EU: Seeking Proposals for Land Development and Sustainable Agriculture Practices in Palestine

Deadline: 3 January 2019

The European Union (EU) is accepting proposals for a programme entitled “Land Development and Sustainable Agriculture Practices in Palestine” to promote social and economic development in Area C through improving resilience and tenure security of Palestinian communities and enhancing public and private sectors’ capacities, contributing to a more inclusive, sustainable, private sector-led economic development in the path towards a green economy.

The specific objective of this call for proposals is to support agriculture growth and profitability by provision of adequate sustainable means for better access to and utilisation of land and water in Area C. These means should focus on well-adapted agriculture practices and on the introduction of rational water management for sustainable livelihoods of vulnerable populations in Area C.

Priorities

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

reclamation of sub-utilized agricultural lands (within the purpose of increasing long-term productivity and competiveness of agriculture in these areas, including grazing and fallow lands; support to improve and expand solutions to mitigate existing infrastructural limitations and legal restrictions in the access to land);
increase availability and improvement in the use of water for agricultural purposes (rehabilitation or construction of rain-water harvesting cisterns, community-reservoirs, small dams, irrigation systems, steel water tanks, rehabilitation of wells and springs, water conveyance systems, etc.);
capacity development for:
- farmers’ associations/cooperatives, strengthening their management and advocacy skills, including women’s empowerment initiatives, improving agriculture practices, in particular the development and adoption of adequate soil and water management plans, and the intermediation between individual farmers and extension and veterinary services
- to support the MoA’s legal affairs department, institutionalizing the legal support function within the Ministry services

The proposed project should cover at least two of the above-mentioned priorities of this Call for Proposals.

Funding Information

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

minimum amount: EUR 1,900,000
maximum amount: EUR 3,800,000

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant
- In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  - be a legal person and
  - be a specific type of organisation such as: non-governmental organisation, public sector operator, local authority, international (inter-governmental) organisation as defined by Article 43 of the rules of application of the EU Financial Regulation and
  - be established in a Member State of the European Union or in Palestine or in other countries/territories/beneficiaries for the ENI.
  - ‘For British applicants: Please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. Unless sector-specific eligibility rules provide otherwise, if the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, applicants will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible to participate) or will be required to leave the project on the basis of Article 12.2 e) of the Annex II –general conditions of the grant agreement’.
  - This obligation does not apply to international organisations
  - be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary and
  - if established in a country other than Palestine, act together with at least one co-applicant established in Palestine.
- The lead applicant may act individually or with co-applicant(s).
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.
- If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator)
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 co-applicant(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.