Call for Proposals: EU Partnership with Civil Society Organizations on Climate Change & Youth in Yemen

Deadline: 15-Feb-24

The European Commission (EC) has launched a call for proposals to complement the EU’s overall development cooperation with Yemen by strengthening the EU’s partnership with Yemeni Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) as independent actors of good governance and development in their own right.

Objectives of the Programme and Priority Issues

• Lot 1: Environment and Climate Change Action
  • The specific objective(s) of Lot 1 for this call for proposals is to support Yemeni civil society actors’ initiatives that aim to increase awareness, resilience, adaptation and/or mitigation related to climate change in Yemen.
  • The priorities of Lot 1 for this call for proposals are:
    • rainfall and flooding, and protected areas.
    • Actions that reach out to excluded and marginalised individuals and groups who are most vulnerable and impacted by climate change, including but not limited to IDPs, Muhamasheen, PWDs, and women.
    • Actions that promote coordination and cooperation between CSOs and the various key stakeholders including government, relevant local authorities, private sector actors, think tanks, and others.
    • Actions with concrete measure to raise awareness of targeted communities on climate change impact and promote behavioural changes to mitigate and/or adapt, absorb, climate change stresses, shocks and variability.
    • All proposals under this lot should include capacity building interventions that contribute significantly to the development of the capacities of CSOs to understand and address the impact of climate change, manage climate change risks, mainstream climate action into their development and humanitarian interventions, and mobilise resources for climate change funds.
• Lot 2: Youth
  • The specific objective(s) of Lot 2 of this call for proposals is to increase participation of CSOs in facilitating youth’s engagement in social, civic, political and economic life, fostering youth employment through promoting a conducive business environment, and ensure their contribution to peaceful and inclusive growth and sustainable development.
  • The priorities of Lot 2 of this call for proposals are:
    • Actions that include innovative, sustainable, and impactful approaches to qualify and prepare youth to access job market and actively participate in economic life. Such actions may consider well-designed pre and/or on- the job trainings, filling the gap between the skills of the job seeker and the needs of the labour market, and managing to link youth with employment opportunities.
    • Actions that support Youth Initiatives and youth organizations including the emerging ones and that include a substantial capacity building component.
    • Actions that support Youth-led creative initiatives, and promote the establishment of safe spaces for youth for learning, volunteerism, self-expression, self-care and development, networking, and community engagement.
    • Actions that Promote coordination and cooperation between CSOs and the various key stakeholders including government, private sector actors, micro-finance institutions, academic institutions, youth committees and others to promote youth engagement in social, civic, political and economic life
    • Actions that build the capacity of youth and foster their empowerment and participation in the political process and decision-making roles, and help bridge the gap and establish trust between youth and local authorities, executive offices, and political parties.
    • Actions that address least privileged areas (that have rarely been the focus of youth interventions), and/or areas with a high population density, particularly those with a large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs).
    • All proposals under this lot should include capacity building interventions that contribute significantly to the development of the capacities of CSOs in facilitating youth’s engagement, and in contributing to the global objective of this call.

Sectors or Themes

• Lot 1
  • Actions under this lot must be in line with the overall objective and specific objectives and priorities and must relate to one or more of the following themes: climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation, biodiversity, and combating desertification. In one or more of the following sectors: agriculture, water, energy, costal zones, and ecosystem
• Lot 2
  • Actions under this lot must be in line with the overall objective and specific objectives and priorities and may relate to one or more of the following themes, or other themes that are relevant for achieving the overall objective of the lot:
    • Youth employment, access to job market and engagement and participation in economic life
    • Youth empowerment, engagement and participation in the political life
    • Youth empowerment and participation in civic engagement and social development.
    • Capacity building and support for Emerging youth CSOs and local youth initiatives

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 3,939,500. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds. Similarly, this amount could be increased should more funds become available.
• Indicative allocation of funds by lot:
  • Lot 1 (Environment and Climate change): EUR 1,939,500
  • Lot 2 (Youth): EUR 2,000,000
• If the allocation indicated for a specific lot cannot be used due to insufficient quality or number of proposals received, the contracting authority reserves the right to reallocate the remaining funds to the other lot.
• 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 600,000
      • maximum amount: EUR 1,939,500
    • Lot 2
      • minimum amount: EUR 600,000
      • maximum amount: EUR 2,000,000

Duration

• The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 24 months nor exceed 48 months.

Types of Activity

• Actions should include one or more of the following activities:
  • Lot 1
    • The following type of activities may be financed under this call (list is indicative only, and non-exhaustive):
      • Climate resilient (adaptive) agricultural interventions that enhance resilience, and production of agricultural (livestock, crops, fisheries, forestry), and incorporate sustainable practices.
      • Water resource management interventions.
      • Climate resilient (mitigation) interventions that promote low carbon development.
      • Coastal zones management interventions that aim to increase climate resilience of the local population and their livelihoods.
      • Climate resilient/adaptive interventions that respond to impact of drought, water scarcity, heavy rainfall and flooding.
    • All proposed activities should contribute to one or more of the 3 priority areas of the EU Delegation to Yemen:
      • Integrated human and social development
      • Promoting economic stability and growth
      • Promoting peace and security
  • Lot 2
    • The following type of activities may be financed under this call (list is indicative only, and non-exhaustive):
      • Interventions that support increased youth opportunities for employment and social entrepreneurship.
      • Interventions that support the establishment of civil society/entrepreneurship hubs, incubators, accelerators, labs for social enterprises, etc.
      • Interventions that facilitate linking skilled/educated youth to opportunities of self-employment; indicative examples could be micro-finance institutions, private sector, business development organizations/ incubators/ accelerators/ innovation labs, mentors, and others.
      • interventions that support the establishment of youth safe spaces that create opportunities for youth for learning, volunteerism, self-expression, self-care and development, networking, and community engagement aiming to reintegrate young individuals into society and mitigate the effects of conflict.
      • Interventions that increase access to internship opportunities through collaboration with private sector and local and international organizations.
    • All proposed activities should contribute to one or more of the 3 priority areas of the EU Delegation to Yemen:
      • Integrated human and social development
      • Promoting economic stability and growth
      • Promoting peace and security

Location

• Actions must take place in Yemen. Parts of the action which may take place outside Yemen must explicitly benefit Yemen.

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 non-governmental organisation and
    • be established in a Member State of the European Union or in developing countries and territories, as included in the list of ODA recipients published by the OECD Development Assistance Committee, which are not members of the G-20 group, and overseas countries and territories; or member countries of the OECD,
    • This obligation does not apply to international organisations 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 and
      • be able to, and have all necessary legal/administrative documents to operate in Yemen and
      • have proven experience of working with Yemeni CSOs during the last three years and
      • have proven experience of having implemented at least three projects with a budget at least equal to the value of the requested grant during the past five years and
      • have proven experience of implementing climate change related projects in Yemen or in other similar developing countries for at least 2 years in the period from 2018 to 2023 (this applies to Lot 1 only) and
      • have proven experience of implementing youth support/empowerment related projects in Yemen for at least 2 years in the period from 2018 to 2023 (this applies to Lot 2 only)
• 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.
  • In addition to the categories referred, co-applicants must be able to demonstrate experience of having implemented at least two projects with a budget at least equal to the value of the allocated amount of their concern from the requested grant during the past five years.
  • Co-applicants must sign the mandate form.
  • If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator)
  • In addition, please note that contracts cannot be awarded to or signed with applicants included in the lists of EU restrictive measures.
• 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.

Ineligible

• The following types of action are ineligible:
  • actions concerned only or mainly with individual sponsorships for participation in workshops, seminars, conferences and congresses;
  • actions concerned only or mainly with individual scholarships for studies or training courses.

For more information, visit European Commission (EC).