About

FemFocus aims to advance women’s economic participation as entrepreneurs, combat violence against women and girls, and strengthen women’s leadership in conflict prevention, mediation and peace-building. Civil society organisations can apply for grants until 7 January 2026.

It is part of the Dutch policy framework “Focus”, which supports local civil society organisations to provide services, engage in dialogue and achieve change through a simplified funding model and local ownership.

Grant Size:

The programme is composed of three instruments with total available funding as follows:

Encouraging women’s entrepreneurship: approx. €54,835,000

Combating violence against women & supporting women human rights defenders: approx. €114,655,000

Women, peace and security: approx. €39,880,000

Note: The individual maximum/minimum grant amounts per application are not clearly published in the official summary page, though secondary sources suggest for the entrepreneurship instrument grants up to ~€27.4 million.

Eligibility

Civil society organisations (CSOs) can apply.

For the “Encouraging women’s entrepreneurship” instrument: selected African countries where the Netherlands has trade and economic interests. Applicants should target at least two of the following countries: Egypt, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Benin, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Uganda, Tunisia, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

For the “Combating violence against women & WHRDs” and “Women, peace and security” instruments: geographic focus is West Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa. Applications may cover one or two regions, with a minimum of two implementation countries per region.