“What factors and conditions should exist for local pro-democracy, human rights, and labor organizations to effect positive change?” The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) wants to know.
It has issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a DRL Evaluation Innovation Fund – Understanding Factors and Conditions for Democracy and Rights Organizations.
Studies have highlighted the difficulties of measuring the impact of democracy assistance, according to a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). For example, in 2006, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) reported that demonstrating causality between a democracy project and a country’s progress toward democracy is difficult because many other variables come into play, the report states, citing Evaluating Democracy Promotion Programs: A Report to Congress from the National Endowment for Democracy, submitted to the House and Senate Appropriation Committees.
The approaches of the EU and the US to democracy assistance often vary quite significantly as both actors choose different means and tactics, analyst Jan Hornat writes inTransatlantic Democracy Assistance: Promoting Different Models of Democracy. These nuances in the understanding of democracy on the part of the EU and the US lead to their promotion of models of democratic governance that are often divergent and, in some respects, clashing, he argues.
This book examines the sources of this divergence and by focusing on the role of the actors’ “democratic identity” it aims to explain the observation that both actors use divergent strategies and instruments to foster democratic governance in third countries.
“DRL’s objective is to support applied research and learning projects that generate evidence on what works and why related to democracy, human rights and governance (DRG) programming,” is states.
Application Deadline: 11:59 PM EST, Tuesday, August 28, 2020. Funding Floor (lowest $$ value): $100,000. Funding Ceiling (highest $$ value): $400,000. Full details here.
In addition, an open competition for projects focusing on the synthesis and dissemination of evaluative research and learning materials for the democracy and rights community aims to to build a portfolio of evidence to further identify democracy, rights and labor rights program strategies that are effective, DRL adds:
DRL’s objective is to support applied research and learning projects that generate evidence on what works and why related to democracy, human rights and governance (DRG) programming. Within the proposal, the applicant should demonstrate how they will develop a publicly available platform that practitioners and evaluators in the democracy and rights community see as a reliable and accessible source for sharing and learning.
Application Deadline: 11:59 PM EST, Wednesday, April 29, 2020. Funding Floor (lowest $$ value): $75,000. Funding Ceiling (highest $$ value): $300,000. Full details here.
Credit: National Democratic Institute
