Call for Proposals: COVID Solidarity CSO support Programme

Deadline: 02-Aug-20

As part of the European Union (EU) COVID-19 Solidarity Programme for Eastern Partnership, PIN, NHC, and AFEW joint forces to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and contribute towards longer-term socio-economic resilience of vulnerable groups.

To achieve this overall goal, the consortium recognises the critical role local CSOs play in service delivery, community mobilization, awareness raising, policy engagement and advocacy for the protection of human rights and civic freedoms during and in the post-pandemic environment. The action will support these key actors to achieve the overall goal via a set of interrelated activities that both aim to address the short to medium-term needs and longer-term institutional barriers to their development.

The project will be implemented by a consortium built by three organizations with distinct experience and added-value, People In Need (PIN), Netherlands Helsinki Committee (NHC), and AFEW International(AFEW).

The consortium addresses the COVID-19 pandemic with a phased approach in order to most effectively respond to the disruptions on health care, the socio-economic needs, build resilience and support watchdog and media activities (Phase 1), and address structural barriers that hinder the target populations’ health, socio-economic recovery and resilience and overall reform in the respective sectors (Phase 2).

The project aims at achieving its overall goal through the following two outputs:

Output 1: CSOs have the expertise and resources to respond to the short to medium-term needs of vulnerable groups, provide continuity of services and adapt to the new COVID environment.
Output 2: CSOs, watchdog initiatives and independent media are able to influence longer-term policy developments with a focus on inclusive recovery, preparedness for pandemics and socio-economic resilience of vulnerable groups.

In this regard, PIN is publishing this first call for proposals to identify at least 3 local CSOs to be granted to meet the immediate to mid-term health, socio-economic, and protection needs of the following target groups:

People with disabilities (PWD)
Rural households, including elderly women and men
Micro-Small-Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Income-generating activities
Youth.

The second round of call for proposals within the project will be launched tentatively in August/September.

Funding Information

The amount of each grant will be up to 40,000 EUR for service delivery.

Eligibility Criteria

Being registered as a CSO in the Republic of Moldova
Having a relevant and proved experience (at least four years) in implementing community-level initiatives
Having a relevant and proved experience (at least four years) in supporting at least one of the target groups listed above
Being able and willing to adapt to the COVID-19 operating environment (remote management, movement to digital mobilisation, adherence to C-19 humanitarian standards, potential for direct cash programming, etc.)
Having experience in cooperating with Local Public Authorities
Proving evidences of managing funds of the budget size.

Criteria

The indicative activities supported through the service delivery grants will be based on the needs identified by the local CSOs and can include, but are not limited to:
- Social Services – provision of social, psycho-social or health care
- Economic Recovery – support to restart the micro and small business/income-generating activities, delivering skills necessary for adapting to new labour market conditions, equipment to meet authorities’ COVID prevention measures, provision of start-up/prevention of lay-off capital
- Social Protection – addressing increased incidences of domestic violence / gender-based violence and child protection issues
- Education – support to distance education and initiatives to ensure vulnerable children do not fall behind due to school closures, lack of home-schooling opportunities
The applicants will present their proposal filling in the application form here attached
The grant will be used to address the more immediate COVID-19 needs of the target groups in Phase 1 of the project (approximately July 2020 – July 2021)
The budget must be in line with the activities described in the application form.