Global Solidarity Fund: equality impact assessment results

15. Recommendations and Conclusions

The combined Equality and Fairer Scotland Duty Impact Assessment has surfaced some important aspects for the design and delivery of the Global Solidarity Fund and these will be discussed further with the Grant Fund Manager and Learning Partner once the contract is awarded.

Outcome 1: CSO Strengthening

Scotland’s small iNGOs are safe, resilient & effective in delivering against their mission.

Grants provided under outcome 1 should support CSOs to adopt inclusive practices within their organisations but also with the communities they serve in Partner Countries. Key areas for consideration include, but are not limited to:

• Leadership, including CSO board composition and senior decision making positions.
• Technical capacity for gender and disability inclusion e.g. availability and completion of training on gender and disability inclusion, including safeguarding.
• Recruitment, employment and retention, including of volunteers.
• Communications and engagement, including internal or external marketing and/or advertising materials are accessible, inclusive, ethical.
• Project/programme design, including that gender and disability inclusion is considered in project and programme design and that this is informed by an understanding of how those issues play out in the contexts in which the CSOs operate in partner countries.
• Accountability, including that the CSO collects data disaggregated by gender and disability (internally and of the communities they serve) to inform their work and practices.

Outcome 2: Global Citizenship Engagement

Increased understanding of and participation in global citizenship (active global citizenship) by the Scottish public.

Grants provided under outcome 2 should make clear the expectation that grantees adopt an inclusive approach to communications which interrogates harmful stereotypes often conveyed in aid-focused messaging by organisations in the Global North, which is shown to have a particular impact on African women.

There are a number of resources available which provide advice on the development of ethical communications & storytelling, including ethical photography, inclusive language and participatory approaches which can be signposted in the Fund application materials and to potential applicants.

Grantees should also consider disability inclusion in the development of their communications strategies and campaigns. This should take a participatory where possible, ensuring disabled people and the work of disabled people’s organisations are represented, and embed accessibility to remove barriers to engagement.

Outcome 3: Locally Led Development

Opportunities for small Scottish iNGOs to work with partners towards a locally led model of development are catalysed.

Given the focus of outcome 3 on shifting power and resources from Scottish based CSOs to local organisations and communities in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda, projects funded under this outcome will be required to consider gender dynamics and disability inequality factors as they apply in Partner Countries, as well as the power dynamics between Global North and Global South actors.

Partners will be required to set out how they will implement an approach which aligns with the SG’s Feminist Approach to International Relations through embedding gender and disability inclusion as a way to protect the rights of marginalised groups. This should include a commitment to consider the intersectionality of gender, disability and power structures when looking to shift their delivery model and should be specific to the intervention. As interventions under outcome 3 span 2 years (outcome 1&2 are 12-month terms), this should allow sufficient time for appropriate considerations and actions. Data is likely to be a barrier to implementing this objective and as such, grantees will be supported to share and collaborate on data and evidence in order to achieve the Fund’s overall aims.

Other Fund design considerations surfaced through the assessment process:

Grant Fund Manager Procurement Process

The Global Solidarity Fund will be delivered via a procured contract for a Fund Manager who will undertake the day-to-day administration and management of the Fund. The procurement exercise will require bidders to evidence that the staff they employ to administer the funds are appropriately skilled in gender and disability inclusion matters.

Promotion of the Fund

The Scottish Government will work with the Fund Manager and the SG core funded networking bodies to promote the Fund widely, including to diaspora led organisations.

Application Assessment – Project Selection

The Fund Manager will assess applications to the Global Solidarity Fund based on criteria agreed with the SG. This will include the extent to which the applicants can evidence how they will address the issues raised under outcomes 1-3 above.

Monitoring & Evaluation

Gender equality and disability inclusion objectives will be embedded in the Fund design and data will be captured at programme and project level to inform delivery against those.

Sharing Learning

The Fund Manager will work in partnership with the SG Contract Manager and the Learning Partner to provide regular opportunities for the grantees of the Fund to connect with and share learning & best practice on CSO strengthening, global citizenship engagement and shifting to locally led development with the wider CSO community in Scotland.