Deadline: December 3, 2018 00:00 CET| Apply here
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Eligibility: Open for everyone
UNHCR Youth Initiative Fund 2019
UNHCR invites proposals for the Youth Initiative Fund 2019. Now its seventh year, the YIF was initiated by the Division of International Protection in Geneva to support community-based protection projects imagined, designed and led by young people.
Since 2014, the YIF has supported more than 100 youth-led projects globally that have addressed protection challenges including sexual and gender-based violence, peaceful coexistence, child protection, and psychosocial well-being.
The YIF is unique in that it targets and builds upon the existing capacities and capabilities of young people, rather than focusing on vulnerabilities.
The maximum funding allocation per project is US$ 10,000.
YIF objectives
The YIF creates an enabling environment that provides young people with space and support necessary to become active protection actors within their communities and helps them build life skills that strengthen resilience.
This is achieved through the realization of three main objectives:
- Participation: Young people have genuine opportunities for community participation and opportunities to affect decision-making processes, especially in the area of protection
- Empowerment: Young people learn about project management, use their initiative, evaluate options, learn to make informed decisions and choices, developing and enhancing leadership skills
- Innovation: Young people develop innovative, youth-appropriate protection solutions to addressing personal, group and community challenges
Supporting youth-led protection
With the Global Compact on Refugees, States and partners will develop and adopt a new “whole-of-society approach” to working with refugees through the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework.
The whole-of-society approach, which closely aligns with that of the Youth Initiative Fund (YIF), further embeds UNHCR’s unique community based and participatory models of working with refugee, asylum-seeker, returnee, IDP and the stateless populations.
The young people from these populations are diverse, creative and dynamic. Over the last six years, the Youth Initiative Fund has highlighted time and again – through its unique approach of youth-led protection projects – that when provided with support, training and resources, young people can be creative problem solvers, and are able to design, lead and implement successful projects that benefit, not only themselves but their entire communities.
Interested in applying for the UNHCR Youth Initiative Fund 2019? Register your participation by following the registration link and taking the suggested steps.
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