Deadline: 22-Mar-2024
The European Commission (EC) has announced a call for proposals to support and strengthen civil society organisations working on critical democracy and human rights issues in the Philippines.
Objectives
- The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals are:
- To support human rights defenders working on the most critical areas of human rights policy and democracy issues;
- To contribute to the national effort in protecting the rights of children and other vulnerable groups impacted by climate change;
- To support CSO initiatives to promote human rights cities in the Philippines.
Priorities
- The priority(ies) of this call for proposals are:
- Lot 1: Support to human rights defenders
- Human rights defenders in the Philippines pursue their work under the mantle of the Philippine Constitution and internationally-guaranteed bill of rights and mainly with the support of civil society and National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI) engaged in promoting and protecting human rights. The assumption of a new administration in 2022 brought forth policy changes in some critical areas such as the War on Drugs (refocused from punitive to rehabilitative), re-engagement with international human rights mechanisms (visits of UN Special Rapporteurs) and commitment to pursue international rights obligations, engagement with CSOs on key HR issues via the UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, and recently, the possible resumption of peace negotiations with the communist rebels.
- Lot 2: Protecting the rights of children and other vulnerable groups impacted by climate change
- This Lot will contribute to the national efforts to protect children and other vulnerable groups from the impacts of climate change-induced crisis or disasters. The specific objective is to support civil society actions to address and prevent child rights violations in climate-impacted communities, including activities of prevention and response, covering the different stages of displacement (preparedness, displacement and return) with particular attention to violence, abuse, and exploitation and ensuring equitable access to basic services.
- Lot 3: Support to human rights cities
- The objective of this Lot is to support the strengthening of human rights cities in the Philippines and creating new ones by capacitating CSOs to participate and collaborate at the local levels to strengthen the capacities of local governments to comply with their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of their citizens, especially the vulnerable and marginalized sectors of the population (e.g., indigenous peoples, farmers, women and children, urban and rural poor communities, LGBTIQ, PWDs, community journalists).
- Lot 1: Support to human rights defenders
Funding Information
- The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 3 350 000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
- Indicative allocation of funds by lot:
- Lot 1. Support to human rights defenders – EUR 1 100 000
- Lot 2. Protection of children and other vulnerable groups – EUR 1 250 000
- Lot 3. Support to human rights cities – EUR 1 000 000
- Size of grants
- Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
- Lot 1:
- minimum amount: EUR 500 000
- maximum amount: EUR 550 000
- Lot 2:
- minimum amount: EUR 600 000
- maximum amount: EUR 625 000
- Lot 3:
- minimum amount: EUR 900 000
- maximum amount: EUR 1 000 000
- Lot 1:
- Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
Duration
- The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 24 months nor exceed 36 months.
Activities
- Enhancement of security of human rights defenders and/or project beneficiaries through the use of information technology and/or installation of security systems and communications;
- Human rights and democracy awareness raising towards concrete policy changes or improved claimmaking (claiming or exercising rights and freedoms) by rights-holders that are poor, sociallyexcluded and vulnerable, including media initiatives for better public accountability;
- Advocacy with state actors to support the development or enhancement and implementation of national action plans;
- Public events, multi-stakeholder social dialogues or forum (including online) that bring together relevant stakeholders for constructive discussion of human rights issues;
- Peaceful exercise of freedom of expression, association and assembly.
Location
- Actions must take place in the Philippines.
Eligibility Criteria
- Lead applicant(s)
- In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
- be a legal person and
- be non-profit-making and
- be a civil society organisation and
- be established in a Member State of the European Union or an eligible country as stipulated in the basic act of NDICI-GE and
- be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the coapplicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.
- In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
- 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.
- Co-applicants must sign the mandate form.
- 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 coapplicant(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 part of a 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.
- Control on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
- 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:
For more information, visit EC.