EU announces Call for Proposals to Strengthen the Participation of Women in Political Life

Deadline: 28 March 2020

The European Union (EU) has announced call for proposals to strengthen democratic control of the executive through civil society and the participation of women in political life.

This call for proposals has the following specific objectives (SO):

to strengthen the foundations and networks of CSOs in terms of legitimacy and capacity to assume their responsibilities for coordination, consultations, accountability and dialogue
to support CSOs specialized in citizen control and monitoring (security and mines) and fight against petty corruption at national and local level,
to improve the position of women at the political, economic and social level, including a strengthening of exchanges with the National Assembly (NA) and other state bodies.

Elements

The elements of added value of this call for proposals are the following:

Contribute to strengthening the control of the executive by a better implication and participation of the bodies and CSOs in the development, the piloting, the follow-up, the monitoring of policies public as well as by participating in sectoral PNDES dialogue frameworks;
Promote gender mainstreaming in public policies and improve the position of women in elected bodies and senior public administration;
Take into account existing interventions in the areas of democratic control of the executive by civil society and the participation of women in political life, and work in synergy with the other actors present in the intervention areas, to complementarity of actions;
Support the executive in monitoring actions and reforms contained in EU budget support programs, in particular in the security sectors, the advancement of women and the mobilization of national resources, etc.
Promote good practices, innovative actions, effective and adapted to the context;
Bring the right messages to the grassroots population through the network of CSOs, on issues of accountability and citizen control in the themes of the call for proposals and on the citizen participation of women;
Work in collaboration with national and local authorities (including local authorities) and involve them in monitoring the implementation of projects, in particular in areas affected by insecurity;
Present the specific activities targeting each target in the proposals;
Plan to capitalize on the actions carried out and ensure participation in national consultation frameworks on the themes concerned. Successful applicants must ensure their participation in the monitoring and follow-up mechanisms organized within the framework of the program.

Funding Information

Any grant request under this call for proposals must be between following minimum and maximum amounts:

Lot 1: Strengthening of the ridge and networks of CSOs terms of coordination, accountability and dialogue
- Minimum amount in euros: 250 000
- Maximum amount in euros: 500 000
Lot 2: Support for CSOs specializing in citizen watch (security and mining sector) and fight against petty corruption at national and local level
- Minimum amount in euros: 250 000
- Maximum amount in euros: 500 000
Lot 3: Improving the position of women at political, economic and social level.
- Minimum amount in euros: 250 000
- Maximum amount in euros: 300 000

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility of applicants (lead applicant and co-applicants)

Lead Applicant

To be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
- be a legal person and
- be non-profit making and
- belong to the one of the following categories of organizations: non-governmental organization, as defined in article 156 of the financial regulation of the European Union and
- be established in Burkina Faso and/or in an eligible third country when in the latter case the statutes are registered locally, and/or a memorandum of understanding has been concluded and
- be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicants and the affiliated entity or entities, and not act as an intermediary and
- have an official representation in Burkina Faso with permanent staff and
- prove that he has regularly carried out activities for more than 2 years in the field of the lot for which the proposal was submitted.

Co-Applicant(s)

The co-applicants participate in the development and implementation of the action, and the costs they bear are eligible in the same way as those supported by the lead applicant.
Co-applicants must meet the same eligibility criteria as those which apply to the applicant leader himself.
If the grant is awarded to them, any co-applicants become the beneficiaries within the framework of the action (with the coordinator).

Affiliated entities

The lead applicant and his co-applicant (s) may act with one or more affiliated entities.
Only the following entities can be considered affiliated with the lead applicant and / or to the co-applicant (s):
- Only entities that have a structural link with the applicants (the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
- This structural link mainly encompasses 2 concepts:
  - control, within the meaning of Directive 2013/34 / EU relating to annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of businesses:
    - The entities affiliated to an applicant can therefore be:
      - entities controlled directly or indirectly by the applicant (subsidiaries or subsidiaries of first rank) or controlled by an entity itself controlled by the applicant (sub-subsidiaries
        
        or second level subsidiaries), and this is valid for the other control levels;
        
        entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Of the similarly, it can be entities controlling an entity controlling the applicant;
        entities controlled, directly or indirectly, at the same level as the applicant (sister companies).
  - membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as, for example, a network, a federation or association of which the proposed affiliated entity is a member, or the applicant is a member of the same entity (for example, a network, a federation or an association,…) that the proposed affiliate.

How to Apply

The application procedure consists of two phases:
- Concept notes
- Full applications
The concept note together with the declaration by the lead applicant must be submitted at the address given on the website.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/31SPpMT and download the guidelines.