ECOSOC Youth Forum Side Event: ‘Increasing Investment in Flexible Funding for Youth-led Organizations’

Co-organized by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and Justice Call

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SPEAKERS

Anders Ankarlid, CEO and Founder, A Good Company
Diana Heredia, Program Officer, Multi Partner Trust Fund for Sustaining Peace in Colombia
Khaled Emam, Executive Director, Justice Call (Moderator)
Natalia Lozano, Director of the CAMY Fund, Seattle International Foundation
Sarra Messaoudi, Regional Coordinator, MENA Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security
Thande Tshabalala, Third Secretary, Permanent Mission of the Republic of South Africa to the United Nations
Veronica Veloso, Senior Program officer for Grantmaking Operations, Frida Feminist Fund
Ziaullah Baloch, Head of Programs, Health and Rural Development (HARD) Balochistan

BACKGROUND

During the Covid-19 Pandemic many funders adopted flexible funding models to support youth-led organizations, allowing them to adapt to new circumstances resulting from the pandemic. The funds allowed young people to adjust their programming, decide priorities of focus, and gave greater freedom to them to use their funding on salaries, administrative costs, well-being services, and physical spaces. Feminist funders resourcing young women, girls and gender diverse youth were at the forefront of this work. At the same time, these funds are underfunded with a substantial mismatch in interest in the funds and their capacity to resource applicants. Funding for women’s rights and feminist organizations represents less than 1% of ODA (let alone funding for youth-led feminist organisations), while most youth-led organizations operate on less than $5,000 per year.

As we transition into the third year of the pandemic we need to explore models to better invest in flexible funding to ensure the sustainable and predictable resourcing for young people. Pooled funds, including those operating with public-private partnerships, represent an important tool to both increase the total investment and the predictability of financing. They also spread risk amongst donors associated with flexible funding models.

In this session we will first hear about the impact of flexible funding models on the work of young people in sustainable peace and development. We will then transition into a discussion identifying models to better invest in flexible funding, identifying recommendations for bilateral, multilateral and private sector funders.