Unhcr Opens Call for Proposals for Community-based Social Media Influencers

• Eligibility:

• • Only UNHCR country operations are able to apply to the challenge and one submission is accepted per operation.
  • This Expression of Interest should command the support of senior management within the operation.
• Funding amount: Up to $50,000
• Type of funding: Programmatic
• Target countries: Global (UNHCR country operations)
• Application languages: English

Working with community-based social media influencers has the potential to strengthen UNHCR’s ability to build trust in a community by working to support community-led content creation, sharing and response to community engagements. However, working with social-media influencers is not without its challenges – often relating to selection, due diligence, the risk of reinforcing entrenched inequalities through stereotypes and the exclusion of minority voices.

At a global level, the Division of External Relations has also developed significant experience engaging with influencers online – from those with thousands of followers to ‘nanos’. This knowledge is being fed into the development of a toolkit to support UNHCR operations with their influencer engagement. While initially this engagement focused on External Relations – including through Private Sector Partnerships – a number of UNHCR operations have started to engage with such nano influencers to strengthen Community Based Protection Approaches.

Evaluation Criteria

For the Call for Proposals, awarding of funds will be based on the following criteria equally weighted:

• Challenge: Framing of the Challenge and evidence / data to support it with a key focus on inclusive community engagement, leadership and feedback response.
• Solution: Articulation of the solution in context addressing key aspects covered in the background notes. Specific attention will be give to proposed levels of community engagement / meaningful participation considering diversity and inclusion.
• Impact: Potential Impact of the solution in not only in terms of the number of community members supported, but also how the intervention would affect them in their daily lives and build broader community resilience.
• Feasibility: Based on approach, administration, tentative budget a determination on how viable the project will be. Specific consideration will be given to sustainability strategies including community self-management.

For more information and application see here.