Call for Proposals: Youth Friendly Services (Zambia)

Deadline: 15-Aug-2024

The European Commission (EC) has announced a call for proposals to ensure to the fulfilment of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) of adolescents in Zambia, especially adolescent girls.

The focus of the call is on increasing awareness of ASRHS, strengthening public and community health systems to better respond to the needs of these groups, including planning and provision of sexuality education and SRHR information and services, and on enabling the environment for the sustainable financing and effective delivery of these services as well as for the protection of adolescents’ sexual and reproductive rights.

Objectives

• The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals are:
  • to improve awareness to, and demand for comprehensive, integrated, accessible, affordable, quality, discrimination-free, age-appropriate SRHR information and services in Luapula and North-Western provinces, with a particular focus on reaching adolescent girls and vulnerable (poor, marginalized/discriminated, disabled, under-served) adolescents.
  • to increase the offer of Adolescents SRH services, including prevention from and response to SGBV by strengthening public and community health systems to provide these information and services.
  • to promote a protective environment for adolescents to ensure their wellbeing, including prevention from and response to sexual and gender-based violence, specially focusing in youth friendly services.

Priorities

• The priorities of this call for proposals are:
  • Advocacy for domestic resource mobilisation for SRHR -in particular adolescent SRHR-, directed at Members of Parliament, political parties and interest groups, cabinets of ministers and central and local government institutions at the level where decisions are made on budget allocations; this advocacy should include awareness raising about the negative impacts of (possible) disruptions in adolescents’ access to basic SRH services.
  • Monitoring the availability of quality SRH/Family Planning commodities in general and specifically for adolescents.
  • Multisectoral coordination to advance an integrated SRHR agenda, with a particular focus on addressing the needs of vulnerable adolescents, and to ensure its full inclusion into national health and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) strategies and its effective integration at primary care level.
  • Strengthening the prevention from and response to SGBV, from a community approach and at provision of services level, especially focusing on youth friendly services.
  • Linking vulnerable adolescents, survivors of SGBV or adolescents in need of psychological support, detoxification or social protection, to services, such as One Stop Centres (OSC), mental health services or welfare services, among others.
  • Strengthen collaborations/linkages with line ministries and implementing partners on the age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education programmes at all levels, including schools and training institutions.
    • Capacity building in delivery of an adolescents’ package for in-school and out-of-school adolescents, targeting public and community systems, focusing on the priorities of the Adolescents Health Strategic Plan 2022-2026, including monthly visits of health providers to nearby schools, training institutions and other outreach activities.
  • Capacity building in delivery of youth friendly, discrimination-free SRHR information and services, targeting public and community systems, including schools, and health workforce. The enhancement of the awareness, knowledge, attitudes and skills of service providers at primary care and community level (hence including government staff, community health workers/volunteers and young peer educators) should improve demand for, and access to service delivery.
    • The capacity building activities should include SGBV prevention and response, STI and HIV trainings, training of comprehensive abortion care, family planning, etc. and strengthening the use of disaggregated data for evidence based planning.

Sectors or Themes

• Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
• Health systems strengthening (public and community)
• Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 4 million. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
• Size of grant
  • Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
    • minimum amount: EUR 3,500,000
    • maximum amount: EUR 4,000,000

Duration

• The initial planned duration of an action may not -be lower than 36 months nor exceed 42 months.

Types of Activity

• Networking, exchange of best practices and experience and related policy advocacy; tracking of policy implementation and results, collecting and using gender sensitive and statistics; facilitation of policy dialogue among diverse stakeholders etc.
• Working with different stakeholders, including youth networks, women’s associations, sport clubs, teacher associations, academia and research centres, traditional leaders, marital counsellors, civic, religious, social media and other opinion leaders; to influence social norms and stereotypes and raise awareness on importance of adolescent SRHR.
• Awareness raising and advocacy related to SRHR including through community and/or school-based approaches and interventions, working with men and boys on changing gender norms and raising awareness on importance of SRHR/FP with focus on SRHR for adolescents. Evidence generation, transfer of know-how and experience in relation to the objectives of the call by providing training, peer assistance and tutoring of government counterparts, local CSOs and community groups in relation to adolescent SRHR, gender equity.
• Monitoring, use of research methods, collection of evidence, use of surveys, data collection, etc.
• Provide static, and integrated outreach and community based sexual reproductive health services with particular focus on underserved areas.

Location

• Actions must take place in the following provinces and districts:
  • North Western Province: Zambezi, Mwinilunga, Mushindano, Mufumbwe, Kabompo
  • Luapula Province: Chiengi, Kawambwa, Mwansabombwe, Chifunafuli and Nchelenge

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant
  • 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 Zambia as stipulated NDICI – Global Europe. 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
    • have at least 3 years of experience and demonstrated track record in health systems strengthening (public and/or community systems, beyond supporting service delivery to advance adolescent SRHR, extensive experience in training and on site mentorship of Comprehensive abortion care (CAC), work experience at national and community level; this should be clearly reflected and described in the full application.
• 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)
• 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 EC.