Strengthening Women-Mediated Peace Processes in Tillaberi Region | NIGER STATE WPS 2024 002 V2

Opportunity Information: Apply for NIGER STATE WPS 2024 002 V2

The U.S. Embassy in Niamey (U.S. Department of State) is offering a competitive grant opportunity focused on strengthening womens direct roles as mediators in community peace processes in Niger, specifically in the Tillaberi Region. The program is designed in response to recent locally mediated peace accords in northern Tillaberi that helped stop cycles of intercommunal killings between several ethnic communities, violence that was worsened and strategically manipulated by the Islamic State of the Greater Sahara (IS-GS). While these accords in places like Bani Bangou (Fulani and Zarma) and Ouallam (Tuareg and Fulani) are seen as major successes and have coincided with a reduction in cyclical massacres since their signing, women were not included as formal mediators in the negotiations. Instead, women were largely consulted through focus groups, reinforcing a pattern where men lead mediation and women are treated more as sources of input or symbolic participants rather than decision-makers at the negotiating table.

The central goal of the opportunity is to measurably increase womens participation as mediators in northern Tillaberi peace processes and to help institutionalize womens leadership in partnership with national and local authorities by 2026. The Embassy is looking for proposals that go beyond general awareness-raising and instead present a clear strategy for removing real barriers to gender inclusion in mediation structures that are still dominated by older men and entrenched patriarchal norms. A key expectation is that applicants build on existing momentum: prior peacebuilding efforts have already trained a number of women leaders in mediation and conflict resolution, and this program prefers to work with those trained women rather than create a new cycle of basic trainings. In other words, the emphasis is on integration and influence, not introductory capacity building.

Suggested activities are practical and policy-oriented, such as conducting a rapid assessment of how gender inclusion currently works (or fails) within Tillaberi peace processes, developing a concrete gender inclusion strategy, holding advocacy meetings to push adoption and implementation of that strategy, supporting gender-inclusive monitoring of peace accords, and running public sensitization activities that normalize women serving as mediators. The opportunity strongly stresses coordination with Nigerien institutions that sponsor or support mediation, including the Ministry of Interiors Stabilization Unit and the High Authority for the Consolidation of Peace (HACP), as well as alignment with other women, peace, and security partners working in the region. Applicants are expected to include quarterly meetings of a project advisory group to ensure ongoing coordination with authorities and relevant implementing partners, reducing duplication and increasing the chances that womens roles become embedded in the way peace processes are run.

The primary participants and intended beneficiaries are women leaders in northern Tillaberi who have already been trained through previous peacebuilding and gender inclusion initiatives. The implementing organization is expected to work alongside these women leaders to co-design and carry out activities, while also managing relationships with community leaders and government counterparts to build a broad coalition that can actually open doors for women to mediate. The Embassy signals that successful applicants will likely be those with a demonstrated history of effective gender inclusion in local peacebuilding and prior collaboration with Nigerien authorities, since the work requires political and community access as much as technical programming.

From a funding and eligibility standpoint, this is a discretionary cooperative agreement with one expected award and a maximum budget of $100,000. Eligible applicants include not-for-profit organizations such as civil society groups, NGOs, and think tanks. Priority is given to Nigerien not-for-profits, particularly organizations led by women, and the notice also flags preference for groups based in Diffa Region. The opportunity is issued by the U.S. Mission to Niger under funding listing 19.222, with an original application deadline of August 5, 2024, under opportunity number NIGER STATE WPS 2024 002 V2.

• The U.S. Mission to Niger in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Strengthening Women-Mediated Peace Processes in Tillaberi Region" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.222.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-07-19.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-08-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $100,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for NIGER STATE WPS 2024 002 V2

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