CFPs: Green Economy Promotion and Diversification Project – Component 2 (Zambia)

Deadline: 7-Nov-23

The European Commission (EC) has launched a call for proposals to promote the green and sustainable growth and an environmentally sound, gender/youth sensitive and economically viable diversification of the economy.

Component 2: A grant to support the creation and consolidation of MSMEs and start-up companies, particularly created and managed by young male/female entrepreneurs that invest in green, climate smart and digital business opportunities and decent job creation.

Priority Issues

• The priorities of this call for proposal are:
  • Improving formalisation, competences, management of MSME with growth potential, particularly those led by women and young entrepreneurs, and increasing access to finance to improve product quality, product diversification and green and circular economy. It is expected that the above will lead to MSMEs consolidation and diversification into high growth sectors and green and circular economy value chains; increased enterprises competiveness and market penetration; and decent job creation. This will be achieved through financial support to third parties (FSTP) and technical assistance (TA), including training and mentoring.
  • Improving and expanding the MSME support service offer by the Zambian business and financial service providers. This will be achieved through FSTP and TA to Business Development Services (BDSP), including incubators and innovation hubs, and to local impact and venture capital institutions.
  • Supporting innovation and commercialisation of emerging technologies, particularly those supporting diversification and greener and circular business models. This will be achieved through TA for establishing innovation financing mechanisms, through purchase of equipment for the establishment of at least one new fabrication laboratory (“FabLab”) and through FSTP to innovation projects.
  • Specific attention should be given to contributing to the implementation of the EU Zambia Strategic Partnership on Critical Raw Material.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 22 700 000.
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  • minimum amount: EUR 22 700 000
  • maximum amount: EUR 22 700 000

Duration

• The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 42 months nor exceed 48 months.

Eligible Activities

• Technical assistance to MSME and to the above indicated MSME development service ecosystem actors in relation to the main areas of the Action, particularly: capacity and institutional building, and support to ensure the successful implementation of awarded grant contracts, as relevant;
• Advisory support to MSME for the introduction of green, circular and digital business models;
• Advisory support to MSME to identify appropriate financing products, including facilitating the use of the guarantee schemes under the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD+), negotiate with the financial institutions and, as relevant, monitor the implementation of the investment;
• Value chain and market opportunity analysis related to economic diversification, green, circular and digital economy;
• Design, launch and management of the different types of call for proposals, providing financial support to the eligible third parties identified above. The Applicant will carry out all activities leading to the awards of grants to third parties. This includes (not exhaustive):
  • preparing the guidelines (to be approved by the Programme Steering Committee) for the different calls;
  • formulating the eligibility and appraisal criteria for the different calls to provide grants to third parties;
  • organising awareness raising and information campaigns on the calls for proposals to third parties;
  • identifying and hiring experts (without the objection of the EU) that the Applicant will involve in the evaluation of proposals from the calls;
  • playing the role of secretariat to the evaluation committees for the different calls;
  • carrying out all administrative tasks required to verify the eligibility and compliance of third parties;
  • submitting the results of the evaluations to the Programme Steering Committee for approval;
  • drafting and signing the contracts with the third parties following the award of a grant.

Location

• Actions must take place in Zambia.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant (s)
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person and
    • be profit-making or non-profit-making and
    • belonging to one of the following specific types of organisations:
      • non-governmental organisations;
      • public sector entities;
      • private sector entities;
      • civil society organisations or;
      • international (inter-governmental) organisation and
      • be established in a Member State of the European Union or in Zambia or other eligible countries as stipulated in the basic act/NDICI-GE,
    • This obligation does not apply to international organisations.
    • 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 willing to sign a commitment not to disclose confidential financial information and to avoid conflicts of interest with financial institutions directly or indirectly involved in complementary funding to this call for 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).
• 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 (EC).