Grants and Funding

Women’s Leadership and Development Strategy

The Office for Women administers the Women’s Leadership and Development Strategy (WLDS), which falls under Outcome 1.1 Office for Women of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Portfolio Budget Statement. The appropriation allocated is at Table A.  The WLDS provides funding and support to organisations aimed at improving gender equality and support for women’s economic empowerment and opportunity, safety and leadership. 

The WLDS directs funding towards the strategic priorities outlined below, which affect all women including women with a disability as well as culturally and linguistically diverse women.

WLDS Priorities

The WLDS is designed to provide support to improve gender equality and provide support for women’s economic empowerment and opportunity, safety, leadership and other initiatives as required by:

• Promoting and supporting women’s safety, whether occurring in the home or community and amongst particular groups of women (culturally and linguistically diverse women, Indigenous women and women with a disability).
• Promoting and supporting improved economic security and opportunities for Australian women across the life course.
• Promoting and supporting greater representation of Australian women in leadership and decision making roles.
• Supporting the representation of Australian women’s voices through advocacy and participation at meetings at both the national and global level.

Funding

The WLDS appropriation across the forward years is at Table A.

Appropriations are correct at the time of publication however they are subject to change at any time as a result of changes to the Budget measures.

How to apply for funding?

WLDS Grant Guidelines

To apply for WLDS funding, submit a project proposal addressing the criteria below to WLDS@pmc.gov.au.  Please include a covering page, containing your organisation and contact details, as well as a brief summary of your proposal.

For further information, organisations can email the Office for Women’s Programme team at WLDS@pmc.gov.au.

Criteria for WLDS Funding

• Identifying the strategic objective the project will support: women’s economic empowerment, women’s leadership, women’s safety.
• Describe the proposed project, and how this will be made operational to achieve positive outcomes for Australian women and the strategic priority (priority group), including a detailed budget phased over the life or requirement of the agreement.
• Demonstrate the applicant has true governance processes in place to manage the project.
• Demonstrate the need for the project in the Australian community for the target priority group and how the project will achieve the intended outcomes for Australian women.
• Demonstrate experience in developing, delivering, managing and monitoring effective projects to achieve positive outcomes for the target priority groups.
• Demonstrate expertise and qualifications of staff to achieve quality outcomes in delivering the project to the target priority group.
• Demonstrate the ability of the organisation to manage the project to a high standard and to achieve quality outcomes for Australian women in the target priority group and evidence of sustainability when required by the Department.
• Be an organisation which delivers or can demonstrate capability to deliver on a national scale.
• Not be an individual applying for funding under the WLDS.

Assessment of Applications

• Applications for funding are assessed against the WLDS criteria noted above and the following will be considered:
• objective of the grant funding
• likely number and type of applications
• nature of the grant funding
• value of the grant funding
• geographic location of the activity
• need for national expertise or understanding of women’s issues
• need for timeliness and cost-effectiveness in the decision-making process while maintaining rigour, equity and accountability.

National Women’s Alliance Grant Guidelines

Grant opportunities under the National Women’s Alliance grant guidelines are advertised on GrantConnect. Organisations are encouraged to subscribe to GrantConnect to receive updates and other grant alerts.

The Office for Women currently funds five National Women’s Alliances (the Alliances) through the WLDS, which represent over 180 women’s organisations from across Australia. The Alliances aim to represent the voices of Australian women and ensure policy issues are heard by Government.

For further information, see National Women’s Alliances.

WLDS grants reporting announcements

All new grants will be published on our WLDS grants reporting page within fourteen days of entering into the agreement, in accordance with the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines (CGRGs). 

All new contracts over $10,000 are published on AusTender within 42 days of entering into the agreement, in accordance with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules (the CPRs).

All other funding arrangements that do not meet the CGRGs or the CPRs can be found at Table B.

For further information on the WLDS please contact the Office for Women at WLDS@pmc.gov.au.  

Other projects the WLDS has committed to funding

The WLDS has committed funding to other projects.  Table B identifies these projects and the funding amounts.

Note: These funded activities were not subject to reporting requirements under the Commonwealth Procurement Rules or the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines, because they are either:

• procurements under $10,000 in value, or
• a Memorandum of Understanding.

National Women’s Alliances

The Office for Women funds five National Women’s Alliances (the Alliances) through the WLDS, which represent over 180 women’s organisations from across Australia. The Alliances aim to represent the voices of Australian women and ensure policy issues are heard by Government.

For further information, see National Women’s Alliances.