Albania: EU for Socio-economic Development Phase 2

Deadline: 6-May-22

The European Commission (EC) is pleased to announce a call for proposals for the Socio-economic Development Phase 2 to support the pilot municipalities to deliver integrated inclusive health, education, employment and economic support, services ensuring in addition the fiscal and administrative sustainability of interventions, and the integration with municipal decision-making structures.

Specifically, the support for social development will target actions which promote inclusive and accessible health, social, educational and community-based services. It will include the development of more integrated (health, social, education and community) services in the local community.

The Call for Proposals foresees improvements in the community-level mobilisation of citizens, including vulnerable groups and civil society organisations with a view to reduce inequality of opportunities of vulnerable groups, through a possible support to business start-up programmes, self-employment and improved integration into the labour market with a special emphasis on women participation.

Objectives

The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals is/are:

• To support the implementation of economically viable alternatives to cannabis cultivation, with a focus on young men and women.
• To support selected municipalities to deliver public services and increase public awareness against cannabis cultivation and trafficking, with particular attention to vulnerable groups.

Priorities

The priorities of this call for proposals is/are:

• To support socio-economic alternatives in selected Municipalities, to prevent the risk of involvement in illicit activities and cannabis cultivation in particular of vulnerable groups (persons formerly affected by cannabis cultivation and those at risk of harm, neglect and social exclusion), as well as build their resilience.
• Strengthen the capacities of the municipalities increase public awareness on the issue, and to increase access and deliver inclusive services, in particular for vulnerable groups.

Target Groups

This Call for Proposals targets two groups:

• Target Group 1: People whose lives and livelihoods depend on the informal economy, and people at risk of income and non-income poverty, and vulnerable to social exclusion, including:
  • Young people with no or minimum levels of education,
  • People who are unemployed or with low prospects of employability,
  • Minorities, e.g. Roma and Egyptians,
  • People with disabilities (children and adults),
  • People with special needs (e.g., former prisoners, people at risk of coming into conflict with the law, children at risk of harm and neglect, children and youth leaving residential care),
  • Refugees and migrants.
• Target Group 2: Municipalities
  • Staff in Municipalities with responsibilities for planning, coordinating and delivering local services,
  • Staff in Municipalities in need of technical and organisational support for public awareness, and delivery of local services.

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 2,100,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.

Size of grants

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

• minimum amount: EUR 300,000
• maximum amount: EUR 500,000

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant(s)
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be one of the selected municipalities in the Republic of Albania; and
    • 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.
• 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. i.e: be one of the selected municipalities (including respective subordinate municipal entities – administrative units) in the Republic of Albania.
• 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 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.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3LGEGfc