GENEVA/LONDON - On 20 April, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) launched 'Investing in Action', a local campaign support project that will provide organisations with funding for campaign activities throughout 2011.

The ICBL-CMC will allocate financial support to member organisations, to encourage and enable local campaigning in support of the universalisation and implementation of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Last year, both the ICBL and the CMC ran projects that disbursed funding to strengthen campaign activities carried out by member organisations. This is the first joint grant scheme for the ICBL and CMC, following recent changes that have been made to ensure the transition for both organisations to a more unified structure.

Local campaigning is vital to the strength of the campaigns to end the devastation and suffering caused by landmines and cluster munitions, by promoting adherence to these conventions.

Applications for funding should focus primarily on campaigning activities to persuade governments to ratify or accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions and/or the Mine Ban Treaty and to enhance their implementation.

ICBL and CMC member organisations are invited to apply for funding under this grant scheme to support local campaigning work for the second half of 2011 in the run up to the Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties and the Mine Ban Treaty Eleventh Meeting of States Parties. The project period will run from the beginning of July to the end of December, therefore any activities that are outlined in applications should fall within this period. Activities will ideally be focused around key global events and milestones within this grant period, which include the following:

• Push for Progress by Phnom Penh - ICBL global action in the run up to the Mine Ban Treaty Eleventh Meeting of States Parties (4 April -28 November)
• Mine Ban Treaty Intersessional Standing Committee Meetings in Geneva (20 - 24 June)
• Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings in Geneva (27-30 June)
• 1st anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (1 August)
• Remembrance action for the fifth anniversary of cluster bomb use in Lebanon in 2006 and one-month countdown to the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Beirut, Lebanon (12 August)
• Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon (12 - 16 September)
• Launch of Cluster Munition Monitor in Geneva (16 November)
• Launch of Landmine Monitor in Bangkok (23 November)
• Mine Ban Treaty Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (28 November - 2 December)
• International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3 December).

If an organisation is currently not a member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines or the Cluster Munition Coalition it can still apply to the project, on the condition that it successfully seeks membership to the ICBL-CMC.

The deadline for applications is Friday 6 May. Further information on the project, as well as the documents necessary to apply, can be found on the ICBL and CMC websites:
http://www.icbl.org/index.php/icbl/Library/News-Articles/2011CampaignSupport

http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/campaign-resources/investinginaction