The China Gender Facility (CGF) is accepting applications for grants from agencies involved with women's issues, a UN official said recently.

Constance Thomas, chairman of the UN China Theme Group on Gender (UNTGG), said earlier this month: "The latest call, while still focusing on broader areas including women's rights and their empowerment, will also aim to address new developments in China including considering gender in the rebuilding and reconstruction efforts of the Sichuan earthquake."

Submissions should focus on gender and disaster management, migration and trafficking, and strengthening women's legal rights and access to justice, he said.

The CGF, operated by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) China under the guidance of the UNTGG, was set up in 2004 to advance gender equality in China, and thus contribute to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

The grants will be given to government, local and national civil society organizations and academic institutions in China, Thomas said.

The winners will be chosen by the Technical Advisory Committee, which comprises CGF donors and the All China Women's Federation. The fourth call for proposals, which opened for bidding Thursday, will close at 6:00 PM on October 31.

Guo Ruixiang, China program specialist of UNIFEM, said the three previous rounds of proposals selected 25 projects, many of which have made significant progress in gender mainstreaming and raising gender awareness in the country.

To address the prevalence of domestic violence in China, in which 90 percent of victims are women, a CGF-supported project developed a replicable model for domestic violence shelters. The model, implemented in Xuzhou, included the setting up a hotline for urgent assistance, advocacy bulletin boards and websites, and legal and gender training for staff members.

On increasing feminization of HIV/AIDS, some projects have conducted capacity building activities for government officials and community members to assist in the development and implementation of assistance policies.

Other projects established the first domestic workers' union in Xi'an, promoted gender sensitivity in the Party school system and conducted in-depth research into the status of women with disabilities.

(China Daily September 24, 2008)