UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - promotes international co-operation among its Member States in the fields of education, the sciences, culture and communication. The Sector of Social and Human Sciences (SHS) - one of the five specialized Sectors of UNESCO - has the mission of advancing knowledge, standards and intellectual cooperation in order to facilitate social transformations where the values of justice, freedom and human dignity can be fully realized.

UNESCO advances its mission through a diversity of actions, including the SHS Small Grants programme on the theme "Poverty eradication - building national capacities for research and policy analysis" described in this brochure.

Objectives of Small Grants Programme
The overall goal of this programme is to encourage mid-career professionals and their institutions to contribute to poverty eradication strategies and national action plans that are based on a human rights framework. [For detailed discussion on human rights in development see "Draft Guidelines: A Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies"

UNESCO contribution under this programme is aimed at strengthening national capacities for research and policy analysis on poverty eradication, thus, assisting selected Member States in developing anti-poverty strategies and action plans based on human rights and in monitoring their implementation. This programme targets researchers in selected Member States in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and parts of Latin America and the Caribbean - the regions or sub-regions, according to prevailing trends, least likely to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal on halving extreme poverty by 2015.

UNESCO wishes to encourage research and policy analysis focusing on the relationship between poverty and human rights. The Organization also wishes to promote analysis on the impact of public policies on the rights of the poor, especially on the extent to which "pro-poor" policies and related national actions in development programming are actually contributing to improved livelihoods and participation of the poor. In cooperation with partners, UNESCO hopes to support work that moves toward a view of poverty as a human rights violation. In so doing the Organization hopes to contribute to a heightened awareness of the injustice of poverty, in accordance with the U.N. Committee on Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights which describes it as "a human condition characterized by the sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights".

Policy research along the following lines would be of particular interest to UNESCO:

Funding and eligibility
The UNESCO Small Grants Programme will provide individual project grants in the amount of $10,000 (upper ceiling) to institutionally-based mid-career professionals at universities, specialized research centres, relevant Government departments, NGOs, etc., in the targeted regions of the world - selected on a competitive basis. This funding is intended to cover the direct costs of the research, including the local travel and subsistence of the principal researcher(s) and research assistants, acquisition of relevant literature and supplies, data collection, analysis, and report preparation. The grant will not cover the salaries of the principal researcher(s) or international travel.

Mid-career professionals with an attained doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in political science or other relevant social science discipline, focusing on human rights, are the intended beneficiaries of this capacity-building effort. Nevertheless, proposals from younger or senior professionals will be considered as well, especially when it can be demonstrated that they are a joint effort and will contribute to capacity-building. A number of younger professionals could also team up in a project provided that the justification for this is provided. Three grants will be earmarked for state of the art reviews of the literature on poverty and human rights (one in each of the three regions), to be allocated on a competitive basis to qualifying members of the CROP [Comparative Research Programme on Poverty] network.

Application, approval process, notification
Eligible candidates are invited to submit their applications to the designated UNESCO Field Office (see below). A complete application will comprise a detailed curriculum vitae of the applicant (and of each team member when it is a joint effort), as well as a detailed research proposal (up to 20 standard pages) providing background on the issues to be studied, policy justification and expected results. To be successful, a project proposal will need to demonstrate the contribution the activity will make, over and above previous efforts.

Selection of successful participants will be made on a competitive basis, in two stages. At the regional level, a committee of 3-4 professionals, including the Directors of the UNESCO Offices concerned, will review proposals and make a pre-selection. The dossiers of the pre-selected candidates will then be forwarded to UNESCO Headquarters in Paris where they will be further reviewed by an International Advisory Committee and final decisions made. UNESCO will notify the successful candidates soon thereafter. This information will be posted on the Web site of the Sector of Social and Human Sciences as well.

Grant administration, reporting, monitoring and evaluation
The grants in this round are tenable for a period of up to 12 months from the date of notification. The funds will be disbursed through the participants' institutions. Those institutions will assist the UNESCO Field Office network in administering the grants. The Letter of Offer will specify the conditions of the grant, including the time lines for disbursement of funds and submission of periodic and final reports.

UNESCO will provide support to the professionals and institutions participating in this Small Grants Programme on an on-going basis and monitor the implementation of individual projects and the programme as a whole. At the end of the cycle the Organization will undertake an overall evaluation of the programme with a view to deciding the future direction of its action on poverty eradication efforts.

Dissemination of results
The International Advisory Committee of the UNESCO Small Grants Programme will convene in a final round to adjudicate on the quality of research results produced and on good practices in poverty eradication identified under this programme. The Advisory Committee will assure that each supported activity has built into it a strategy for the wide dissemination of worthwhile results, especially in the target country or at the sub-regional level. For the overall programme UNESCO will ensure the wide dissemination of important results and good practices at the international level using relevant mechanisms and channels (e.g., the Web, policy papers, video, CD-ROM, the Mass Media, etc.), in collaboration with different national, regional and international partners.

How to apply
Interested participants should send their applications electronically, in English, French or Spanish, to the Director of the relevant UNESCO Field Office, as follows:

West and Central Africa:
UNESCO BAMAKO OFFICE: E-Mail: bamako@unesco.org; Tel.: +223 223 34 92; 223 34 93; Fax: +223 223 34 94; Street address: Badalabougou Est; Postal address: B.P. E 1763, Bamako, MALI

Eastern and Southern Africa:
UNESCO DAR ES SALAAM OFFICE: E-Mail: dar-es-salaam@unesco.org; Tel.: +255 (22) 26 66 623; 26 671 65; Fax: +255 (22) 26 66 927; Street Address: Oyster Bay, Uganda Avenue Plot No 197 A, Dar es Salaam; Postal address: P.O. Box 31473, Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA

Asia-Pacific:
UNESCO NEW DELHI OFFICE: E-Mail: newdelhi@unesco.org; Tel.: +91 (11) 671 3000; Fax: +91 (11) 671 3001/2; Street address: B 5/29 Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi; Postal address: Postal Code 110 029 New Delhi, INDIA

Latin America and the Caribbean:
UNESCO SAN JOSE OFFICE: E-Mail: san-jose@unesco.org; Tel.: +506 258 7625; Fax: +506 258 74 58; 258 76 41; Street address: Paseo Colon, ave 1 bis, calle 28, casa esquinera # 2810, San José; Postal address: Apartado 220-2120, San Francisco de Guadalupe, COSTA RICA

Copies of all applications should also be sent electronically to UNESCO Headquarters in Paris - to the e-mail address:
shs-povertysmallgrants@unesco.org - to facilitate follow-up.

The deadline for submission of applications is 31 October 2004.