HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT FUND GRANT TO FAHAMU

Fahamu - learning for change - has been awarded a grant to develop an interactive training guide on human rights education in rural populations in collaboration with the Kenya Human Rights Commission, and to develop supplementary materials on Training Skills for the Adilisha Project (http://www.fahamu.org/). The award has been made by the Human Rights Project Fund of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (http://www.hrpd.fco.gov.uk/). The Human Rights Project Fund (HRPF) is the FCO's dedicated fund for human rights projects.

Since its inception in April 1998, the Fund has supported over 400 projects allocated more than £15 million in some 90 countries around the world. HRPF is primarily used to fund one-off seed-corn projects. We encourage projects that focus on promoting equality of opportunity and empowering individuals to realise their human rights. Projects supported by HRPF must also complement work supported by other UK Government Departments, such as the Department for International Development. They also encourage joint funding of human rights projects with British companies overseas. The Fund is administered by the FCO's Human Rights Policy Department. Although it funds some global thematic initiatives identified from London, it is primarily a resource for our Posts overseas to allow them to achieve their objectives in addressing human rights concerns. The Fund supports work, either with state authorities or with indigenous NGOs, to promote human rights on the ground. Posts overseas identify project proposals in the specific countries or regions for which they are responsible, and ensure that these complement the FCO's human rights priorities and other activities in that region.

The Fund is not divided between countries or regions according to the level of our human rights concerns there. Rather, all project proposals are evaluated against standard criteria, irrespective of the countries involved.