Deadline: 1-Oct-23
The Norway Grants is accepting proposals for the Quick Response Fund to support organisations, when quick advocacy, legal, communicational or other form of reaction is needed either to seize up the advocacy/campaigning opportunities or tackle challenges (e.g. pressures on civic space and incidences of hate speech).
Also the purpose of the quick response fund is to support actions, which are planned as an opportunity (formulation of policies and regulations) to positively influence both the local and national level.
Priorities
- Active Citizens Fund priority areas of support are:
- Democracy, active citizenship, good governance and transparency,
- Human rights and equal treatment through combating any discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation or gender identity,
- Social justice and inclusion of vulnerable groups,
- Gender equality and gender-based violence,
- Environment and climate change.
To realise these goals and address challenges identified in common effort with NGOs in Slovenia, programme is set to:
- Financially support areas or activities which are under-financed or not financed at all in Slovenia, and organisations working in under-served areas as well as under-served target groups;
- Strengthen financial stability of non-governmental organisations, especially those working in the fields of democracy and human rights;
- Encourage use of innovative methods for promotion of active participation of individuals, including vulnerable groups;
- Empower vulnerable groups, including Roma and migrants;
- Promote development of innovative methods to strengthen advocacy, fund-raising, transparency and accountability of NGOs;
- Promote inclusion of youth.
Funding Information
- Budget: € 70,000.
- Projects: maximum 6 months
Outcomes
- Expected outcomes of the ACF in Slovenia are:
- Strengthened civil society watchdog/advocacy role;
- Increased support for civic education and human rights;
- Vulnerable groups are empowered;
- Enhanced capacity and sustainability of CSOs and sector;
- Strengthened bilateral cooperation between civil society organisations from Slovenia and organisations from donor countries;
- Strengthened regional civil society cooperation.
Eligibility Criteria
- NGOs in Slovenia. And their partners.
- Eligible applicants for both categories of projects are non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in compliance with the conditions set in the Article 2 of the Non-governmental Organisations Act (Official Gazette of Republic of Slovenia no. 21 /18) and if they meet requirements set in the Manual for fund operators of the Active Citizens Fund.
- Eligible applicant is therefore an organisation:
- that is a private-law legal entity established in Republic of Slovenia;
- was established exclusively by domestic or foreign natural or legal persons under private law;
- is non-profit (organisation that based on the law or its founding document uses its profits or surplus of revenue over expenditure exclusively for realisation of its purpose or goals; does not divide its property among its founders, members or other persons, and in the event of its termination, after settlement of its obligations, its property is transferred to another nongovernmental organisation with the same or similar purpose, or non-profit legal entity of public law);
- is not established to generate profit (organisation that based on the law is not established with the intention of for-profit operation or with the intention of making profit or with the intention of development, facilitation or promotion of for-profit operation of their founders or members);
- is independent of other subjects (organisation whose management body, administrative body and supervision body do not consist of more than a quarter of representatives of the state, local self-governing community, other public-law entities, barriers of public authority, international intergovernmental organisations, political parties, trade unions, chambers and corporate entities, or natural persons who independently engage in a gainful activity on the market, or representatives of other entities that are not non-profit);
- is not organised as political party, a church or other religious community, trade union or chamber.
- All eligible applicants, partners and project proposals shall follow the principles of common values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and the respect for human rights including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. The applicants and partners will confirm this in the applicant and partner statements accordingly. Selection committee will have the power to suggest a rejection of a project, if it will establish that the applicants, partners and project do not follow the mentioned principles.
- Individual organisation can, in a role of the applicant, have only one active application at a time. Therefore, while one application is still in the selection or implementation phase, the same applicant cannot submit another application, but it may do so after one application is rejected or the final report of the previous project has been approved. There are, however, no limitations as to the number of project proposals in which an organisation is in a partner role.
Eligible Partners
- A project may be implemented in partnership with one or more project partners. If a project is implemented in such a partnership, the applicant shall sign a partnership agreement with each of the project partners. A model agreement is a part of the call documentation. In the application process, partners will have to sign a partner statement as part of the application.
- A project partner is a public- or private-law entity, commercial or non-commercial, or non-governmental organisation established in any of the ACF donor countries – Island, Lichtenstein and Norway, any of the ACF beneficiary countries (beside Slovenia, also Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Poland, Portugal), or any intergovernmental organisation or a body thereof that is actively involved in, and effectively contributing to, the implementation of a project. Partners from other countries are not eligible and projects involving them will be rejected.
- Eligible project partners are also informal groups under following conditions:
- informal group is not established for the purpose of personal gain;
- work for public good;
- are voluntary and non-discriminatory;
- are independent of local, regional and national authorities and other public institutions, political parties, religious communities, chambers and corporate entities.
- Informal group shall be represented by a chosen individual as a signatory of partnership agreement.
- Informal group cannot be a direct beneficiary of project funding; their costs shall be carried by the applicant organization.
- Partnership is not obligatory and does not bring additional points. It is important that partnerships are based on quality and concrete challenges that are common to all organisations involved in the project.
- In project proposal evaluation and selection process, capacity of the whole partnership will be considered.
- All partners are requested to sign a Partnership statement in the process of project submission. The form of Partnership statement is a part of the call documentation.
- Organisations that have not recovered amounts due, following a final court decision in connection with the NGO Programme 2009-2014 in Slovenia, shall not be considered eligible applicants and/or partners.
For more information, visit Norway Grants.
