- Magna Carta Fund. Funding allocations of between $12,000 – $180,000.
The Magna Carta Fund (MCF) is the FCDO flagship programme for providing small-scale, agile funding to carry out impactful, strategically driven human rights work. These are examples of some of the main topics the fund covers, although this is not an exhaustive list, and we are open to other thematic areas if you can demonstrate their importance:
- Strengthening rule of law – Supporting countries to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 16 and embed the rule of law domestically in partner countries. Strengthening the rule of law in countries in support of FCDO priorities on growth, security and development, alongside external promotion.
- Strengthening human rights institutions – improved mechanisms of accountability.
- Promotion of the universality of human rights.
- Support to civil society organisations’ (CSOs) human rights activity – capacity building, training, increased CSO engagement with human rights work.
- Access to justice – criminal justice/penal reform.
- Promoting business and human rights – supporting inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
- Engagement with the UN and other international/regional human rights institutions.
Success criteria:
Alignment with the above-mentioned priorities and outcome.
- Evidence of urgent or priority need.
- Activities are value for money (VfM) and cost-efficient.
- Clear and achievable deliverables within the funding period.
- Sustainability – project benefits continue after the funding ends.
- Good project design, which includes established monitoring and evaluation procedures.
- Project feasibility, including capacity of implementing organisation and ability to deliver under current circumstances.
- Identification of risks and established mitigation strategies.
- The organisation’s safeguarding policies which ensure gender equality and the protection of beneficiaries.
- Administration costs for delivering a project do not exceed 10% of the total project budget.
- Equalities Enabling Fund. Funding allocations available between $12,000 – $48,000.
The Equalities Enabling Fund aims to strengthen FCDO’s global work on gender and equalities. This Fund will help to deliver better for women, girls, and people with disabilities. The Fund provides small-scale funds to support new activity around gender and equalities which aims to enable or mobilise work on these topics. It covers equalities in the broad sense and implementing organisations can decide the specific thematic focus they take, dependent on in-country context. We expect to fund projects covering a wide range of themes. Examples of some of the main themes the Fund cover are below, though this is not an exhaustive list:
- Promoting rights and inclusion of people with disabilities.
- Ending violence against women and girls.
- Building and strengthening inclusive social protection programmes and systems.
- Countering rollback on the rights of women.
- Reducing inequality and exclusion based on economic status.
- Researching and developing new reports on inclusion policies at government institutions.
- Business engagement on the economic/growth case for equality.
- Building capacity of government institutions, to sensitise them to gender and equalities issues.
- Supporting men and boys to be allies to gender equality.
- Engaging grassroots activists in rural or remote locations.
Success criteria:
Strategic alignment: the project proposal delivers against FCDO Gender and Equalities priorities.
- Enabling: The project creates capability and capacity to deliver future work promoting equalities.
- Inclusive: the project proactively engages multiple excluded groups throughout design and delivery.
- Accessible: the project proactively supports the involvement of different excluded groups, including through design, delivery, and budgeting.
- Intersectional: the project considers the impact of multiple identities (disability, gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity, religion, nationality, etc.) and how they can intersect to influence different individuals and groups experience of exclusion.
Important milestones:
| 18 November 2024 (23:59 PM Ashgabat Time) | Call for proposals closes. The attached project concept form submitted after the set date and time will not be considered. |
| 1 April 2025 | The earliest start of the successful projects |
| 28 February 2026 | The latest project completion. Projects must reach 100% spend, activities must have been completed and Project Completion Report (PCR) and Financial Expenditure Report (FER) submitted to the British Embassy Ashgabat |
All documents must be submitted in English.
- Completed proposal concept forms must be submitted to: eldar.latypov@fcdo.gov.uk with the subject line “FCDO Programme Funds FY2025-2026 – [Name of Organisation]”
- Successful implementers will need to submit full-scale project proposal and Activity Based Budget (ABB) form to the British Embassy Ashgabat.
- Selected proposals will go through a Due Diligence Assessment (DDA). The British Embassy Ashgabat will save the right to decide whether it should maintain or reject a proposal depending on DDA outcomes.
Top tips on completing your application
Think about:
- Why you want to do this project; what real world change do you seek and how does your proposed intervention respond to a contextual need?
- What does success look like and how will you gather evidence of it and communicate it?
- Baselining – what evidence exists of the current situation?
- What expertise/experience do you have?
- Who are your stakeholders? What links do you have to key influencers and decision makers? How can you use this to address the problem?
- Who do you aim to reach and how?
- How does the project fit in with other initiatives in your context?
- What challenges or risks might you face, and how will you address them?
- Be realistic about what can be achieved and the expected costs.
- Involve key stakeholders e.g. potential partners, project colleagues, partners in the government, etc.
- Write in clear and simple language, be concise and spell out acronyms.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications are accepted only from the international/multilateral organisations based in Turkmenistan and non-profit, non-governmental organisations (NGOs/CSOs) registered in Turkmenistan.
- Proposals will need to identify a clear and complete set of objectives and relevant activities, with activity-based budget.
- Project proposals must have a clear purpose supported by achievable and measurable outputs (for example, events and reports) and outcomes (what the project aims to help address through its activity).
- Project should be in US Dollars.
- Proposals will be judged against whether the budgeted activity is required to achieve the project’s objectives.
- Project implementation period: from 1 April 2025 to 28 February 2026.
Please contact for any questions: Eldar Latypov | Projects, Climate and Energy Issues, Economic Diplomacy Officer | British Embassy Ashgabat
301-308 Office Building, Ak Altyn Hotel | 744000 Ashgabat | Turkmenistan
Office: +993-12-363462 | Mobile: +993-65-712038 | Eldar.Latypov@fcdo.gov.uk