UAF A&P’s Enabling Defenders Programme through its Webs of Safety and Care Grant (WSC Grant) intends to support women, trans and non-binary organisations and their networks with resources to create community-based structures and resources through which they are able to build and strengthen their responses to  risks and threats they face. We recognize that it is essential for defenders to  seek respite, wellbeing and connection from a feminist and politicized lens. Such opportunities are few, especially in the Asia and Pacific region. Further, there are not enough opportunities for defenders to learn from each other and share their wisdom, grounded in their own knowledge and traditions, about how to care for and protect themselves and their communities. There are insufficient resources for local communities to build their own sustainable and effective responses.

The “Webs of Safety and Care” framework looks at safety and care of activists and defenders in a holistic way.  This means the framework looks at women, trans and non-binary defenders as activists and defenders as well as recognising any other roles or identities they may hold. For this, it has identified four specific lenses under which overall risks and threat faced by defenders may be categorised: health and well-being, legal and political protection, economic viability and sustainable livelihood, and social and cultural support.

The different lenses allows activists and defenders to reflect on their lives beyond their identity as an activist and defender only and that how their other identities also impact on their safety, care and well-being. An example of how this framework has allowed an assessment of risk and support provided can be seen here.

WSC Grants seek to provide women, trans and non-binary human rights defenders with sustained access to resources to support their holistic movement infrastructure for collective care, deepening their resilience, wellbeing and safety, that would sustain their lives and their long-term social change work.

Cis-women, trans women, trans men, and non-binary human rights activists and defenders led organisations and networks in Asia and Pacific are eligible to apply for the Webs of Safety and Care grant. Past WSC grantees are also eligible to re-apply for a grant. Please note:

1. You can apply for a WSC grant to conduct a holistic safety and care needs assessment.
   • Grant amount up to USD 5000 per grant is provided to applicants proposing to conduct a complete safety and care assessment of their organisation, network, or community.
2. You can apply for a WSC grant for an initiative that is based on a holistic safety amd care needs assessment.
   • Grant amount up to USD 10,000 per grant is provided to applicants who have conducted a complete safety and care analysis. The proposed plan to address the risks and threats is based on this analysis.

Additional criteria and pro-tips for applicants:

• If you have conducted a safety and care needs assessment before, you can apply for this grant right away! Just make sure to include a copy of your needs assessment report in your application — we assure you that it will remain confidential and shared with anyone outside UAF A&P.
• Your proposal must clearly describe how the proposed initiative will address the safety and care needs identified in the beeds assessment.
• Your proposal must contain a clear implementation strategy and the expected outcomes of the proposed initiative.
• The proposed initiative must be led/implemented by organisations, collectives, and networks led by women, trans, and non-binary human rights defenders.
• Processing of application will include a verification process by UAF A&P’s Country Advisors and trusted partners. Their recommendations will be taken into consideration. For a strong application, you must be recognised and supported by human rights, women’s rights, and other related networks and organisations at the local, national, and/or regional levels.

• If you meet the above criteria and would like to apply for a WSC grant, please create a profile here using a ProtonMail account.
• If you do not have a ProtonMail account, you can create a free account here.
• Fill out all relevant details in the application form and click ‘submit.’
• If you are unable to apply online, you can download the application form and email it to wscgrants@uafanp.org
• While the application form is only available in English at the moment, you can submit your application in any language that you are most comfortable with.

Cis-male human rights defenders and activists are not eligible for UAF A&P’s grants. UAF A&P’s mandate is to offer emergency grants and resilience support to women, trans, and gender diverse human rights defenders and activists in Asia and the Pacific.

We require the holistic assessment to explore all aspects of safety and care for women and non-binary activists and defenders including: health and well-being support, legal and political support, sustainable livelihoods; and social and cultural support. If you are looking for a tool to help your organisation conduct this assessment, we can offer you one that we co-developed with communities in Asia. You do NOT have to use the same tool - you can adapt this in any way useful to your organisation or community, or develop a completely different one that speaks to your context.

If you have not done the holistic needs assessment yet, you are eligible to apply only for conducting the assessment, for which we offer up to US$ 5000.

The Webs of Safety and Care grant is specifically for organisations and networks led by women, trans, and non-binary human rights defenders and activists. Our other grants, the Security and Well Being grants and Resourcing Resilience grants, cater to individuals as well as organisations.

Yes, organisations and networks that are not formally registered but are recognised in the communities they work for and with are eligible to apply for the grant.

For addressing immediate security and well-being needs for women and non-binary activists and defenders, please check out our Security and Well-being grants here

UAF A&P grants are specifically to support women and non-binary human rights defenders facing risk due to their work. Our mandate does not cover grants for activities that represent core programme work of non-profit organisations or community-based organisations

Defenders and their organisations/network can do their own needs assessment. There is no set format or tool for how this assessment. Your organization can choose to do it in whichever form or manner that you collectively choose. However, if you need an assessment tool and technical support on how to use if, we can offer you the one we developed with communities in Asia. Please write to us to access it.

If you have not done the assessment, you can apply only for US$ 5000 in this grant cycle to do the assessment.

Defenders and their organisations/network can do their own needs assessment. There is no set format or tool for how this assessment. Your organization can choose to do it in whichever form or manner that you collectively choose. However, if you need an assessment tool and technical support on how to use if, we can offer you the one we developed with communities in Asia. Please write to us to access it.

Yes, you can. Please indicate the SWB grant application details in your WSC grant application.

UAF A&P grants, including this WSC grants are specifically for providing safety, care and protection of women and non-binary activists only. Therefore it is important that the beneficiaries of the risk assessment are women and/or non-binary human rights defenders.

Please email us at wscgrants@uafanp.org if you would like to access the tool we have developed together with communities of women and non-binary defenders of Asia. Please note, you DO NOT have to use this tool, if you find any other tool more accessible, and relevant to your context, we encourage you to use that to conduct your risk assessment. You are also free to adapt this tool to your context and cultural relevance.

If you are applying for needs assessment, you do not have to respond to questions under section IV. While responding to the section III, please make sure to cover the following:

• Explain who are you doing the assessment with and for? Is this with the women and non-binary activist and defenders?
• Explain about the activists and defenders - what are the human rights work they do? how are they related with your organisation? what are the kind of risks and threats do you see they are facing?
• How do you define holistic safety and care assessment? and what elements will be included in this assessment?
• What will be your process of conducting the assessment? If you have a tool you will be using, can you attach it?
• What is your timeline for conducting this assessment?

For reporting, we have developed a report back mechanism that includes a narrative report and a listing of financial expenditure. We do not usually require you to submit receipts for each expense, unless we notice discrepancies or mismatch. 

Yes, you can. If you have received the WSC grant in the past to conduct a safety and care needs assessment, you can re-apply for a grant to implement an initiative based on the assessment results. If you have received a WSC grant in the past to implement an initiative, you can re-apply to continue building or expanding the initiative. However, please make sure to include all relevant reports documentation of the past previous grant cycle.

The “Webs of Safety and Care” framework looks at the safety and care of human rights defenders and activists in a holistic way through four specific lenses to understand and assess the risks, threats, and challenges they face:

1. health and well-being;
2. egal and political protection;
3. economic viability and sustainable livelihood;
4. social and cultural support.

These lenses allow activists and defenders to reflect on their lives beyond their identity as a defender or activist and recognise the ways in which their other identities can impact their safety, care, and well-being. An example of this framework in use can be seen here.

If you are looking for a tool to help your organisation conduct a holistic safety and care needs assessment, we have co-developed a tool with human rights defenders in Asia. You do not have to use the same tool to be eligible to apply for a WSC grant - you can adapt this in any way that is more accessible, relevant, and useful to your organisation or community, or develop a completely different took that speaks to your context. Email us at wscgrants@uafanp.org to access the assessment tool.

If you are applying for a WSC grant to conduct a holistic safety and care needs assessment, you do not have to respond to questions under section IV. While responding to the section III, please make sure to cover the following:

• Explain who you are doing the assessment with and for? Is it with women, trans, and non-binary human rights activists and defenders?
• Elaborate on the the activists and defenders you work with — what kind of human rights work do they do? How are they related to your organisation? What are the kind of risks and threats they are face?
• How do you define holistic safety and care needs assessment? What elements will be included in this assessment?
• What will be your process of conducting the assessment? If you have identified a tool, please include it in your application.
• What is the timeline for conducting the assessment?

If you have not done a holistic safety and care needs assessment, you can only apply for a USD 5,000 WSC grant to conduct the assessment.

UAF A&P grants, including this WSC grants, are specifically meant for providing safety, care, and protection of women, trans, and non-binary activists only. Therefore, it is important that the beneficiaries of the assessment/initiative are women, trans, and/or non-binary human rights defenders.

If you have not done the holistic safety and care needs assessment yet, you are eligible to apply only for a USD 5000 grant meant for conducting the assessment. If you have done an assessment of holistic safety and care in the past, you can explain the process of assessment, elements of safety and care that were assessed, and key findings in your application. Your proposal should be based on this analysis.