The programme is focused on increasing the accessibility of institutional support to women at risk, victims of violence and their children and other victims of domestic violence.
In addition to being a human rights violation, domestic and gender-based violence also impacts a country's social and economic development. To contribute to the fight against this multidimensional problem, €8.4 million have been earmarked for combating domestic and gender-based violence in Slovakia under the Norway Grants 2009-2014.
The need for such a programme is confirmed by data from Slovakia. In 2011, 6.8% of women over the age of 15 admitted to having experienced abuse in the past 12 months, according to figures from the country’s Institute for Labour and Family Research (in Slovak).
The Government Office of the Slovak Republic is the programme operator, and the Norwegian Directorate of Health and the Council of Europe are the donor programme partners. The programme will draw from Norwegian experience in providing shelter for abused women. Norway’s first state-funded women’s shelter was opened in 1978. The Council of Europe has been providing its expertise to facilitate the preparation and implementation of the programme.
Two calls for proposals
Two calls for proposals under this programme are currently open. The first call has a total allocation of nearly €2.7million in grants. The second call makes €2.4 million available to relevant projects.
Establishing women’s shelters and supporting women at risk of violence
Under the first call for proposals, projects are to focus on the establishment of women’s shelters meeting the European standards in this field. The shelters will comply with the human rights standards and specific needs of women with various backgrounds, based on the non-discrimination principle in respect to their ethnicity, nationality, health status and age.
The allocation for these types of activities is €2.1 million, and grant amounts are to range between €170 000 and €1 million.
Within both calls, projects will also focus on supporting the existing counselling centres for victims of domestic violence which already are providing services.
The allocation for this is €1.5 million. Grant amounts are to range between €5 000 and €170 000 for the small grant scheme and €170,000 to €600,000 for the normal grant scheme.
Both calls also have an allocation of €1.5 million to media campaigns aimed at preventing domestic and gender-based violence.
Partnerships with Norwegian institutions are strongly encouraged at project level. To facilitate the cooperation between Slovak and Norwegian entities, the programme operator has published a list of potential project partners from Norway. A matchmaking event will also be organised in Bratislava on 16 September. See the programme operator’s webpage for more information on this.
Timeline
Announcement call for proposals: 8 September 2014
Deadline: 10 November 2014