Deadline: 14-May-23
The New Democracy Fund is inviting applications for the New Cooperation Mechanism Grant to provide Danish civil society actors with an opportunity to start new or extend existing partnerships in the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – to promote democratic dialogue, hold duty-bearers to account, and ensure that the voice of the rights holders is heard.
Danish civil society actors are invited to engage with the New Democracy Fund to get support to develop sustainable new or existing cooperation and exchange with partners in the ENC.
The NC goes beyond traditional development assistance and will favour strong, innovative, or courageous partnerships that are willing to take risks. These partnerships should work within the five thematic areas: youth, media, culture, labour market and just and green transition. These areas are enforced by a cross-cutting emphasis on gender, inclusion, and human rights.
Funding Information
- The total yearly budget of the New Cooperation Mechanism is DKK 10,500,000.
What kind of initiatives are supported?
- The New Cooperation Mechanism strives to support projects that focus on:
- Sustainable and long-lasting cooperation between civil society actors in Denmark and the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries, in which the applicants strive towards establishing long-lasting cooperation and solid exit strategies.
- The maximum budget amount is up to DKK 1,200,000.
- Shorter term actions, enabling Danish civil society to search, continue and/or develop existing or new partnerships in the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries.
- The budget amount is within the range of DKK 50-150,000. Please notice, that these projects require a separate application form.
Eligible Actions
- The NC invites Danish civil society actors to apply for support to develop sustainable new or existing cooperation and exchange with partners in the ENC.
- The partnerships should work within the thematic fields of youth, media, culture, labour market, and just and green transition. These areas are enforced with a crosscutting emphasis on gender, inclusion, and human rights.
- The NC will favour partnerships that create synergy, and innovation, or break new ground.
- Emphasis is placed on the breadth and depth of the partnerships. This means that the partnerships supported by the NC shall contribute to sustainable lasting cooperation between civil society actors in Denmark and the ENC. The Danish applicant should, therefore, demonstrate that they strive towards establishing long-lasting cooperation which goes beyond traditional development assistance.
- The NC will also provide support for smaller projects with a budget range from DKK 50,000 up to DKK 150,000. This will allow Danish civil society actors to search, continue and/or develop existing partnerships as well as enter new or innovative partnerships with one or more partners in the ENC countries. A separate application form should be used for smaller projects.
- The budget must be activity based, including descriptions related to the activities, salaries and other project-related costs. The activities described in the application and the costs presented in the budget should be interlinked. The budget will be one of the assessment criteria of the application. The maximum amount to apply for is DKK 1,200,000. Applicants receiving grants of more than DKK 100,000 and have not received funding from NDF of DK MFA before should undergo a capacity assessment.
- The NC reserves the right to reduce the amount granted to individual applications, taking the limited funds available as well as other relevant factors into account. The total yearly budget of the NC is DKK 10,500,000 which is aimed at supporting 25 smaller and larger projects.
- The Danish applicant should be able to contribute to ‘maintaining a popular Danish engagement in the development cooperation and in reaching a broad spectrum of Danes with knowledge about the living conditions and development in other parts of the world’, as outlined in Denmark’s Strategy for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Action, World 2030.
Eligibility Criteria
- Civil society actors registered in Denmark. Partners from Denmark and the ENC must submit a joint application. The Danish partner will be the lead applicant and must live up to all the requirements for administrative and legal obligations set by the fund. Civil society actors are broadly defined as democratically organised CSOs, social movements, media, academia, trade unions as well as community-based groups and organisations, including cultural, educational, and knowledge institutions.
- Consortium member organisations of the New Democracy Fund cannot apply to or be a partner in a project that receives the support of the NC. Other civil society actors affiliated with Consortium member organisations of the New Democracy Fund – ex. as membership organisations – can apply on the precondition that they are an independent legal entity.
- Organisations that do not live up to the obligations in a current contract with the NDF cannot apply until the defaults are remedied. Organisations that have previously not lived up to the requirements of the NDF will undergo a capacity assessment before entering into a new contract.
For more information, visit New Cooperation Mechanism.