Deadline: 20-Jun-22
The Council of Europe Project “Strengthening the protection of national minorities, including Roma and minority languages in Ukraine” is launching a call for proposals to receive Grants for activities protecting the rights of national minorities and Roma, as well as the implementation of the Council of Europe standards in the context of Russian military aggression against Ukraine.
The purpose of the Project is to strengthen the overall legislative and institutional framework for the protection of national minorities, including Roma, and minority languages, while strengthening the capacities and possibilities for effective participation in the decision-making processes by the national minority members and civil society. As per the Council of Europe Priority Adjustments to the Action Plan, the proposed area of intervention is ‘Protection of vulnerable groups, including Roma, and prevention from discrimination’. This intervention aims at supporting the authorities in addressing immediate consequences of Russia’s attack on human rights and displacement.
Objectives
- The grants will fund projects designed to:
- With regards to central level initiatives, under LOT 1: Ensure responses to urgent needs of national minorities, including Roma and vulnerable groups and provide support to community members in times of conflict, including in cooperation with the Ombudsperson’s regional offices or the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights.
- With regards to regional and local level initiatives, under LOT 2: Strengthen Local Action Groups, coalitions and platforms build within the COE Project, that will ensure local level interventions to protect rights of national minorities during the conflict, in cooperation with regional and local authorities.
- Further to the general objective, preference will be given to:
- For LOT 1: Projects/actions proposed by NGOs in partnership with the Ombudsperson Office or the Parliament Committee on Human Rights, as authorities working with/on national minorities issues during conflict times;
- For LOT 2: Projects/actions targeting the following regions Ukraine: Odesa, Volyn, Transcarpathia, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Lviv and Vinnytsia.
Aims
- Ensure responses to urgent needs of vulnerable groups, by providing grants to NGOs; to provide support to community members in times of armed conflicts.
- Support the Ombudsperson’s regional offices or the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights for the provision of services such as legal and other social form of assistance, collecting reports of violations against vulnerable groups.
- Support local authorities via existing networks (ICC UA network, local action groups for minorities/ROMED, etc.) and NGOs to address the urgent needs of vulnerable groups at risk of exclusion and violence, in particular minority communities and Roma.
Funding Information
- The indicative available budget under this call for proposals is 2,203,481 UAH.
- The Council of Europe intends to award 3 grants of a maximum amount of 472,175 UAH (LOT 1, central level grants) each and 5 grants of a maximum amount of 157,392 UAH (LOT 2, local level grants) each.
- The funds for each grant should in principle be distributed as follows:
- 80 % will be paid to the Grantee or the Lead Grantee in case of a consortium when the Grant Agreement between the Parties is signed;
- the balance will be paid to the Grantee or the Lead Grantee in case of a consortium based on actual expenditures incurred, and after the presentation and acceptance by the Council of Europe of the final narrative and financial reports for the Grant implementation.
- The implementation period of the projects should start on 27 June 2022 and shall not extend beyond 30 September 2022.
Target Stakeholders: Projects should target in particular nongovernmental organisations, local authorities, representatives of self-governance bodies in the territorial communities, national minority organisations, the general public, including and notably citizens/people belonging to national minorities, as well as internally displaced citizens/people.
Eligibility Criteria
In order to be eligible for a grant, an applicant must:
- be legally constituted as a non-governmental organisation in Ukraine;
- be entitled to carry out activities described in its project proposal in Ukraine;
- have been active for at least 3 (three) years in the field of protection of national minorities, and/or human rights/anti-discrimination, have sufficient financial capacity (stable and sufficient sources of funding) to maintain its activity throughout the period for which the grant is awarded and to participate by way of its own resources (including human resources or in-kind contributions);
- have sufficient operational and professional capacity, including staff, to carry out activities described in its project proposal;
- have a bank account.
For more information, visit https://www.coe.int/en/web/kyiv/-/call-for-proposals-gran-1