EC offers Grants to create Decent and Sustainable Livelihoods in Bolivia

Deadline: 23-Oct-23

The European Commission (EC) is offering grants to contribute towards the creation and consolidation of decent and sustainable livelihoods alternative to coca cultivation in Bolivia.

Program Objectives and Priorities

• The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:
  • Improved alternative agricultural and agroecological practices of small producers within or around coca leaf production areas
  • Improved economic, social, environmental and equity functioning of alternative value chains to the coca leaf
  • Improved quality of income-generating activities alternatives to coca leaf production, in or around coca leaf production areas
• The thematic priorities of this call for proposals are:
  • Promote complementarity and synergies with national programs and international cooperation programs, as well as develop effective coordination mechanisms with related national institutions and programs, cooperation programs and agencies, departmental and municipal authorities, producer organizations and representatives of the civil society.
  • Promote innovative proposals that significantly include at least two of the following cross-cutting themes: gender equality, youth, digitalization, environment, circular economy.
  • Integrate the concepts and principles of food systems and agroecology.
• Proposals must necessarily cover all thematic priorities.
• The geographical priorities of this call for proposals are:
  • Lot 1: Sustainable and resilient altemative systems to climate change in the Yungas and North peace
  • Lot 2: Alternative sustainable and resilient systems to climate change in the tropics of Cochabamba

Funding Information

• The total indicative amount allocated to this call for proposals is EUR 4,000,000. The Contracting Authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
• The subsidies requested within this call for proposals will be between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  • minimum amount of Lot 1 and Lot 2: EUR 500,000
  • maximum amount of Lot 1 and Lot 2: EUR 1,000,000

Duration

• The initial planned duration of an action may not be less than 36 months nor more than 48 months.

Eligible Activities

• Indicatively, proposals could be directed towards the following activities:
  • Promote biological solutions for more productive and resilient agricultural systems
    • Integrated soil management with production of organic fertilizers and bioactivators (bacteria, fungi) by emerging micro, small and medium-sized companies to progressively complement and replace harmful chemical fertilizers;
    • Use of nitrogen-fixing crops (legumes and shrubs/trees, protein crops), cover crops, agroforestry in dry and humid areas, practices against soil erosion, etc.;
    • Integrated pest management with biopesticides by micro, small and medium-sized companies emerging, biological regulation of pests and diseases through innovative services to monitor ecological processes.
  • Invest in mechanization and technologies to improve productivity
    • Small mechanization at the production and transformation level to increase labor productivity;
    • Water technologies, such as drip irrigation or solar pump, while addressing water collection and saving practices at the farm level and water management at the landscape level.
  • Develop digital solutions for new advisory services
    • Promote the design of digital tools to access and share knowledge about innovative experiences based on agroecological principles;
    • Develop new advisory services that include young entrepreneurs to strengthen the technical and management capabilities of farmers.
  • Provide a diversity of seeds and animal breeds to increase the agrobiodiversity
    • Support food security and nutrition with diversified products, including indigenous and forgotten crops;
    • Strengthen relationships between formal and informal seed systems;
    • Promote the diversification of production on the farm and at the landscape level.
  • Support local public and private development and financing for sustainable and climate-resilient value chain activities in rural areas for post-harvest processing, cold chains, transformation, marketing, etc., based on the principles of the circular economy
  • Support micro, small and medium-sized businesses to develop alternative activities to coca leaf production
    • Strengthen the management capacities of entrepreneurs, including young people and women (access to financing, access to services access to markets with healthy products);
    • Develop contractual agreements and services between micro, small and medium-sized businesses and farmers to supply them with products (quantity, quality) based on agroecological practices and circular economy principles;
    • Increase the use of renewable energy for processing and the cold chain and promote the circular economy for the reuse of waste (eg for organic fertilizer).
  • Improve knowledge of public policies on integral development with coca to strengthen the incidence of civil society in public policies

Location

• The actions will be executed in the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

Eligibility Criteria

• Primary applicant  
  • To be eligible for a grant, the main applicant must:
    • be a legal person;
    • not have a profit motive;
    • be a non-governmental organization or foundation;
    • be established in a Member State of the European Union or in any eligible country and have a Basic Cooperation Framework Agreement (AMB) with the State of Bolivia, or be established in Bolivia;
    • be directly responsible, with their co-applicants and affiliated entities, for the preparation and management of the action and not simply act as intermediaries.
• Co-solicitors
  • The action must have at least one co-applicant.
  • The co-applicants will participate in the design and implementation of the action, and the costs incurred will be eligible for subsidies in the same way as those incurred by the main applicant.
  • Co-applicants must meet the eligibility criteria applicable to the main applicant, except for:
    • be a non-governmental organization or foundation, which extends to any organization of the civil society and local authorities of Bolivia in the form of the Government or municipal government
  • Co-applicants must sign the mandate form
• Affiliated entities
  • The main applicant and its co-applicants may act with affiliated entities.
  • Only the following entities may be considered affiliated entities of the lead applicant or co-applicants:
    • Only entities that have a structural link with the applicants (i.e. the main applicant or a co-applicant), especially if the link is legal or capital.
    • This structural link mainly covers two aspects:
      • Control on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and other related reports of certain types of companies.
      • Thus, the entities affiliated with an applicant can be:
        • Entities controlled directly or indirectly by the applicant (subsidiary companies or first-level subsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by the applicant (second-level subsidiaries), and the same applies to subsequent levels of control.
        • Entities that directly or indirectly control the applicant (parent companies). Likewise, they may be entities that control an entity that in turn controls the applicant.
        • Entities under the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (associated companies).
      • Membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as, for example, a network, federation or association in which the proposed affiliated entities also participate, or the applicant participates in the same entity (for example, network, federation or association) than the proposed affiliated entities.

For more information, visit European Commission (EC).