European Commission: Supporting Civil Society Organizations’ Development Work in the Field

Deadline: 12 February 2019

The European Union (EU) is currently accepting proposals from eligible organisations for a program entitled “Support to Civil Society Organizations’ Development Work in the Field”.

The global objective of this call for proposals is to enable civil society organizations to engage as actors of development and peaceful resolution of conflicts.

Priority Areas

Community focus: Proposals need to foresee support to selected communities through innovative means (including but not only via sub-granting) in overcoming violence (gender-based and beyond) and restoring a culture of peaceful intra- and inter-community interaction, in particular addressing children and youth, including through involvement of schools, cultural and community based organization. Local authorities need to be included in community based actions.
Capacity building: While some localized experience in restoring a culture of peace exist, community based organizations and CSO lack the capacities to scale up good practices. Proposals need to include innovative ways of building sustainable and long-term institutional capacities of local and national-level CSOs and platforms (as well as local authorities, as appropriate) to engage in the promotion of peaceful interaction and overcoming of violence, including activities that encourage dialogue, respect for diversity, solidarity, mutual care and understanding, mediation and restorative justice.
Research, data and evidence building: Proposed actions are expected to build on as well as include elements of research on cultural root enablers for peace with the aim of building an evidence base of approaches that contribute to sustainable transformation.
Advocacy, awareness raising, policy dialogue: As violence is a nationwide phenomenon affecting individuals and communities at all levels, proposals need to identify adequate and innovative means of interaction between communities, subnational and national levels, and involving key stakeholders.
Gender and Youth: The role of girls, women and youth must be clearly highlighted in each proposal.

Size of Grants

Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:

minimum amount: EUR 800,000
maximum amount: EUR 1,350,000

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant
- In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  - be a legal person and
  - be non-profit-making and be a specific type of organisation such as: non-governmental organisation and
  - be established in a Member State of the European Union or be established in in a Member State of the European Union or as applicant: non-profit making CSOs and their associations from the following countries shall be eligible for funding under the CSO-LA Programme; the EU partner country where the action takes place; developing countries and territories, as included in the list of ODA recipients published by the OECD-DAC (‘list of ODA recipients’), and overseas countries and territories covered by Council Decision 2013/755/EU; countries eligible for the European Development Fund; Member States, beneficiaries listed in to Regulation (EU) No 231/2014, and contracting parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area.
  - be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the coapplicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary and
  - In accordance with the corresponding Commission implementing decision, in cases where the lead applicant is established in an eligible country other than Papua New Guinea, project proposals should be based on local initiatives and genuine involvement of CSOs from partner country should be ensured at all stages. In these cases, the lead applicant must demonstrate significant experience in working in Papua New Guinea and have active working relationships with PNG-based CSOs.
- Potential applicants may not participate in calls for proposals or be awarded grants if they are in any of the situations.
Co-applicant(s)
- Co-applicants participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the lead applicant.
- Co-applicants must satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable to the lead applicant himself.
Affiliated entities
- The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with affiliated entity(ies).
- Only the following entities may be considered as affiliated entities to the lead applicant and/or to coapplicant(s):
  - Only entities having a structural link with the applicants (i.e. the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
- This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
  - Control, as defined in Directive 2013/34/EU on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
    - Entities affiliated to an applicant may hence be:
      - Entities directly or indirectly controlled by the applicant (daughter companies or first-tier subsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by the applicant (granddaughter companies or second-tier subsidiaries) and the same applies to further tiers of control;
      - Entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Likewise, they may be entities controlling an entity controlling the applicant;
      - Entities under the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies).
    - Membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as a e.g. network, federation, association in which the proposed affiliated entities also participate or the applicant participates in the same entity (e.g. network, federation, association) as the proposed affiliated entities.