CALL FOR PROPOSALS - Strengthening returnee women’s groups, voice and referral pathways, particularly in Prey Veng, Cambodia

The ILO invites civil society organizations – including women’s organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations – to submit applications to receive technical assistance and financial support to strengthen returnee women’s groups, and to amplify their voices and access to services, in Prey Veng province, Cambodia. Deadline for applications is 5pm Bangkok time, 11 November 2026.

1. Purpose of this Call

The 2025 Cambodia–Thailand border crisis led to hundreds of thousands of unplanned returns to Cambodia, deepening existing problems. Average household debt among returnees is around USD 5,500, and in Prey Veng required loan repayments (about USD 220 a month) are far above post-return income (about USD 64). Women returnees are the most  disadvantaged: they face a depressed local labour market (about 20–30 per cent re-employment, against 40–50 per cent for men), gender norms that confine them to unpaid care and low-margin informal trade, and are more likely to consider migrating again, often through irregular and riskier channels.

Public and civil society reintegration services are under-resourced and concentrated in a few locations, and communes lack budgets, registries and protocols. Returnee women depend heavily on civil society organizations, Migrant Worker Resource Centers (MRCs) and women’s networks for support. Women’s mutual support and peer networks are becoming established in Prey Veng, one of Cambodia’s main provinces of origin, but face significant challenges. This call seeks to strengthen and expand these groups, so that returnee women have solidarity, information and a collective voice in decisions that affect them.

Technical and financial assistance to successful proposals will be provided through the ILO’s Ensuring Decent Work and Reducing Vulnerabilities for Women and Children in the Context of Labour Migration in Southeast Asia (PROTECT) project, supported by the European Union. The overall objective of the PROTECT project is to protect the rights of women migrant workers and migrant children in Southeast Asia. The project’s specific objectives are to strengthen national legislation, policies and regional frameworks for the protection of migrant workers, children and other vulnerable groups in line with international standards; to improve national and regional prevention and protection mechanisms to reduce rights’ violations against migrant women, children and other vulnerable groups, including victims of trafficking and smuggled migrants; and to increase the access of at-risk groups, women migrant workers and children to information, social and legal services, counselling and association to prevent abuse, exploitation, harassment, violence, and trafficking in human beings.

2. What types of activities may be proposed?

1) Should directly benefit returnee women migrant workers and women who are considering migrating again, as well as women’s groups and peer networks working with them. Activities should be in Phnom Penh (objective 1) and Prey Veng province (objectives 2 and 3). Proposals may be tailored to target specific communities or districts. Following the principle of leave no one behind, proposals should actively include women with disabilities, older women and women of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC), and may include women who migrated irregularly. Interventions must take a gender-responsive, women’s empowerment approach.

2) Proposals should contribute to all three of the following objectives. The activities listed are examples; applicants are encouraged to propose their own approach.

Objective 1: Strengthen women’s groups as peer-led structures that provide solidarity, a safe space for self-expression and leadership through feminist participatory action research(FPAR)
• Mapping women’s groups and peer networks working with returnee women, and a participatory assessment of their needs across Cambodia, but focusing on Prey Veng and
Phnom Penh.
• FPAR training for women leaders and members (around 25 women), ideally in Phnom Penh, and mentoring as they research issues they choose – such as debt, social security, re-migration, care or access to services – and use the findings for collective action and self-Advocacy
• Peer-led solidarity sessions, and group sustainability plans linking groups to commune structures, MRCs and savings groups.

Objective 2: Expand returnee women’s groups in Prey Veng
• Mobilizing returnee women (at least 25) into new or existing groups, with outreach to women who are often left out.
• Thematic sessions for groups, such as on managing credit, savings and money after return; psychosocial wellbeing, gender-based violence, legal rights and recovering unpaid wages; and safe migration and local training and job options.
• Community outreach, through peer supporters / peer support circles, in Prey Veng province, information sharing and counselling for returnee and prospective migrant women and their families (around 100 women)

Objective 3: Amplify returnee women’s voices in local structures in Prey Veng
• Regular spaces where returnee women, commune officials and local leaders share experience and solve problems together.
• Advocacy for a commune-level safe migration and reintegration information points, run with the Commune Committee for Women and Children (CCWC)

• Strengthened referrals to Provincial Departments of Labour and Vocational Training and of Women’s Affairs, the National Employment Agency, legal aid providers and other services
• Women-led dialogues with local authorities on reintegration, debt and the costs of migration, awareness campaigns, and a short practical guide for local authorities on supporting returnee women

3) As part of implementation, organizations may also identify some interventions that will improve their own capacities, knowledge and skills in direct relation to improved support for returnee women.

Proposed activities should be practical, implementable, and achievable by 30 August 2027(approximately 9 months).

3. Who is eligible to apply?

Women’s organizations, NGOs and community-based organizations working with women migrant workers, returnees or women’s groups in Cambodia are all eligible to submit a proposal.

Eligible applicants must:
• Be a registered organization
• Have a bank account in the name of the organization
• Have financial management skills and systems in place
• Have experience working with women migrant workers, returnees or women’s groups, ideally using participatory, women-led approaches; experienced in utilising FPAR or PAR methodologies
• Have a presence or partners in Prey Veng and Phnom Penh, and working relationships with local authorities
• Have a safeguarding policy, or commit to adopting one before an agreement is signed Women-led organizations, and partnerships between emerging migrant women’s groups and more established NGOs or trade unions, are particularly encouraged. Unregistered community-based organizations may wish to apply in partnership with registered and experienced NGOs.

4. What kind of support does the PROTECT project offer?

The ILO will deliver two types of support to successful applicants:
• Technical assistance may include technical inputs in line with International Labour Standards, and technical inputs to support the trainings on FPAR, rights-based counselling and the ILO Client Card, case management and referral, safe migration, labour rights, violence and harassment in the world of work, safeguarding, report writing and financial reporting, or any other identified capacity building needs, as agreed with and relevant to the results to be achieved by the implementing partner.
• Financial support for the implementation of the proposed intervention until 30 August 2027.

5. How to prepare a proposal

Applicants must prepare SEPARATE narrative and budget proposals. DO NOT include any budget details in the narrative proposal.

The Narrative Proposal should include:
• Brief description of the organization(s) implementing the proposal, including experience with women’s groups and participatory approaches
• Justification for planned activities (What issues do you plan to address?)
• Description of activities under each of the three objectives (What do you plan to do? What results do you aim to achieve?)
• Description of beneficiaries (Who will benefit and how? How will you include women who are often left out?)
• Description of target locations
• Work plan (Time frame of proposed activities)
• How the work will continue after the project ends
• Description of roles and responsibilities of organizations and staff involved in the work, including division of the work between partners, if applicable

The Budget Proposal should:
• Align with the Objective / Output / Activity plans as structured and outlined in the Narrative Proposal
• Include a detailed line-item budget (How much does each activity cost?)
• Include personnel/organizational costs (How many personnel will be involved? Salary costs (and percentage) for each staff?)

Applicants are requested to prepare their proposal on the NARRATIVE AND BUDGET PROPOSAL TEMPLATES provided by the ILO (please see attached).

6. Selection criteria and review process

Priority will be given to proposals that demonstrate the following characteristics:
• Quality and coherence of the proposal (25%): A good proposal sets clear objectives, provides detailed outputs and activities under all three objectives, and defines a realistic work plan and budget with concrete steps to achieving the expected results. 
• Capacity and potential of implementing organization(s) (25%): Proposals should demonstrate the implementing organizations’ ability to reach returnee women in Prey Veng, work with women’s groups using participatory approaches, and manage the project in a professional manner.
• Strategic match (20%): Proposals should address critical gaps in support currently available to returnee women in Prey Veng, use rights-based and gender-responsive approaches, and show how results will be sustained.
• Value for money (30%): Budget proposals will be evaluated based on the most advantageous combination of cost-effective operations, quality services, and sustainability to meet requirements.

Proposals will be reviewed by the PROTECT team and relevant ILO technical specialists. Shortlisted organizations may be asked to provide additional information or details during the review process.

7. How to submit a proposal

Applicants are requested to submit narrative and budget proposals in SEPARATE EMAILS. Proposals that have the narrative and budget proposals sent together in one email will not be considered. There should be no mention of the budget in the narrative proposal.

Proposals should be submitted electronically by 5pm Bangkok time, 11 November 2026 to protect@ilo.org with “PROTECT Project Cambodia – Narrative Proposal” and “PROTECT Project Cambodia – Budget Proposal” as the subject of the emails.

Applications submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.

For further information and queries, please email Ratna Mathai-Luke (mathai-luke@ilo.org), Technical Officer (M&E and Knowledge Management), PROTECT Project, and Sophia Kagan (kagan@ilo.org), Chief Technical Adviser, PROTECT Project.