Call for Proposals: Central Eurasia Project

The Central Eurasia Project (CEP) strives to make available more and better information about human rights and the social and economic health of the South Caucasus and Central Asia (both within the region and internationally) in order to shape policies that build open societies. CEP uses grantmaking to international and indigenous NGOs to help build local capacity, bring international expertise to bear on the region, and promote cooperation between local activists and international civic movements in the fields of human rights and transparent governance. The ultimate goal of such activity is to strengthen civic leaders in the region and construct support networks for them within international structures and movements.

CEP requests proposals to provide program and general operating support grants to organizations focused on advancing open societies in the region. Central Eurasia is understood to encompass the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus, and Turkey and Mongolia. Proposals to support projects in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and the Middle East should be directed to OSI’s Middle East and North Africa Initiative. Proposals on Turkmenistan should be submitted directly to CEP’s Turkmenistan Project.

Priorities for grantmaking in 2005 include the following areas:

• Enabling local and international activists to address human rights and other abuses associated with the region’s cotton economy;
• Improving the effectiveness of human rights work in the region, developing innovative approaches to protecting human rights, and fostering accountability for human rights violations;
• Combating and addressing the consequences of torture;
• Aiding labor migrants from and within the region, and promoting policies that protect the rights interests of labor migrants.

For more information on grantmaking and related guidelines see CEP's Transparency, Labor Migration and Human Rights focus area pages.