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, €7 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.
Three open calls for proposals
There will be three open calls for proposals under this programme. Three groups of projects are supported under the first open call, which will allocate nearly €4.5 million in grants.
Establishing women’s shelters
The first group of projects is 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 this measure is €3 million, and grant amounts are to range between €170 000 and €1 million.
Supporting women at risk of violence
The second group of projects is to support new providers of social services to women at risk of violence and female victims through the establishment of new counselling centres meeting the European standards in this field.
Projects within the third group will focus on supporting the existing counselling centres for victims of domestic violence which already are providing services.
The allocation for the second measure is €1 million, and over €465 000 is earmarked for the third group of projects. Grant amounts are to range between €5 000 and €170 000.
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.
Timeline
Announcement call for proposals: 28 March 2013
Dedline: 1 July 2013
Find out more about how to apply here.
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