EU announces Call for Proposals for “Local Authorities: Partnerships for Sustainable Cities 2020”

Deadline: 27 March 2020

The European Union (EU) is seeking proposals to promote integrated urban development through partnerships built among Local Authorities of the EU Member States and of partner countries in accordance with the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development.

The Specific objectives of this Call for Proposals are:

• Strengthen urban governance;
• Ensure social inclusiveness of cities;
• Improve resilience and greening of cities;
• Improve prosperity and innovation in cities;
• Strengthen institutional resilience1 in context of fragility.

Lots

This call for proposals is divided in four geographic lots and two horizontal lots:

Geographic lots

• Lot 1: Partnerships for sustainable cities in Sub-Saharan Africa;
• Lot 2: Partnerships for sustainable cities in Asia and the Pacific;
• Lot 3: Partnerships for sustainable cities in Latin America and the Caribbean;
• Lot 4: Partnerships for sustainable cities in the Southern and Eastern Neighbourhood.

Horizontal lots

• Lot 5: Partnerships for sustainable towns
  • For this lot, the maximum size, population wise, of European local authorities is set at 150.000 inhabitants and 300.000 inhabitants for Partner countries.
• Lot 6: Partnerships for sustainable cities in fragile countries
  • The 15 “extremely fragile” countries included in the OCDE list are eligible for lot 6.

Specific objectives by lot

• Lot 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
  • The proposed actions under these lots must address:
    • The specific objective urban governance and;
    • At least one of the other specific objective: social inclusiveness, greening of cities, prosperity and innovation.
• Lot 6
  • The proposed actions under this lot must address:
    • The specific objective urban governance and;
    • The specific objective strengthen institutional resilience in context of fragility.

Priorities

• For all lots, proposals must address the four priorities (all of them) of this call.
  • Clearly demonstrate their contribution to the achievement of SDG 11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.
  • Integrate in the activities the promotion of peer-to-peer learning and/or exchanges and/or short-term deployment of public officials at subnational level towards- twinning activities.
  • Promote multi-stakeholders and multi-sectors approaches.
  • Promote the EU development cooperation Rights-Based Approach, encompassing all human rights, including participation and access to the decision-making process, non-discrimination (including Gender Equality) and equal access, accountability and access to the rule of law and transparency and access to information.

Additional Priorities

• The integration in the proposed action of at least one of the three additional priorities will be considered as an added-value.
  • Triangular cooperation;
  • Smart cities;
  • Job creation.

Funding Information

• Lot 1: Partnerships for sustainable cities in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Total available: EUR 40,000,000
• Lot 2: Partnerships for sustainable cities in Asia and the Pacific
  • Total available: EUR 20,000,000
• Lot 3: Partnerships for sustainable cities in Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Total available: EUR 20,000,000
• Lot 4: Partnerships for sustainable cities in the Southern and Eastern Neighbourhood
  • Total available: EUR 18,000,000
• Lot 5: Partnerships for sustainable towns
  • Total available: EUR 8,000,000
• Lot 6: Partnerships for sustainable cities in fragile countries
  • Total available: EUR 5,500,000

Size of grants

• Lot 1, 2, 3 and 4
  • Any EU requested contribution under the 4 geographic lots of this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
    • Minimum amount: EUR 2,000,000
    • Maximum amount: EUR 5,000,000
• Lot 5 and 6
  • Any EU requested contribution for the 2 horizontal lots of this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
    • Minimum amount: EUR 500,000
    • Maximum amount: EUR 1,000,000

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant

• Lot 1, 2, 3 and 4
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • Be a legal person and
    • Be non-profit-making and
    • Be a Local Authority
    • Be established in one of the following eligible countries or territories:
  • EU Member States;
  • Developing countries and territories, as included in the list of ODA recipients published by the OECD-DAC (‘list of ODA recipients’), which are not members of the G-20 group:
  • Developing countries, as included in the list of ODA recipients, which are members of the G-20 group, only when the country itself is the beneficiary of the action;
  • Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) covered by Council Decision 2013/755/EU of 25 November 2013 on the association of the overseas countries and territories with the European Union; 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.
• Lot 5 and 6
  • Be a legal person and
  • Be non-profit-making and
  • Be a specific type of organisation such as:
    • A national Association of Local Authorities (ALA) from the partner country benefiting from the action; or
    • A national Association of Local Authorities (ALA) from a EU Member State; or
    • A regional Association of Local Authorities (ALA) , or
    • An International Association of Local Authorities.
• Lot 5
  • Local Authority (LA) with a population limited to maximum 150.000 inhabitants for European local authorities and to 300.000 inhabitants for Partner countries.

Co-applicants

• Under all lots, the lead applicant must act with at least one co-applicant as specified hereafter.
• In the specific case of the triangular cooperation, a minimum of 2 co-applicants is requested. All actors of the triangular cooperation must be represented in the partnership, meaning lead applicant and at least 2 co-applicants.

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, as defined in Directive 2013/34/EU 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.

How to Apply

• The application procedure consists of two phases:
  • Concept notes
  • Full applications
• The concept note together with the declaration by the lead applicant must be submitted at the address given on the website.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2uC7aDS and download the guidelines.