Shifting aid priorities and shrinking budgets have forced many donors in Kosovo to close their grant programs or decrease funding for non-governmental organizations. Other donors have funds available, but have difficult application procedures and/or only give sizeable grants. Women’s groups with limited full-time human resources and English language skills face difficulties obtaining funding for their important initiatives towards gender equality and women’s rights.
Therefore, the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) in close consultation with its members and supported by the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation established the Kosovo Women’s Fund in 2012. The Fund provides small grants for women’s organizations in Kosovo and the surrounding region, among others that seek to further women’s rights, particularly among rural and/or marginalized groups.
The unique Fund also provides ongoing, tailored capacity development opportunities for grant recipients, as well as grant applicants, in grant-writing, project cycle management, and financial management, furthering their capacities to apply for funding from other donors in the future. Additional support is available to organisations seeking to strengthen their advocacy capacities.
With KWF’s transparent, efficient, effective and proven sub-granting systems and procedures, since KWF’s establishment, KWN has administered 197 grants (170 for a single organization and 27 Networking for Change grants) to 107 under-served women-led Civil Society Organizations (CSO), totalling €1,011,387. Since December 2012, 21,028 women and girls from different areas, as well as boys and men, have benefited directly from Women’s Rights Civil Society Organizations (WCSO) initiatives. Among them, 3,909 women participated in decision-making processes (some for the first time), including during 432 advocacy initiatives undertaken, through which 30 public policies were amended in order to better support the needs of women and girls in Kosovo.
Click here to read about grant recipients’ work.
The Kosovo Women’s Fund has received support from the European Union, Swedish International Development Agency, Austrian Development Agency, UN Women and Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation.
How the Fund Works
The deadline for submitting proposals is published on the KWN website and KWN members are informed about upcoming deadlines via email. Following each open call, the Grant Review Committee, elected by KWN members, meets to award grants based on the established criteria. The process of reviewing proposals takes approximately 30 days after the grant proposal submission deadline. If the project is not approved, the Grant Review Committee gives feedback to help the organization write better proposals in the future. If an organization does not receive a grant when it first applies, it can apply again in the next call for proposals with a revised or new application.
KWN informs the public about the grant recipients via a press release and its website.