Call for Proposals: Promoting Human Rights and Democracy in Malawi

Deadline: 23-Jun-23

The European Commission (EC) is accepting proposals to empower civil society organisations and to support their efforts to promote, advance and defend human rights and consolidate their role as actors for positive change.

Objectives of The Programme and Priority Issues

• The specific objectives of this call for proposals are as follows:
  • Lot 1 – Strengthened capacity of the Parliament of Malawi to better perform its oversight, legislative and representative function
  • Lot 2 – Improving the living conditions and treatment of Prisoners
• The priorities of this call for proposals are:
  • Lot 1 – Support to the Parliament of Malawi
    • Enhancing cost-effective civic education and outreach initiatives to improve citizen’s awareness and participation in Parliamentary proceedings.
    • Strengthening the legislative functioning of Parliament through greater autonomy and independence in analysing, generating, processing and tracking of bills.
    • Promoting research services and use of evidence based decision-making in policy-making
    • Implementing Inter-Parliamentary Peer-to-Peer mentorship, exchange visits, training and capacity building of Members of Staff across key departments
  • Lot 2 – Improving the living conditions and treatment of Prisoners
    • Development and implementation of sustainable initiatives to improve the living conditions and welfare of prisoners;
    • Advocacy to relevant policy makers and key stakeholders to address recommendations from the Inspectorate of Prisons.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 1,200,000. Of this amount, EUR 1,050,000 will be financed under the 2022 budget and EUR 150,000 will be financed under the 2023 budget.
• The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
• Indicative allocation of funds by lot/geographical distribution:
  • Lot 1 – Support to the Parliament of Malawi
    • EUR 600,000
  • Lot 2 – Improving the living conditions and treatment of prisoners.
    • EUR 600,000
• Size of grants
  • Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
    • Lot 1 – Support to the Parliament of Malawi
      • minimum amount: EUR 500,000
      • maximum amount: EUR 600,000
    • Lot 2 – Improving the living conditions and treatment of Prisoners
      • minimum amount: EUR 500,000
      • maximum amount: EUR 600,000
• Duration
  • The initial planned duration of each of the actions shall be as follows:
    • Lot 1: Support to the Parliament of Malawi – action’s duration may not be lower than 30 months, nor exceed 36 months.
    • Lot 2: Improving the living conditions and treatment of prisoners – action’s duration may not be lower than 30 months nor exceed 36 months.

Location

Actions must take place in the following locations:

• Lot 1: Support to the Parliament of Malawi – actions must take place primarily within Lilongwe, at the Parliament of Malawi. However, some activities may necessitate implementation in other districts of Malawi or internationally.
• Lot 2: Improving the living conditions and treatment of prisoners – actions must take place in one or more of the country’s central prisons: Blantyre, Zomba, Mzuzu or Lilongwe.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant(s)
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person and
    • be a civil society organisation active in human rights and democratic governance in Malawi or be a natural person or grouping without legal personality
    • be established in a Member State of the European Union or eligible non EU Member States
    • 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)
  • The lead applicant must act with a minimum of one (1) co-applicant.
  • Where the lead applicant is an international organisation, participation of a minimum of one (1) local co-applicant is obligatory.
  • 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 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 European Commission.