APROFORT grants support to activities promoting Human Rights and Good Governance in Equatorial Guinea

APROFORT, a TI Portugal led initiative funded by the European Union aimed at protecting activists and promoting the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), including those of good governance in Equatorial Guinea, just concluded the process for awarding financial support to activities strengthening the project goals at the local level.

On March 7, after the blasts that took place in an army barrack, the solidarity of citizens of the town of Bata also emphasised the need of having a structured and strengthened civil society. This support from APPROFORT should boost CSOs capacity while promoting human rights, and the activities to be undertaken by the subgrantees will assist getting a better overview of the situation as well as helping improve any policy decisions to achieve the SDG’s as well as other international commitments before the CPLP, the African Union or the UN Human Rights Council and Committee.

The selection process for the subgrants, mandatory under the European Instrument on Human Rights and Democracy (EIDHR) framework of intervention, was launched in October 2020 and a total of 22 applications were submitted from groups and individuals. From these, 8 proposals were retained by APROFORT after a selection process that considered the experience of the applicants, their participation in the national NGO coordination platform that was created by another EU funded project in 2015, and the alignment with APROFORT´s goals and objectives. The selection process also included in person interviews with the applicants by APROFORT staff in Bata and in Malabo during the month of November 2020.

The 8 selected proposals are worth 39.000 Euros that will directly benefit the civil society of Equatorial Guinea and the country’s performance on Human Rights and SDG’s through the implementation of a set of activities that can be clustered in three groups:

  1. Gender equality: awareness raising activities such as artistic plays or videos focusing primarily on the youth or women with disabilities. Some projects will conduct workshops and to support those girls that might find themselves in a disadvantage position due to pregnancy.
  2. LGBT human rights awareness.
  3. Good governance

In the coming months, the activities of these projects will be featured in APROFORT’s website, in the subgrants sections.

For any inquiries regarding TI Portugal’s mission and APROFORT’s goals, please reach out to our Comms Officer, João Oliveira.