships and Collaboration: Enabling connections between CSOs and women’s rights organizations  for mutual support, knowledge exchange, capacity building/development, movement building and collaboration in ending violence against women. 
• Internal Policies, Procedures, Systems and Controls: Improving financial and administrative management capacity (accounting systems, procurement processes, internal controls), establishing robust internal risk management policies, procedures and control systems to enhance operational and programmatic effectiveness. 
• Risk Management and Contingency Planning: Developing crises management and emergency preparedness plans, and development of business continuity, disaster recovery, and contingency plans.  
• Equipment, Technology and Digital Platforms: Investing in equipment and technology to facilitate remote working and digital adaptation, ensuring continuity of operations and outreach during crises. 
• Self-Care and Wellbeing: Dedicating resources for staff self-care, mental health support, and wellbeing to prevent burnout and enable organizations to withstand challenges. 
• Capacity Building and Training: Investing in developing staff skills and organizational capabilities in areas like financial management, monitoring & evaluation, and project design to build resilient and effective organizations.