Call for Proposals: Support CSOs in Yemen promoting Women’s Rights, Journalism and Free Media

Deadline: 10-May-24

The European Commission has announced a call for proposals to strengthen civil society organisations’ capacities to promote and protect women’s rights, freedom of expression and independent media.

Objectives of the Programme and Priority Issues 

• Lot 1: Enhance women’s rights and inclusion at all levels. 
  • The specific objectives of Lot 1 are:
    • Strengthen the capacities of local CSOs to contribute to the inclusion of individuals, specifically targeting women and girls, in all aspects of the socio-economic, political and cultural life.
    • Protect and empower individuals, contributing to the full enjoyment of all human rights, be they civil, political, economic, social or cultural rights, with a particular focus on women and girls.
  • The priorities of Lot 1 of this call for proposals are: –
    • Support women’s rights for more inclusion in the society: for instance, support women’s and girls’ rights in the context of economic empowerment; awareness raising in support of women’s and girls’ safe access to health and shelter; defend women and advocate for their rights against violence in a context of conflict; report abuses and violations of their rights.
• Lot 2: Freedom of expression and independent media 
  • The specific objectives of Lot 2 are:
    • Strengthen the capacities of journalists and media to enhance the freedom of expression and enable an environment more supportive of independent media.
    • Protect and empower individuals working in the media environment from the persistent risks and violations of their rights.
    • Contribute to countering misinformation and the misuse of digital technologies, especially when used against the freedom of expression, media workers and to the detriment of human rights defenders, women’s rights organisations and/or humanitarian and development workers.
  • The priorities of Lot 2 of this call for proposals are:
    • Support journalists and media workers to inform the population freely and independently: for instance, support men and women journalists to enhance their informative capacities; promote and protect the freedom of expression and the right to information of the population; defend journalists and advocate for their rights in a context of conflict; report abuses and violations of their rights.

Crosscutting Priorities

• The crosscutting priorities of this call for proposals are:
  • Rights-based approach 
    • The European Consensus on Development commits the EU and its Member States to implementing a rights based approach (RBA) to development, encompassing all Human Rights as well as EU’s commitment to promote and protect human rights and democracy as enshrined in the Joint Communication and EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy for 2020-2024. Actions must therefore incorporate the five working principles of the RBA approach: applying all human rights for all; meaningful and inclusive participation and access to decision-making; non-discrimination and equality; accountability and rule of law for all; transparency and access to information supported by disaggregated data.
  • Gender equality 
    • Gender equality constitutes a fundamental human rights principle and a common value of the European Union through integrating the objectives of the third EU Gender Action Plan (GAP III), with a specific focus on the goal outlined in the NDICI-GLOBAL EUROPE on strengthening strategic dialogue on gender equality and women’s empowerment with CSOs. The design of the action should pay attention to gender mainstreaming to ensure a reinforced role of women as actors of change.
  • Youth participation 
    • The European Union recognises youth as key actors of development and an integral part of the solution to promoting peace and security. Civil Society is an important actor in promoting youth engagement and involving and/or representing youth and youth interests in key policy processes.

Sectors or Themes 

• Lot 1 
  • Actions under this lot must be in line with the overall objective and specific objectives and priorities listed under section 1.2 and must relate to one or more of the following themes:
    • support women’s and girls’ rights in the context of economic empowerment; awareness raising in support of women’s and girls’ safe access to health and shelter; defend women and advocate for their rights against violence in a context of conflict; report abuses and violations of their rights.
    • Reinforce the capacities of the local Civil Society Organizations to elaborate and implement projects in these sector.
• Lot 2 
  • Actions under this lot must be in line with the overall objective and specific objectives and priorities listed under section 1.2 and must relate to one or more of the following themes:
    • support men and women journalists to enhance their informative capacities; promote and protect the freedom of expression and the right to information of the population; defend journalists and advocate for their rights in a context of conflict; report abuses and violations of their rights.
    • Reinforce the capacities of the local Civil Society Organizations to elaborate and implement projects in these sectors.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 3,447,608.00. 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:
    • Lot 1 
      • minimum amount: EUR 600,000.00
      • maximum amount: EUR 1,250,000.00
    • Lot 2 
      • minimum amount: EUR 450,000.00
      • maximum amount: EUR 947,608.00

Activities

• List of potential activities (non-exhaustive) foreseen under this Call for Proposals:
  • Lot 1
    • Actions that strengthen women’s voice and meaningful participation in social and economic life.
    • Actions that create an enabling environment for women’s economic activities and access to productive resources, including women’s access to land activities, technology, and finance.
    • Actions that strengthen women’s financial and business development skills, improving women’s access to markets, and better access to financial services, with a special focus on digital financial services.
    • Actions that support local women-led organisations’ actions that promote women’s social and economic empowerment.
  • Lot 2 
    • Actions that support the promotion of freedom of expression.
    • Actions that promote the capacity building of journalists, especially but not only women journalists, and of media workers.
    • Actions that raise awareness about the risks undertaken by the journalists and provide legal and/or psycho-social support to the victims.
    • Actions that raise awareness on the difficulties of women journalists and provide support to enhance their activities.

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, 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 having implemented at least two projects with a budget equal to or higher than the value of the financial allocation requested to the contracting authority during the past five years; and
    • have proven experience of implementing women’s rights related projects in Yemen or in other similar developing countries, with a duration of at least 2 years in the period from 2018 to 2023 (this applies to Lot 1 only and the actions must be finalized by the time of submission of the project proposal) and
    • have proven experience of implementing journalists and media workers support/empowerment related projects in Yemen or in other similar developing countries with a duration of at least 2 years in the period from 2018 to 2023 (this applies to Lot 2 only and the actions must be finalized by the time of submission of the project proposal)
• 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.
  • If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator) (3) 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.

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