Deadline: 15-Apr-24
Are you a Civil Society Organisation working for and with youth? Are you interested in youth civic engagement and participation? WYDE is looking for you! Participate in Women and Youth in Democracy Initiative with your project idea!
The Youth Participation in Public Affairs program of the EU’s, Women and Youth in Democracy Initiative (WYDE) is funded by the European Union. It aims to improve the enfranchisement, empowerment, and inclusion of youth in all levels of democratic participation at the national, regional, and global scales. WYDE Youth’s three-pronged approach is informed by the need for youth engagement and inclusion not only at national level, but beyond and above it. With half of the world’s population being under 30, the continued survival of democracy is highly dependent on buy-in and support among its youth.
The project will also implement 5 different projects called “Clusters”, coordinated by the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD)’s members, and aiming at engaging young people active in public affairs, from civil society activists to politicians in an effort to empower them to advocate for more youth inclusion in society.
Cluster 1, named “Generate Democracy: involving youth CSOs in democracy support” is dedicated to providing youth CSOs with the chance to put into practice the lessons learnt in the other clusters and undertake responsibilities over concrete actions promoting civic engagement and democracy.
Objectives
- Overall Objective
- Through the re-granting scheme, the cluster 1 of the WYDE project is aiming at funding and implementing national and transnational projects in support of youth civic engagement and participation in the decision-making processes across the Sub-Saharan Countries.
- Specific Objectives
- Empower organisations working in the field of youth to play a relevant role in supporting the democratic participation of youth.
- Support peer to peer learning among youth organisations
- Reinforce an international network of youth organisations and youth leaders.
- Improve the cooperation between the youth civil society and public policy makers, at local, national, and international level.
- Advocate for the establishment or improvement of representative youth structures (such as youth councils or youth parliaments)
Crosscutting Priorities
- This call for proposals will finance actions that respect the five working principles of the Human Rights Based Approach methodology:
- 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
- Access to information supported by disaggregated data
- These principles should be rigorously applied throughout programming, design, and implementation and across all sectors.
- Gender equality should be mainstreamed throughout these working principles. The working principles are equally relevant to the process. Therefore, all proposals under this call for proposals shall be designed according to a HRBA. Please note that this aspect will be highly considered during the projects assessment.
Funding Information
- Each applicant will be able to apply to three different lots and it will need to request the following grant amounts (potential co-funding is excluded):
- LOT 1: 10.000€
- LOT 2: 20.000€
- LOT 3: 30.000€
Duration
- The duration of the action will depend on the amount of funding requested, which will be articulated in three lots.
- For LOT 1: the action will need to last maximum 6 months.
- For LOT 2: the action will need to last maximum 9 months.
- For LOT 3: the action will need to last maximum 12 months.
- Two additional months will be included in the contract for ensuring the procedures related to the final reporting of the project and the disbursement of the final financial instalment.
Eligible Activities
- Activities eligible for financial support (not exhaustive list):
- Advocacy campaigns,
- civic mobilization and awareness raising initiatives,
- Capacity building for youth
- CSOs networking events,
- National and transnational study visits,
- job shadowing,
- capacity building on participatory democracy
Ineligible Activities
- Activities non-eligible for financial support (not exhaustive list):
- 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.
- actions concerned only or mainly with directly delivering social services to target groups.
- actions supporting political or religious proselytism.
Target Groups and Final Beneficiaries
- The action considers as young people aged between 15 and 35 years old as its main beneficiaries. WYDE’s principal actions will therefore cover this age category. However, it will not limit its grantees and other beneficiaries from working with a wider definition of youth, notably to include children (defined here as the age group of 9-14 years) or to work through the Summit for Democracy’s Youth Participation Cohort who sometimes consider active citizens up to 40 years old.
- When reporting and measuring, the action will pay attention to disaggregate group of beneficiaries, not only by sex, but also by age.
- Considering that youth participation has different dimensions, the Action distinguishes between five target groups depending on their level of engagement in public affairs to better ascertain their needs and fine-tune its support:
- Young citizens
- Youth-led organizations and Movements
- Young aspiring/Inspiring Leaders
- Young decision makers
- Local Authorities
- CSOs working for/With Youth (not necessarily led by Youth)
Location
- Selected entities should be implementing National/transnational projects in support of youth civic engagement and participation in the decision-making processes across the Global South countries with a special focus on Sub Saharan African Countries.
Eligibility Criteria
- In order to be eligible for each lot, the CSOs will need to respect the following rules:
- For LOT1: (National call) The applicant will be able to candidate alone or in partnership. This lot is specifically conceived for actions at local/national level.
- For LOT2: The consortium will need to be made of minimum two partners (including the lead applicant) belonging to the same Country or to different Countries.
- For LOT3: (international call) The consortium will need to be made of minimum three partners (including the lead applicant), belonging to at least two different Countries. This lot is specifically conceived for international activities.
- The pre-selected initiatives in the African continent will benefit from a financial support of €10,000 to €30,000 and a technical accompaniment aiming at the structural reinforcement of the CSOs and the support in the piloting of the initiatives.
- Each organization must be:
- Legally registered
- Civil society organization working for and with youth.
- Please note that Local Authorities are not eligible to apply, although it is highly recommended to the applicants to cooperate with them.
- Organizations with limited experience are highly encouraged to apply. Those selected will be offered customized training and tailor-made technical support.
For more information, visit European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA).