Deadline: 8 March 2020
The “Norwegian Support to the Western Balkans Development, Norway for You – Serbia”, is a project financed by the Government of Norway and implemented by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), has announced a Call for Proposals (CFPs) to support initiatives aiming to enhance social cohesion through the enhancement of business environment.
The aim of this Call is to provide support to the business support entities (BSEs), public institutions, endowments and foundations to contribute to the increased provision of specialised services for local businesses and to support them in improving their ability to grow and increase their market share, competitiveness and employ more young people, vulnerable and marginalised groups.
This Call will support the projects that aim to improve youth employability and improve the business environment at the local level. The Project proposals should encompass concrete activities that directly address (priority) needs of local businesses, while clearly demonstrating links to the priorities identified in local or national development policies.
Objectives
Objectives of the Intervention
- Overall objective: To contribute to employment for youth and social inclusion of vulnerable and marginalised groups through improving business environment in Serbia’s underdeveloped areas.
- Specific objective: Contribute to the improved business environment by making local businesses more sustainable and competitive and employ more youth through support provisioned by the beneficiary BSEs.
This CfP particularly aims to contribute to the achievement of the goals addressed within the Overall and Specific Objective:
- Contribute to the improved business environment by making local businesses more competitive, sustainable and able to employ more youth.
The proposals contributing to Specific Objective that would be considered may include but are not limited to:
- Interventions contributing to enhancement of processes and/or quality of products and/or services. This includes but is not limited to introduction of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions, development of new products and/or services, improvement of production and/or service delivery systems, procurement of equipment for (joint) usage, improvements in design, packaging and branding, etc.
- Actions contributing market expansion. This includes but is not limited to networking activities, preparation and joined participation at foreign and domestic fairs, support in joint performance on the market, collaborative research and development projects, etc.
- Interventions of relevant standards and obtaining certificates. This includes but is not limited to the introduction of relevant industry standards, introduction of standards required for market expansion, introduction of group standards, improvement of quality management systems and introduction of quality control measures, etc.
- Actions that improve employ ability of youth. This could include activities related to vocational training, skills adjustment training, career counselling and preparations for labour market (re)entry, etc.
- Proposals that enhance business environment at the local level. This may include enhancement of local employment policies, introduction of local self-government measures/schemes to support local businesses, improvement of municipal administrative services that are provided to businesses, reduction of mismatch between demand and supply at the local labour market, enhancement of data management of business information, etc.
The “Norway for You” Project supports initiatives resulting from the partnership among the entities eligible to apply to this Call. The Call encourages and will support BSEs initiatives that contribute to wellbeing of communities and may create broader social impact. The initiatives including, but not limited to, implementation of Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) activities such as addressing the needs of local communities, support to the vulnerable groups (youth, women, minority groups, people with disabilities, etc.); fostering and promoting gender equality; activities contributing to the protection of the environment, as well as the implementation of Good Governance principles (efficiency, transparency, accountability, citizen participation and anti-discrimination) should be recognized within the project.
Funding Information
- The indicative overall amount available under this CfP is USD 550,000 (in RSD).
- The Project reserves the right not to allocate all the available funds.
- The Budget should be planned and filled-in in USD exclusively.
- Minimum value of the grant per project is USD 22,000 (in RSD) and the maximum is USD 110,000 (in RSD).
- The maximum duration of the project is twelve (12) months, while minimum duration is eight (8) months from the signing of the Grant Agreement.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible to apply are:
Business Support Entities
Following type of business support entities are eligible to apply: Business Incubators including co-working spaces and hubs, Endowments, Clusters, Accredited Regional Development Agencies, Business Associations, Science or Technology Park, Chamber of Commerce and Research Institutes and Academic Organisations (Academies, Universities). In order to be eligible to apply, business support entities must comply with the following criteria:
- Legally registered with the Serbian Business Registration Agency (SRBA) and seated on the territory of the Republic of Serbia;
- Legally registered at least one year before submission of the project proposal;
- To have minimum one employee for the year 2019 (as evidenced by the relevant document);
- Legally registered to perform activities for which the objectives of the proposed project will be realized;
- Proven track record of successful realization of projects that are dealing with the issues that are subject of the CfP and of proposed action;
- The applicant has not been issued with prohibition of performing their activities within two years before submitting the application;
- The applicant owns business premise or has valid long-term leasing agreement;
- An organisation is not in the process of enforced collection of claim, bankruptcy, closure or liquidation; has clean record in fulfillment of contractual obligations undertaken on the basis of previous grant agreements and no cases of funds misused, illegal activities or criminal charges/convictions;
- It has expertise, organisational and financial capacities to successfully carry on implementation of proposed action;
- There are no criminal proceedings against the person(s) authorized to represent the organisation (legal representatives and assigned project managers);
The applicant is not producing anything that infringes copyright, trademark or intellectual property laws.
Domestic endowments and foundations
Endowments and foundations that are registered in Republic of Serbia (RS) according to the Law on Endowments and Foundations must comply with all of the following criteria in order to be eligible to apply:
- Domestic endowments and foundations registered at the Serbian Business Registers Agency (SBRA) within the Register of Endowments and Foundations.
- The goals for which a domestic endowment or foundation was founded, same as the regulations of the founding act and the statute must be consistent with the objectives of this call, with particular emphasis on contributing to the achievement of the common good.
- Legally registered for at least one year before submission of the project proposal.
- To have minimum one employee for the year 2019 (as evidenced by the relevant document).
- Legally registered to perform activities for which the objectives of the proposed project will be realised.
- Proven track record of successful realisation of projects that are dealing with the issues that are subject of the CfP and of proposed action.
- The applicant has not been issued with prohibition of performing their activities within two years before submitting the application (if applicable).
- The applicant owns business premise or has valid long-term leasing agreement.
- Endowments and foundations is not in the process of enforced collection of claim, bankruptcy, closure or liquidation; has clean record in fulfillment of contractual obligations undertaken on the basis of previous grant agreements and no cases of funds misused, illegal activities or criminal charges/convictions.
- It has expertise, organisational and financial capacities to successfully carry on implementation of proposed action.
- There are no criminal proceedings against the person(s) authorised to represent the organisation (legal representatives and assigned project managers).
- The applicant is not producing anything that infringes copyright, trademark or intellectual property laws.
Note: The Project will accept for consideration only proposals which are consistent with the applicant’s organisation statute and mandate. This Note is relevant for all types of applicants listed above.
How to Apply
Applications must be submitted via e-mail at the address given on the website.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2OWv6cn