What We Fund

The MacArthur Foundation makes grants in Nigeria for work in three areas. The following are guidelines for MacArthur’s grantmaking in Nigeria.

>> Strengthening Nigeria’s Universities 
>> Population and Reproductive Health 
>> Human Rights and International Justice 

One of the goals of the MacArthur Foundation in Nigeria is to help improve the country's higher education system.  This pursuit is based upon the belief that strong universities and intellectual freedom are essential to developing and sustaining healthy democratic societies.

The MacArthur Foundation is currently working with four of Nigeria's leading universities - the University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Bayero University Kano, and the University of Port Harcourt - in an effort to strengthen them and bolster reforms that they have initiated.

MacArthur's efforts on behalf of universities in Nigeria are carried out in conjunction with the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, launched in April 2000 by the Carnegie Corporation and the Ford, Rockefeller, and MacArthur Foundations.  In 2005, the Mellon and Hewlett Foundations joined the Partnership. The initiative is designed to support efforts, many already underway, by leading African institutions to expand and improve higher education.

Funding
An organization wishing to approach the Foundation for support to strengthen Nigeria's universities may submit a letter of inquiry (LOI) informing the Foundation of the proposed project. The format for these letters can be found in the section How to Apply. Deadlines for the submission of LOIs related to this grantmaking are listed below.  Following a multi-stage review process, selected applicants will be invited to submit full proposals for grants to be considered by the Foundation's Board of Directors.

Population and Reproductive Health 

Two themes form the core of this grantmaking:

• Reducing maternal mortality and morbidity and
• Advancing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people.

Maternal Mortality and Morbidity
The Foundation supports efforts of civil society organizations that are effective in analyzing how public funds are allocated and in providing a sound basis for budget allocations for health.  While a solution in this area lies partly in the hands of the health system, it is also dependent on the educational and legal systems.  Women need access to good care, but they also need an enabling legal environment to avoid unsafe abortion, one of the major causes of maternal death and morbidity.  Women's health needs must be recognized in the first instance by their partners and their immediate families.

Comprehensive sexuality education programs that foster gender equality can cultivate this recognition.  The Foundation supports civil society organizations that work for changes needed in health, education, and legal policies and help to create the political will needed for their implementation.  Special attention is given to activities that focus on increased budgets for maternal health, decreased deaths from abortion, and improved access to quality emergency obstetric care.

Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights of Young People
The sexual and reproductive decisions made by today's youth will have great impact on their personal lives and on society.  Indeed, the largest contribution to the size of the world population in the future comes from population momentum, and an important way to diminish its effects is to increase the interval between generations - that is, by postponing the birth of the first child.  From a reproductive health standpoint, adolescents are especially vulnerable.  They have extremely high rates of maternal mortality and are targets of sexual assault.  Their rates of STD and HIV infection are higher than among adults.

Advancing National Policy
To help reduce maternal mortality and morbidity in Nigeria, the Foundation is supporting efforts that contribute to the federal government's goal of reducing maternal mortality by 50 percent by 2006. Grants are made in support of nongovernmental organizations that seek to reduce maternal mortality in Nigeria by improving access to, use of, and quality of maternal health care, and for demonstrations or model projects in the states of Borno, Lagos, and Kano.

To promote the reproductive health and rights of young people, the Foundation focuses its grantmaking on initiatives that implement the federal government's national sexuality education curriculum. Grants are also made for the development and bringing to scale of models for out-of-school youth, so that they can be replicated in other states and nationally.

Geographic Focus
Grants are made for work at the national level and for work in six states: Borno, Cross River, Enugu, Lagos, Kano, and Plateau.

Funding
Grants are awarded only to organizations that define clear objectives for their work and measures of progress toward those objectives. Typically, the Foundation provides multi-year support.  Proposals must fit clearly within the geographic and thematic priorities of the Population and Reproductive Health area to be considered.

Organizations interested in applying for support should submit a letter of inquiry to the Foundation. The format for these letters can be found in How to Apply.

Fund For Leadership Development (FLD)
Grants for the FLD are no longer made directly by the Foundation.  The program is now administered by an intermediary organization.  Interested applicants should visit Pathfinder International for more information.

Human Rights and International Justice

Since 1999, the Foundation has been making grants to expand and strengthen the network of human rights organizations in Nigeria that provide the basic infrastructure for a national human rights culture based on the rule of law.  Grants support leading human rights organizations, both nationally and in selected states.  Special attention is also given to the issue of police reform, including mechanisms for improving accountability and addressing police abuse of human rights, and efforts to strengthen Nigeria's legal architecture through reform of national laws and domestication of international treaties.

Grant support for human rights will total approximately $11 million over the next five years.

Geographic Focus
Grants are made for work at the national level and for work in four states: Lagos, Kano, Plateau and Rivers.

Funding
Grants are awarded only to organizations that define clear objectives for their work and measures of progress toward those objectives. Typically, the Foundation provides multi-year support.  Proposals must fit clearly within the geographic and thematic priorities of the Human Rights and International Justice.