The Ipas Africa Alliance Project aims to enhance bodily autonomy, agency, and the enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) among adolescent girls and young women. This initiative achieves its goals by sub-granting funds and providing technical support to grassroots community-based organizations (CBOs) and local groups. Additionally, it strengthens grassroots movements that advocate for SRHR, employing a positive, human rights-based approach to increase self-efficacy and agency among adolescents and young people. Through this approach, the project seeks to shift attitudes and behaviors toward greater support for adolescent SRHR, including improved access to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), contraception, and safe abortion care.
By empowering local organizations, the Ipas Africa Alliance Project fosters resilient, community-led movements that champion SRHR, challenge harmful social norms, and drive sustainable, lasting change. This community-centered strategy ensures that those most affected by SRHR issues take leadership roles in the movement, creating solutions that are both contextually relevant and deeply rooted in their lived experiences. For the sub-awardees, the grant facilitates the development of SRHR strategies and solutions tailored to the specific needs and realities of their communities, ensuring interventions are both locally grounded and impactful.
The intended Project has two main intended outcomes:
- Communities demonstrate a significant shift in attitudes and behaviors, embracing more positive, human rights-based narratives that support adolescent SRHR, including access to CSE, contraception and abortion care.
- Self-efficacy and agency are increased among adolescents and young people.
Ipas Africa Alliance therefore invite Request for Applications from local and grassroots organizations to address key thematic areas for grants including.
- Attitude and behavior change among communities
- Youth and adolescent support/CSE
- Increased access to SRH knowledge
- Increasing access to contraception and abortion care
The project will achieve its goals by fostering a significant shift in community attitudes and behaviors, encouraging the adoption of positive, human rights-based narratives that support adolescent SRHR. This includes advancing access to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), contraception, and safe abortion care, while also enhancing self-efficacy and agency among adolescents and young people.
Awardee Criteria
- Organizations with women’s Reproductive health and rights included in their strategic objectives.
- Organizations that have existed for at least 3 years and are locally registered.
- Organizations that have an annual operating budget of under $ 50k
- Organizations that have a vision for how abortion rights advance the rights of women, girls,
- and others who need an abortion.
- Organizations that work through a rights-based approach and can show a record of past program experience are desirable but not critical.
- Organizations that are well connected to community self-help groups and collaborate to advance women’s empowerment.
- Organizations with annual narrative and financial reports.
- Organizations with a bank account, and clear processes for financial management.
Attachments to RFA:
- Attachment A – Application Form
- Attachment B – Management Systems Questionnaire
- Attachment C – Instructions to Awardees
All Awardees are responsible for carefully reviewing all information, including attachments, and following any instructions related to this RFA. If anything is unclear, the Awardee should submit questions and comments to the assigned Ipas contact by the date indicated above.