Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) Research and Innovations Grants

[Fabiola Amariles]

IIE, on behalf of USAID’s Center of Excellence in Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG Center), invites applications from research institutions to support USAID in answering a research question that is integral to how USAID designs programs in the DRG sector. Applications are due May 3, 2016.

Applicants will form working groups of 3 – 6 PhD students and 1 – 2 supervising faculty; students must have passed their qualifying exams and be from diverse social science disciplines. Over a period of six months, each working group, in close collaboration with USAID, will produce a multi-disciplinary analytical literature review that provides an overview, assessment, and synthesis of the empirical research relevant to its selected research question. The questions, which are further elaborated in the RFA, are in the following areas:

§  The role of local advocates in advancing human rights

§  The process of regaining civil liberties that have been restricted or denied

§  The relevance of good governance to sustainable development across sectors

§  The process of increasing women’s civic and political participation

§  The role of civil servants in reducing corruption

§  The process by which citizen efforts to improve service delivery can diffuse across sectors.

Members of each working group will apply for a single grant of $30,000 - $60,000, with grant value dependent on working group size; each working group member will receive a $4000 stipend.

Thank you very much for your interest. Please feel free to forward this grant opportunity to colleagues and peers, and please direct any questions to [e-mail]. The deadline for questions is April 15, 2016.