Apply for Community Resilience and Child Rights Support (Gambia)

Deadline: 12-Sep-26

The UNICEF initiative in The Gambia seeks to engage faith-based organizations and religious leaders to protect children’s rights, strengthen community resilience, and promote peaceful civic participation during the country’s electoral period. With an indicative budget of US$32,540.63, the initiative will address misinformation, disinformation, online hate speech, conflict risks, and other threats affecting children and families.

About the UNICEF Initiative

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is seeking qualified faith-based organizations (FBOs) and national networks of religious leaders in The Gambia to support child-focused advocacy and community resilience during the upcoming presidential and national assembly elections. Election periods can create heightened risks for children and families. Increased political competition, youth mobilisation, misinformation, online abuse, and potential violence can contribute to exploitation, psychosocial distress, disruption of essential services, and other child protection concerns. The initiative seeks to ensure that children’s rights remain part of political dialogue and public decision-making before, during, and after the elections. Key Objectives The initiative will use religious leaders and faith-based networks as trusted community channels to promote accurate information, peaceful engagement, and child-sensitive political discourse.

Key objectives include:

- Promoting tolerance, peace, and non-violence during the electoral period. - Countering misinformation and disinformation affecting children and families. - Addressing online hate speech and harmful digital narratives. - Promoting accurate and responsible information through trusted religious networks. - Keeping children’s rights on the political agenda. - Encouraging political parties to address children’s needs in their policies and manifestos. - Strengthening community resilience against conflict and harmful online content. - Supporting religious leaders to become effective communicators and digital content creators. Priority Child Rights Issues The initiative will encourage public and political discussion around issues that directly affect children and families, including: - Education and access to learning. - Child health and healthcare services. - Child protection and prevention of violence. - Nutrition and food security. - Social inclusion. - Psychosocial well-being. - Protection from exploitation and harmful online activity. - Safe and peaceful communities. What Will the Programme Support? The selected organization or network is expected to implement activities that combine community engagement, advocacy, digital communication, peacebuilding, and child-rights promotion.

Potential activities include:

- Developing messages promoting tolerance and peaceful elections. - Producing child-rights advocacy materials. - Disseminating accurate information through social media. - Using radio and television to reach wider communities. - Training religious leaders in digital communication. - Establishing a network of trained faith leaders. - Supporting religious leaders to create and distribute digital content. - Conducting community awareness and engagement activities. - Countering misinformation and disinformation. - Addressing online hate speech and harmful narratives. - Engaging political parties on children’s rights. - Encouraging political parties to include child-focused commitments in their policies and manifestos. Who Is Expected to Benefit? The initiative is designed to strengthen the capacity of key community and political stakeholders while ultimately benefiting children and families across The Gambia.

The programme expects to engage:

- 350 religious leaders. - 10 political parties. - Faith-based organizations and religious networks. - Children and families affected by election-related risks. - Local communities exposed to misinformation and harmful digital narratives. Why It Matters Children can be particularly vulnerable during periods of political instability or heightened social tension. Election-related misinformation, violence, hate speech, and disruption of public services can have direct and indirect consequences for children’s safety and well-being. Religious leaders can play an important role because they often have established relationships and trusted communication channels within communities. By equipping faith leaders with accurate information, advocacy tools, and digital communication skills, the initiative seeks to create a community-based child protection and resilience mechanism during the electoral period. The programme also creates an opportunity to connect child rights, peacebuilding, digital literacy, and democratic participation. Expected Results Successful implementation is expected to contribute to several outcomes:

- Stronger religious leadership networks: Religious leaders will have improved capacity to communicate accurate and child-sensitive information.

- Improved community resilience: Communities will be better equipped to recognize and respond to misinformation, disinformation, hate speech, and harmful digital narratives.

- Peaceful civic engagement: Faith leaders will promote tolerance, dialogue, and non-violent participation.

- Greater visibility of children’s rights: Issues affecting children will receive greater attention during political discussions.

- Stronger political commitments: Political parties will be encouraged to address children’s rights in policies and election manifestos.

- Expanded digital outreach: Child-focused messages will reach communities through social media, radio, television, and religious networks.

Funding Available The initiative has an indicative budget of US$32,540.63 available to support implementation. The funding is intended to support activities necessary to achieve the initiative’s objectives, including community engagement, advocacy, communications, training, and dissemination activities.