HO-Movements & Alliances Funds The Hague Flexible funding mechanisms
Introduction
Through the programme, the consortium and partners will devise agile and adaptive influencingstrategies to respond to unexpected changes, events and opportunities. Lessons learned show thatfinance and administrative procedures are often too inflexible to respond quickly to opportunities,especially with (in)formal groups, so the consortium will reserve funds for responding to eventsoutside of the planned programme scope. Three flexible funds will be available forcapacitydevelopment and influencing. These funds aim to enable partners to respond to uniquecircumstances when existing commitments are too limited to capitalize on them.
1) Alliance Fund
Given the uncertain contexts in which the programme operates, andthe unpredictability of change
processes, the Alliance Fund enables flexible responses to sudden opportunities for influence –
when, with a quick injection of support, we can accelerate action and achieve a quick win or pave
the way for bigger gains inthe future. Activists and organizations canamplify their influence by working together. While FAIR for ALL brings organizations together in a worldwide influencing network, the Alliance Fund aims to further
stimulate and facilitate collaboration amongallies in networks broader than FAIR for ALL. It will
enable responses to chance circumstances and unique influencing opportunities with the possibility
for catalytic change if groups canwork together. For example, when former top international
footballplayer George Weah was elected president in Liberia, civil society in the country worked
with international organizations and alliances such as the Land Rights Now Alliance to successfully
advocatefor community land rights. The Alliance Fund will be anonline and open fund, marketed through the consortium and partners’networks.Applications will be assessed as they are submitted, according to standards of quality,
accountability, reporting and the potentialfor impact.
Almost EUR 2m will be availableto support alliances. On average we will support about seven
alliances per year to substantially improve their ability to influence, for example by:
 Coming together to jointly mobilize and organize their constituenciesand audiences offline and
online;
 Bring in women’s movements and voices to allow for increased representation and ownership;
 Strengthening the network and complementarity of roles by creating opportunities for new or
innovative approaches;
 Linking national alliances to global networks and platforms to leverage external support for
their own asks and
 Providing seed money to support theactivation of (new) alliances on emerging issues.
2) Movement Building Fund
Social movements are increasingly a way for communitiesandcitizens to voice concerns abouttheir rights, welfare and wellbeing by engaging in collective action and public protest. In recentyears the reach of representative movements and their speed of development has increasedgreatly through the worldwide web and social media. Movements bring together a critical mass of
voices to achieve transformative systems change.The movements we aim to supportare grassroots, independent and mostly not formally registeredas organizations. They typically have many ‘leaders’andare based on individual connections and
networks rather than a formal structure. This expresses itself in decentralized fundraising and spending for autonomously determined purposes. As such activities to be supported are often adhoc, short-termand based on voluntarism, and require relatively small amounts of money. They are undertaken by individuals rather than organizations with financial or administrative structures.
Flexibly supporting movements while ensuring financial accountability requires innovation in systems to comply with rules and regulations. Such movements do not usually look for ‘calls for proposals’ – instead they make activities happen by collecting online and offline donations. Funding such loosely coordinated, decentralizedactivities by people who independently drive their
own agenda requires a level of risk taking. We will implement our flexible administrative procedures for movements with the utmost care. A Movement Building Fund of EUR 600,000 will be made available.
Given thelocal nature of movements and how they operate, funds will be transferred in ways that best suit each particular movement, such as mobile money, cash, wire transfer, Western Union or othertypes of cash transfer, or crowdfunding linked to mobilemoney.
TheMovement Building Fund is innovative for the consortium, and we anticipate a phased
implementation. In Year 1 the framework and criteria will be defined, with an accountability
mechanism and clarity on acceptable financial risk. In Year 2 we anticipatetesting the fund by
creating dedicated periods for evaluation of various funding mechanisms. From year 3 the fund will
be fully operational.
3) Rapid-Response Fund for Human Rights Defenders
Influencing, especially in a shrinking civic space, isriskyfor activists. People who speak truth to
power expose themselves to intimidation, threats, legal actions and attacks that sadly sometimes
lead to loss of life. Those in power sometimes use crisis situations to further restrict civic space
and civil liberties, and limit space for dissent and opposition. Many restrictions imposed in
response to the Covid-19 pandemic will most likely not be lifted when the pandemic abides.
We will reserve around EUR 150,000 for protecting activists andorganizations that speak out. This
flexible fund will be available to partners and activists in their networks to support them in the
broadest sense when they are under attack. This could range from physical protection to digital
security, travel expenses, legalfeesand psycho-social support for their families. The fund will
enable immediate support, before other protective mechanisms for human rights defenders –
which require more time-consuming approval processes – can kick into action.
When facing threats, immediate action is paramount. The fund can retrospectively cover
unplanned protection and security expenses after they have been incurred – thatis, requiring no
prior application process. The flexible fund is our commitment to stand with our partners and
activists in their networks. In our experience, such funds are not often called on, which is why the
size of the fund is limited – it is primarily important that activists and organizations know they
have a safety mechanism to fall back onif needed.
Accountability will take into account that expenses will mainly be activity-based. As such, ‘receipts when realistically available’ and records such as photos of outputs will be used for accountability.