2025 Call for Expression of Interest to receive the Justice Action Coalition Catalytic Fund: Support for Innovative People-Centered Justice Initiatives

Background

Launched in April 2021 the Justice Action Coalition (JAC) is a multi-stakeholder, high-ambition coalition of countries and organizations championing equal access to justice for all. The guiding ambition of the Justice Action Coalition is to close the global justice gap and the goal is to achieve measurable progress in justice outcomes for people and communities by the second SDG Summit in 2023 and beyond. The JAC calls for bold action to transform justice systems. It urges countries to pivot to people-centered justice by:

1. Gathering data on the justice people want and need and how they experience their justice journey.
2. Co-creating strategies to become much better at resolving and preventing people’s most common justice problems, ensuring gender equality of all responses.
3. Setting shared goals for a range of justice actors and starting implementation of strategies to achieve these goals.
4. Investing at scale to transform justice as it is delivered to and experienced by people, reducing the number of unresolved justice problems, and creating fair outcomes.

In 2023, under the JAC Declaration, the Catalytic Fund on People Centered Justice was established and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was tasked with implementing the initiative. This Catalytic Fund focuses on supporting strategic and innovative people-centered justice initiatives at country level to accompany JAC member countries in the co-creation of strategies for people-centered justice reforms at the national level and broker access to international expertise, partnerships, and financial support. In this, it will support justice actors in countries and follow their lead in designing data-driven and evidence-based programs and setting goals appropriate for the context. This support will help to increase the visibility of diverse and inclusive political leadership for people-centered justice. UNDP manages the catalytic funds to deliver demand-driven, short/medium-term support to countries, in order to help countries make the pivot towards people-centered justice.

To access the resources under the Catalytic Fund, countries are requested to send an initial letter/email of intent to UNDP indicating their interest and political commitment to implementing people-centered justice and proposed area of work in line with set criteria. JAC partner organizations may nominate countries to receive catalytic support. Once countries are pre-selected, technical support will be provided by UNDP and external partners to develop the JAC catalytic funding proposal. The minimum allocation for catalytic funding is $50,000 USD and the maximum is $200,000 USD per proposal.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility criteria include those stipulated below.:

1. Commitment to the principles towards people-centered justice as outlined in the JAC Declaration,[1] JAC Key messages on people-centered justice, and UNDP policy framework on people-centered justice and security.
2. Demonstrating that initiatives are or will be co-created between state and non-state actors such as civil society organizations, community leaders and/or traditional or informal justice systems/actors, where applicable (e.g., through a request letter by national authorities or other document articulating demand).

And more specifically innovative initiatives will receive support if :

1. There is clear outcome orientation on impact for people and people-centered reforms.
2. Meet key elements for people-centered justice such as addressing complexity, empowerment of people and communities as elaborated in JAC messages on PCJ and UNDP People Policy framework on people centred justice and security
3. There is demonstration of engagement with civil society and/or informal justice systems to co-create and implement the initiative, including on monitoring, evaluation and learning; collaboration with JAC member organizations will be an asset. In the case that the applicant is a non-state actor, there should be demonstrated engagement with the state institutional justice system.
4. The initiative build on and integrate existing data on people-centred justice (when applicable)
5. Initiative demonstrates sustainability and there is a willingness to scale up initiative, noting that funding could go to complement an existing initiative (reform, programme, other)
6. There is commitment to robust Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning of the initiative to inform broader JAC efforts and workstreams.
7. There is commitment to gender equality and initiative meets a minimum of GEN2 on the UNDP gender equality marker and HR marker [3]
8. There is an articulation of ongoing initiatives by authorities (Government, judiciary, NHRI, other), CSOs, international community, to avoid duplication and ensure complementarity [4]

Please refer to the following documents uploaded with this call as you consider your eligibility for support under the Fund

1. Declaration on the Justice Action Coalition
2. Key Messages on People Centered Justice
3. UNDP Policy Framework on People-Centered Justice and Security
4. Proposal template
5. Budget template
6. Result framework

Interested applicants should send their indication of interest to the following email address

Revai Makanje Aalbaek, revai.makanje.aalbaek@undp.org, or reach out to their local UNDP Country Office by 21 February 2025.

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[1] Funds will be made available to UNDP country offices in order to work with government partners, civil society, and development partners in country as per UNDP Rules and Regulations.

[2] The human rights marker for UNDP is in process of being finalized and should be utilized once in place.

[3] Note that JAC members will provide relevant information to this effect.