ActionAid Nigeria, with funding from Global Affairs Canada, through the Renewed Women’s Voice and Leadership Project, announces a Call for Expression of Interest for Strategic Opportunity Funding. This fund is established to support timely, strategic, and impactful interventions that advance the rights of women and girls in Nigeria.
Issuing Organization: ActionAid Nigeria
Donor: Global Affairs Canada
Project: Renewed Women’s Voice and Leadership Project
Country: Nigeria
Background
ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), with funding from Global Affairs Canada (GAC), through the Renewed Women’s Voice and Leadership (RWVL) Nigeria Project, is pleased to announce a Call for Expressions of Interest for the Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRD) Intervention Fund under the Strategic Opportunity Fund (SOF).
Women Human Rights Defenders play a critical role in advancing gender equality, defending women’s rights, promoting social justice, and challenging discriminatory laws, policies, and practices. However, many WHRDs face threats, intimidation, harassment, online violence, physical attacks, legal persecution, displacement, trauma, burnout, and other risks because of their activism and advocacy.
Recognizing these challenges, the RWVL Nigeria Project seeks to provide timely, flexible, and feminist funding that enables WHRDs and their support organizations to respond rapidly to emerging threats, access protection services, strengthen resilience, promote healing and wellbeing, and continue advancing the rights of women and girls in Nigeria.
The Call
The Strategic Opportunity Fund is a fast responsive fund which is designed to provide women human rights defenders the opportunity to implement impactful short-term projects that positively affect women and girls. The fund enables timely action to protect women human rights defenders, sustain advocacy efforts in gender equality, and address emerging gender-related challenges in crisis contexts.
Recognizing that Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) often require specialized support beyond direct financial assistance, this grant window also welcomes applications from qualified organizations providing care, protection, wellbeing, and recovery services to WHRDs.
The Grant May Support Organizations Providing:
- Psychosocial Support Services
- Trauma-informed counselling and psychosocial support.
- Mental health services for WHRDs experiencing stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, or burnout.
- Individual and group counselling sessions.
- Crisis intervention and emotional support services.
- Survivor-centered healing and recovery programmes.
- Therapeutic and Wellness Services
- Professional therapy and psychotherapy services.
- Feminist healing and wellbeing programmes.
- Rest, recovery, and resilience retreats.
- Wellness coaching and stress management programmes.
- Holistic healing initiatives that support physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing.
- Protection and Security Services
- Emergency shelter and safe housing.
- Security assessments and protection planning.
- Emergency relocation support.
- Case management and referral services.
- Digital security and online protection support.
- Legal and Rights-Based Services
- Legal aid and legal representation.
- Documentation of human rights violations.
- Support for litigation and legal redress.
- Human rights monitoring and protection services.
Eligible Organizations
Organizations applying under this category should be legally registered in Nigeria and demonstrate experience in one or more of the following areas:
- Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS).
- Trauma counselling and psychotherapy.
- Feminist care and healing.
- Protection of human rights defenders.
- Gender-based violence response and survivor support.
- Legal aid and human rights protection.
- Women’s rights, gender justice, and feminist movement strengthening.
- Security and protection services for activists and defenders.
Priority will be given to women-led, feminist, and women-focused organizations with demonstrated experience supporting Women Human Rights Defenders, activists, and marginalized women and girls.
Expected Outcomes
Applications from care and service providers should demonstrate how the proposed intervention will contribute to one or more of the following:
- Improved safety and protection of WHRDs.
- Enhanced mental health and psychosocial wellbeing.
- Reduced stress, trauma, and burnout among defenders.
- Increased resilience and sustainability of feminist activism.
- Strengthened care systems and support networks for WHRDs.
- Improved access to legal, therapeutic, and protection services.
- Increased ability of WHRDs to continue their advocacy and human rights work safely and effectively.
Important Note
The RWVL-N Project recognizes care, healing, wellbeing, and protection as essential components of feminist movement building. Applications that integrate feminist principles of collective care, healing justice, and wellbeing are strongly encouraged.
We really want to hear from applicants who are working with or advocating for structurally excluded groups such as women and girls with disability, women and girls in conflict, women and girls on the move/returnees, female sex workers, female inmates, gender-based violence victims/survivors, out-of-school girls, elderly women and women in politics.
Submission Requirements
All interested applicants should use the attached template to respond to the call. The completed template should be sent alongside an organizational profile or the profile of the women human rights defender.
Please Note:
- Each applicant should submit only one application.
- Applications that are not on the required template will be disqualified.
- Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted due to the volume of applications received.
- AAN will not be responsible for any cost you may incur in the application process.
Budget
Each grant is for a maximum of Seventeen Million, Seven Hundred and Eleven Thousand, Four Hundred and Ninety-Five Naira Only (17,711,495.00). Only 4 grants will be granted annually.
Timeline
- Call Opens:June 17, 2026
- The fund operates on a continuous, rolling basis throughout the year, subject to the availability of funds, with applications submitted as needs arise.
- Only applicants whose submissions meet the fund’s eligibility criteria and are successful will be contacted.
How to Apply
Submit your completed EOI and required documents via email to:
rwvl.sofgrant@actionaid.org
Use the subject line: “Strategic Opportunity Fund – WHRD Intervention Fund”
How to Apply
Submit the completed Expression of Interest and required documents via email to
rwvl.sofgrant@actionaid.org
Use the email subject line:
Strategic Opportunity Fund and indicate the category applied for, for example
Strategic Opportunity Fund – Emergency Intervention Fund
How to Apply – Download template below
Strategic Opportunity Fund – WHRD Intervention Fund Template (38 downloads)
Strategic Opportunity Fund – Budget Template (28 downloads)
