International Republican Institute (IRI)
Promoting Democratic Citizen Values through Community Initiatives
$300,000
To support community resilience and increase citizens’ capacity to respond to local problems in Venezuela, IRI will teach community members skills to implement social entrepreneurship project initiatives that lay democratic foundations by promoting values that strengthen economic freedom, social cohesion and independent decision-making. These activities will help community members become problem solvers and increase their independence from the regime, ultimately contributing to the preservation and recovery of democratic spaces in the country, which are fundamental in any democratic transition.
Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)
Developing an Enabling Environment for Democracy (DEED)
$353,038
To enhance popular support for democracy and develop democratic leadership among the private sector and civil society. The Center and its local partners will organize consensus-building activities to provide Venezuelan citizens with spaces for democratic dialogue at the local and regional levels. The Center will also monitor and investigate data to provide impartial information on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In-country project activities will include developing local public policy proposals, training citizens on democratic processes and values, and investigating the economic and social impacts of COVID-19.
Human Rights
Holding the Venezuelan Regime Accountable for Human Rights Abuses
$50200
To empower victims of human rights violations and raise their voices before international human rights organizations and advocate for more decisive legal and political actions against the Venezuelan state for its gross human rights violations. The organization will bring victims together through a committee to identify the most egregious cases, build solidarity and raise awareness. It will carry out international advocacy in Europe and Latin America with victims to present their cases before international human rights bodies and courts.
Promoting Democratic Governance
Assessing Perceptions of Democracy
$45000
To assess how social control methods are used in vulnerable communities throughout Venezuela. The organization will expand the reach of a study analyzing how the state co-opts and replaces grassroots community organizations and uses repression tactics in vulnerable neighborhoods. The group will conduct focus groups with citizens from diverse backgrounds and interview members of state security forces. The organization will publish and disseminate the results of the investigation with relevant actors in political, academic, civil society, religious and private sector.
Freedom of Information
Defending Freedom of Expression Online
$50000
To expose state sponsored disinformation campaigns intended to disrupt, distort, or control public discussions online throughout Venezuela. The group will refine a technology tool that tracks and documents disinformation campaigns and analyze the content and behavior of automated bot-networks pushing online propaganda. The organization will conduct workshops, host a public event, publish a series of articles in digital media outlets, and produce infographics and short videos for online audiences. The organization will also travel to international internet freedom conferences to disseminate the findings of its study.
Citizen Participation and Inclusion
Indigenous and Community Leadership Capacity Building and Empowerment
$43995
To enhance indigenous leadership, and its participation in local governance; and to foster political activism, open pluralistic political spaces for political dialogue, and community engagement. The organization will build on previous year’s efforts to develop and deliver a training program in three states, to promote community leadership, foster and create new areas for participation and social activism, and support the adoption of community driven initiatives and public policies.
Transparency and Accountability
Increasing Transparency of China-Venezuela Relations
$15000
To strengthen transparency and accountability regarding China’s political, economic, technological and military relation with Venezuela. The organization will work with independent media organizations to investigate and document Chinese relations with Venezuela over the past 15 years. Once completed, the research will be published in a dedicated website, and will be presented in individual meetings to civil society, academics and members of the Venezuelan democratic leaders.
Universal Rights
Monitoring Human Rights Conditions
$48180
To monitor and report on human rights conditions among marginalized populations. The organization will collect data by conducting on-site visits, interviewing family members, and analyzing publicly available information. The group will then draft two bi-annual reports and three thematic reports on vulnerable groups, and present its recommendations to domestic and international actors.
Citizen Participation and Inclusion
Promoting Civic and Political Participation
$120000
To promote civic participation and oversight of local processes through its citizen platform and to foster collaboration between civil society organizations. The group will strengthen its network of community leaders through workshops to oversee political processes and to advocate for solutions to public problems in local communities. The network will develop leaders and mobilize citizens to advocate for the resolution of these problems.
Universal Rights
Strengthening Human Rights Documentation and Advocacy about Migrants in Colombia
$140000
To strengthen human rights documentation about the challenges Venezuelan migrants – especially women and youth – face in Colombia to raise awareness with domestic and international actors. The group will document human rights violations and provide legal support to victims, including referring the cases to Colombian organizations that may litigate them in domestic courts. It will produce reports on the main obstacles women and youth face integrating into Colombian society and raise awareness with local governments, media outlets, and think tanks.
Civic Participation
Fostering Participation, Activism and Human Rights
$120210
To bolster the capacity of youth to monitor and defend human rights through activism; and to empower individuals to expose and denounce human rights violations at the international level. The organization will organize mobilizations to document and raise awareness about rights violations. Similarly, it will lead advocacy campaigns and leverage other communication tools to engage citizens in the defense of democracy and human rights promotion.
Civic Participation
Strengthening Regional Citizen Networks
$143000
To strengthen and mobilize a nationwide network of citizens in support of democratic change in Venezuela. Citizens will engage in regional and national activities to promote a peaceful and constitutional resolution to Venezuela’s crisis. Through on-site assessments and training workshops, regional citizen platforms will be strengthened and articulated.
Universal Rights
Defending Freedom of Association and Expression
$45140
To promote human rights principles with student leaders and professors; and to raise awareness about violations to academic freedom in Venezuela. Funds will support the student network it createdand its training program that strengthens students’ and professors’ ability to document academic freedom, freedom of association and expression violations in the Venezuelan education system. The group will also produce a publication that it will disseminate via independent media and with international human rights bodies.
Universal Rights
Strengthening Human Rights Documentation and Advocacy
$90460
To strengthen the capacity and resiliency of human rights defenders to document and report violations and to raise international awareness about the worsening situation in Venezuela. Local activists, grassroots leaders, and family members of political prisoners will receive trainings on human rights documentation, due process, resiliency and mental and physical security, and international instruments to protect against threats. The group will raise the visibility of emblematic cases before domestic and international audiences.
Democratic Ideas and Values
Research and Analysis on the State of Democracy
$95950
To promote independent political research and analysis on the state of democracy and provide strategic recommendations to defend democratic space in Venezuela. The group will carry out research and opinion polls to monitor the political situation and will facilitate expert roundtables to analyze results and identify policy recommendations. It will share its analysis with domestic and international actors.
Civic Participation
Fostering Democratic Activism
$40000
To promote democratic leadership in four states through capacity building activities; and to foster activism and social change by supporting citizen participation strategies and initiatives. The organization will build capacity of youth in four states on topics such as democracy, security, activism, and human rights. Participants in the program will generate 18 pro-democracy advocacy and activism initiatives, which will be amplified through communication campaigns.
Freedom of Information
Circumventing Censorship and Providing Access to Information
$55000
To combat disinformation and government censorship by disseminating independent information to citizens and activists. The organization will use non-digital tools, such as radio, messaging, and posters in public spaces to disseminate information to citizens in outlying areas of the country. The group will also complete research, publish studies, and conduct advocacy to counter disinformation and overcome censorship.
Freedom of Information
Strengthening Independent Media
$199950
To strengthen independent media; and to improve outreach to new audiences and ensure the availability of independent, verifiable information. In collaboration with domestic and international partners, the organization will publish a series of articles on various topics of local interest.
Freedom of Information
Expanding Independent News Coverage
$252709
To expand independent news coverage for Venezuelans in a closing media landscape. The organization will leverage its current news production capacity on digital media platforms to add reporters and videographers to produce daily reports from states across Venezuela, and longer features highlighting the humanitarian crisis. It will also expand its audience by creating a digital marketing department.
Freedom of Information
Promoting Citizen Journalism
$45000
To promote freedom of expression and information by supporting a network, alternative media platforms, and civil society organizations; and to raise awareness about the current humanitarian, economic, security and human rights crises. The organization will focus on amplifying, curating, and disseminating information coming from its vast network and from other independent media outlets. It will support and disseminate information on topics such as medicine shortages, the state of public services, the covid-19 crisis, and other issues of public concern.
Citizen Participation and Inclusion
Reducing Polarization in Communities in Venezuela
$55000
To strengthen Venezuela’s social fabric, reduce polarization, and raise awareness about structural violence and the damage it has caused within society. The organization will map out the needs of communities and invite members to participate in local dialogues. It will employ a deliberative democracy model to engage citizens in discussions about key community problems. The group will carry out trainings to help citizens launch advocacy campaigns and to raise awareness about common challenges.
Citizen Participation and Inclusion
Engaging Youth in Political Innovation
$50000
To empower emerging young leaders to develop innovative solutions for pressing socio-political and humanitarian challenges. Through trainings, networking, mentoring, and small funding, the organization will empower youth to develop projects that address the humanitarian situation, engage citizens in public affairs, and reach out to new sectors and groups. It will also organize virtual forums to engage youth and grassroots leaders and identify potential training participants.
Universal Rights
Strengthening Human Rights Defenders in Venezuela
$65000
To strengthen human rights defenders’ capacity to protect themselves from physical and digital attacks and to raise awareness about the human rights situation through international advocacy. The group will monitor and document threats against human rights defenders and alert the public when attacks occur. It will present these reports to raise awareness of the worsening situation. The organization will also train independent civil society members to identify, mitigate and prevent risks that threaten their lives.
Citizen Participation and Inclusion
Conducting Civic Engagement on Pressing Public Problems
$21780
To strengthen the capacity of citizens and community organizations to demand solutions to the deteriorating conditions of public services in Venezuela. The organization will facilitate trainings to local civil society and political party members that will form community associations to demand improved public services. A number of these associations will receive additional legal and technical support as part of a pilot program.
Universal Rights
Documenting Human Rights Violations
$120000
To document human rights violations in Venezuela and contribute to the investigations. The organization will document human rights violations in Venezuela collecting evidence and testimonies. Additionally, the organization will raise awareness about Venezuela’s open cases.
Citizen Participation and Inclusion
Strengthening and Empowering a Network of Women Leaders
$160000
To strengthen the leadership capacity of women in eight states and to contribute to mapping the risks, challenges, and priorities that women face in low-income communities. The group will train women on democratic ideas and values and support them to grow the women’s leadership network. The organization will invite selected leaders to partake in a fellowship program aimed at bringing together female leaders in communities to hold discussions and to monitor and report on the human rights situation.
Universal Rights
Defending Workers and Raising Awareness of Rights Violations
$52000
To improve domestic and international awareness of violations against workers’ rights. The organization will support a watchdog network of civil society organizations to survey labor rights violations in fourteen states and the capital city. It will compile information, analyze trends, publish reports, and conduct advocacy regarding violations of international labor standards. The group will promote its findings by hosting events and producing infographics, case briefs, and audio-visual products.
Freedom of Information
Reporting on the Crisis
$120906
To document and report on human and social rights violations by training citizens in the use of journalism. The organization will document, write articles, and produce videos and podcasts about the political and humanitarian crisis. It will continue to train and guide its network members and strengthen their ability to collect high-impact stories through multimedia products that shed light on the ongoing crisis.
Freedom of Expression
Circumventing Censorship and Providing Access to Information
$79960
To circumvent censorship and provide access to information to vulnerable communities. The organization will produce and deliver hyperlocal news in vulnerable communities and continue disseminating news in public spaces in select states. In addition, the group will conduct workshops on how to circumvent censorship and online forums on best journalism. With additional support, the group will strengthen its institutional capacity, train its staff, and explore new dissemination strategies.
Universal Rights
Strengthening the Human Rights Perspective in Independent Journalism
$46100
To strengthen the capacity of independent journalists to incorporate a human rights perspective in their reporting. The group will train journalists, journalism students and activists to reduce discrimination and stigmatization in their news coverage of human rights issues. The organization will prioritize reporting about citizens in vulnerable situations such as human trafficking, forced migration, and LGBTI populations. It will publish guides and emblematic cases on its website.
Civic Participation
Supporting Democratic Youth Leaders
$120000
To enhance the leadership, organizational, and networking capacity of youth to engage in the recovery of democracy; and to foster international solidarity with the Venezuelan cause by raising the profiles and voices of youth leaders. In collaboration with other civil society organizations in Latin America, the group will provide leadership and project management trainings to young leaders and will guide them in implementing democracy assistance programs in their communities.
Universal Rights
Defending Human Rights
$68430
To promote the respect of human rights through case monitoring, documentation, and advocacy; and raise domestic and international attention on the use of the judicial system to persecute and intimidate citizens. The group will collect information on arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and violations to due process, and complete reports on political prisoners. It will provide pro bono legal representation and bring cases to international human rights bodies. It will launch a communications campaign to raise the visibility of political prisoners.
Freedom of Information
Circumventing Censorship and Informing Citizens
$20000
To circumvent government censorship of independent media, allowing citizens to access daily news reports. It will disseminate short daily audio and video reports, a weekly broadcast, and a program summarizing investigations on disinformation. All content produced will be disseminated and posted online.
Civic Participation
Promoting Citizen Engagement
$110000
To articulate a national coalition of civil society groups and citizens in support of citizen engagement and participation. The organization will set up a broad coalition of experts, civil society organizations and citizens in ten states to advocate and defend a democratic and open participation system in Venezuela.
Freedom of Information
Promoting Solutions Based Journalism
$68800
To strengthen the broader media ecosystem with high quality investigative journalism and audiovisual content on issues that humanize the Venezuelan crisis and to build the capacity of young journalists and citizens to produce investigative journalism. The organization will expand its training program on long form and solutions-based journalism targeting young journalists and working professionals interested in producing written and audio-visual content for internet audiences. The group will also provide tailored mentorships to participants producing stories for major digital media outlets.
Conflict Resolution
Promoting Dialogue and Reconciliation
$83646
To increase understanding of democratic values and institutions among key constituencies; and to reduce polarization and facilitate dialogues across the ideological spectrum. The group will develop tailored training materials that promote notions of checks and balances, government accountability, and individual rights and responsibilities. In the second phase of the project, the group will pilot a series of dialogues among citizens with diverse views to identify potential avenues of engagement and shared concerns.
Democratic Norms, Ideas and Values
Strengthening Analysis and Awareness about Institutional Fragility and its Effects
$64580
To strengthen the analysis about the causes of institutional fragility, its impact on society, and implications for reconstructing democratic governance. The group will develop indicators that measure state fragility and produce a report with its findings. It will raise awareness about its findings and develop a network of activists and community leaders who will advocate for implementing solutions to the country’s crisis.
Universal Rights
Understanding the Political and Institutional Crisis
$50700
To foster analysis, reflection, and discussion about Venezuela’s political and institutional trajectory. The media outlet will produce a series of in-depth publications about the relationship between the progressive loss of rule of law, absence of institutions, and weakening of democratic values on the current humanitarian, economic and migration crises. It will produce a multimedia series that expose the government’s attacks against freedom of expression, the persecution of civil society, and the impact of the humanitarian crisis in neighboring countries.
Coalition and Network Building
Documenting Closing Civic Space
$144000
To strengthen the operational, technical and advocacy capacities of human rights organizations and defenders to denounce freedom of assembly violations in international forums; and foster solidarity and collective action among Venezuelan activists. The organization will convene human rights defenders from across the country to share best practices and improve coordination. It will assist groups to draft reports and participate in the UN human rights mechanisms. It will also provide microgrants to strengthen the organizational and advocacy capacity of nascent groups.
Venezuela
Universal Rights
Promoting Human Rights through Creative Audiovisual Tools
$112260
Public Summary: To raise awareness and foster greater audiovisual documentation of human rights violations in underserved communities. This program will strengthen the capacity of community members to use audiovisual tools to call attention to human and civil rights issues at the local level. Through cultural tools and human rights workshops, the group will disseminate messages in support of human rights in marginalized areas of Caracas.
Universal Rights
Strengthening a Network of Human Rights Defenders
$29960
To strengthen the network of activists, educators, and human rights defenders in the border region. The group will carry out human rights and holistic security trainings to empower activists to report violations and ensure their safety. It will support and grow its network in the border regions that can assess risk and respond to challenges. The organization will raise awareness about the work it carries out, especially with international actors and human rights bodies.
Promoting Democratic Governance
Food Security and the Transition to Democracy
$105150
To improve the quantity and quality of information on socio-economic indicators; and to foster a network of activists, intellectuals and citizens to facilitate discussions on a democratic transition. The group will carry out regular surveys and expert interviews across the country to map socio-economic indicators, such as public service infrastructure, access to health, schooling and food, and migration patterns. It will organize discussions on the socio-economic situation and its potential impact on a political transition.
Universal Rights
Promoting Freedom of Expression and Independent Thought in Venezuela
$64400
To promote freedom of expression and independent thought among Venezuelan intellectuals and citizens. The group will edit and reprint two books that narrate truths behind a 2004 criminal investigation and the political economy of the Bolivarian revolution. It will also publish four new books on the healthcare crisis, corruption, criminal organizations, and historic protests. The organization will carry out monthly discussion groups on these issues and build a network of engaged readers.
Citizen Participation and Inclusion
Building Public Awareness on Democratic Initiatives
$60000
To increase dialogue and understanding of the Venezuelan authoritarian political model and transition alternatives among domestic and international actors. The group will edit, publish and disseminate an academic magazine. It will engage both academics and practitioners as contributors and will organize a discussion with decision-makers and authors following the publication of each issue. At the end of the project, it will publish a compilation of selected articles in a book format.
Citizen Participation and Inclusion
Elevating Youth Voices
$49713
To foster a national platform of dialogue, interaction and advocacy among youth to promote engagement, cohesion and solidarity. The organization will consolidate a national forum to map youth groups, plan and coordinate training and advocacy activities, and complete research on comparative democratic transitions. The group will work to elevate the voices and profiles of youth and emerging leaders.
Universal Rights
Strengthening Networks of Solidarity
$124076
To strengthen a nationwide civil society network to document the humanitarian crisis; and to defend the rights of vulnerable populations in domestic and international bodies. The group will help citizens, organizations, and healthcare providers gain access to and channeling of humanitarian aid, and also document the humanitarian crisis, emphasizing its disproportionate effect on vulnerable populations.
Citizen Participation and Inclusion
Fostering Political Participation and Leadership
$25000
To promote democratic activism and political participation through trainings. The organization will build capacity for renewed democratic leadership in one state, to provide emerging leaders with tools and knowledge to engage in decision-making processes and strengthen their activism capacities. The organization will consolidate its network of emerging leaders, activists, and members of civil society organizations.
