Small Grants Programme

NEWWomen Friendly Cities 2013 Small Grants Programme Compendium is now available. You can download the compendium by clicking this link. (Linked document contents are in Turkish)
Local Equality Action Plans prepared in 12 partner provinces of Women Friendly Cities Programme and put into practice in the year 2013 are the roadmaps developed to ensure that local administrations and civil society can ensure gender equality on local level. Preparation and implementation processes of Local Equality action Plans were carried out in accordance with participation and transparency principles, which are among the main principles of good governance. In parallel with this principle, duties and responsibilities of civil society were also described in Local Equality Action Plans. Similarly, the key preliminary condition to achieve the related goal in the implementation of the activities was described as “ensuring the cooperation between civil society and public authorities”.
A grant scheme was initiated in the year 2012 in the Programme cities, with the aim of assisting the non-governmental organizations for taking up their roles on the implementation of LEAPs and creating a positive atmosphere supporting the cooperation between local administrations and civil society. The objectives of the Women Friendly Cities Small Grants Programme can be summarized as follows:
- Increasing awareness on Local Equality Action Plans (LEAPs) and strengthen local ownership of LEAPs,
- Supporting LEAP implementations,
- Building project management capacities of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in this field,
- Increasing cooperation between Non-Governmental Organizations and local public institutions.
Small Grants Programme was included in the Programme as an important component for supporting and spreading LEAP implementations through trainings, campaign and advocacy activities, consultancy services and various activities on empowering NGOs, women and girls. Overall, the Small Grants Programme is expected to increase cooperation at the local level.
In the scope of the project, projects including one or more LEAP headings stated below were planned to be supported:
- Women and Education Services
- Women and Health Services
- Women’s Participation in Economic Life
- Combating Violence against Women
- Women’s Participation in Decision-Making Mechanisms
- Women and Urban Services

Small Grants Programme of 2013 was initiated on 10th of May 2013 and was opened for the applications of NGOs from 11 programme provinces that had already completed their LEAPs. 53 applications were received until the deadline on the 11th of July 2013. After applications went under a pre-assessment and were discussed by the evaluation committee, 20 projects were chosen to be eligible for financial support and project implementations were initiated by October 2013.
Each project was supported with 4000 US Dollars and most of the projects received financial and / or in kind support by local public institutions. In this regard, the project set solid examples in terms of utilizing local sources and realization of the commitments of local authorities, such as Municipalities, public institutions, special provincial administrations and local councils, to the implementation of the LEAPs.
NGOs continued to be involved as important programme stakeholders not only by developing exemplary cooperation with public institutions but also by acting as intermediaries in ensuring that the programme and the LEAPs include women and girls who are in need in the provinces with the help of the grant scheme.
Women Friendly Cities Grant Scheme resumed in 2014 with an increased support amount and expanded scope. Non-Governmental Organizations operating in 12 Programme provinces are provided 25.000 TL grant support per project in the scope of 2014 grant scheme. The grant applications were closed by 6th of June 2014 and 18 projects were awarded with grants. The projects started in September 2014.