Diving Deeper: Under the Surface of Embassy Funding

By November 5, 2021 November 9th, 2021 Advocacy, Newsroom

Diving Deeper: Under the surface of LGBTI embassy funding data examines the extent to which embassies are providing resources for local LGBTI movements, the types of organizations and issues that are supported, as well as best practice examples. At a time when major development assistance streams supporting LGBTI issues are being stretched and in some instances reduced, and when LGBTI organizations face funding shortages, this brief provides government donors and other advocates with evidence about how embassy funding can be used to support and strengthen local movements.

Data shows that:

  • Looking at the total number of grants in 2017–2018, embassy-based grants accounted for 70 percent of the number of government grants.
  • LGBTI embassy funding has more than doubled in amount and has grown in number of grants by more than 600 percent from 2013–2014 to 2017–2018. In that same time period, the percentage of embassy grants compared to overall government funding more than doubled. These increases likely reflect a growing use of embassies as LGBTI funding mechanisms and also improved detail in government grant reporting over time.
  • In 2017–2018, the vast majority of embassy funding was focused on general LGBT grants, with scarce funding focused explicitly on LBQ, trans, or intersex populations. Additionally, only 9 percent of embassy funding in those two years was awarded to groups focused on LGBTI issues.

Midnight was one of the community reviwers for this report. 


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