Call for Proposals – Justice Centre Grants, MyJustice II

The British Council has been implementing the European Union (EU) funded MyJustice Programme (DCI-ASIE/2015/359-042) in Myanmar since August 2015. MyJustice is a ground-breaking and very successful access to justice and legal empowerment programme delivering interventions across four results areas namely, legal and rights awareness, improving justice service provision, strengthening community-based dispute resolution and sharing evidence to inform better justice policy. MyJustice delivers activities in six Regions/States and across 64 townships in Myanmar, in cooperation with 47 local and international non-governmental organisations and in close liaison with the government’s Justice Sector Coordinating Body. The implementation of the first phase of MyJustice will come to an end on 30 November 2019.

The European Union Delegation in Yangon, Myanmar has entrusted the implementation of its follow-up programme, Deepening Access to Justice in Myanmar (MyJustice II) Programme (ACA/2019/041-444) to the British Council. The MyJustice II Programme, to the value of Euro 19.8 million, has an implementation period of 60 months and an overall objective to: Improve access to justice for women, the poor and people living in vulnerable situations in Myanmar. The inception phase of MyJustice II is set to commence on 1 December 2019. MyJustice II will build upon the foundations laid during MyJustice, taking a community driven and participatory approach to access to justice that empowers beneficiaries to seek justice and strengthens capacities of legal/justice service providers to better serve people’s justice needs.

Since 2015, MyJustice has supported Justice Centres in six regions and states, providing legal representation to over 6,000 clients and advice to more than 5,000 people in 47 townships. Adapting to clear needs and lessons learnt, MyJustice also focused greater efforts on improving the practices of legal aid and private lawyers through the Justice Centres’ internal trainings as well as criminal defense “communities of practice” which have catalysed more rights-based litigation practices by Justice Centre and private lawyers across Myanmar.

The Myanmar government is obligated to provide criminal defence for indigent accused under Constitution Section 375 and the Legal Aid Law (2017) and is beginning to provide government-funded legal aid services in all fourteen regions and states. As the government legal aid system may take several years to become fully functional and may face similar challenges in building a rights-based understanding of legal aid amongst its lawyers, the need for justice among women, the poor and vulnerable people remains great. To aid the government’s efforts, MyJustice will continue supporting Justice Centres to break new ground in demonstrating effective and early access to counsel with a commitment to client empowerment and litigation for change.

To that end, MyJustice presents the funding opportunity below, subject to a suspensive condition as funding will depended on the successful settlement of agreements between the British Council and the European Union, and between the European Union and the Government of Myanmar.

Interested applicants should review the Call for Proposal & Application Guidance (CFP) and related documents below.

 

The CFP provides all the details including Project Requirements as well as guidance for completing the required application templates. Applicants must use the document templates (Template A, B and C) in line with the Application Guidance and include additional supporting documentation as requested.

 

 

Questions regarding the submission of the proposal will be accepted electronically at myjustice@mm.britishcouncil.org until 1700 hours (Myanmar time) Friday, 2 August 2019. Questions will be answered electronically and published on this webpage by 1700 hours (Myanmar time) Wednesday, 7 August 2019.

Proposals must be submitted electronically to myjustice@mm.britishcouncil.org no later than 1700 hours (Myanmar time) on Wednesday, 21 August 2019  Friday, 23 August 2019. MyJustice will accept applications received at any time up to that date and time.