EU announces Grant Program to Support Civil Society Organisations and Local Authorities (CSO-LA) in the Republic of Uzbekistan

Deadline: 12 September 2019

The European Union (EU) is currently accepting proposals from eligible organizations for a program entitled “Support to Civil Society Organisations and Local Authorities (CSO-LA) in the Republic of Uzbekistan”.

Objectives

• The global objective of this call for proposals is to enable Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to engage as actors of governance and development at country level.
• The specific objective of this call for proposals is to enhance the capacity of civil society and local authorities through networking and innovation.

Priorities

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

• To increase the capacity of civil society organisations to perform their role as independent development actors more effectively and to enhance efforts to promote a conducive environment for CSOs;
• To increase the efficiency, responsiveness, transparency and accountability of Local Authorities in the provision of essential services in an equitable way;
• To promote a meaningful and structured participation of CSOs in domestic policies of the country;
• To increase the representation of- and to support the meaningful and structured participation of women, girls and women’s CSOs to local governance processes that lead to the delivery of improved and equitable services;

Actions should contain a significant element of capacity building geared towards local Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in a way to guarantee principles of empowerment, accountability, participation and non-discrimination of vulnerable groups and in line with the overall objective of the CSO-LA programme.

Size of Grants

Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:

• Minimum amount: EUR 300.000
• Maximum amount: EUR 330.000

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 civil society organisation as defined in Annex II B of the DCI Regulation No 233/20147
    • be established in
      • the Republic of Uzbekistan; or
      • be established in a Member State of the European Union or in other countries eligible under the DCI Regulation and as stipulated in Art. 9 of the Common Implementation Rules (CIR). (This obligation does not apply to international organisations) or
      • ‘For British applicants: Please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. Unless sector-specific eligibility rules provide otherwise, if the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, applicants will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible to participate) or will be required to leave the project on the basis of Article 12.2 (e) of the grant agreement’.
    • With regard to Israeli entities, please follow Guidelines on the eligibility of Israeli entities and their activities in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 for grants, prizes and financial instruments funded by the EU from 2014 onwards (OJ C 205, 19.7.2013, p. 9).
    • be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the coapplicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.
• 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.
• Affiliated entity(ies)
  • 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 coapplicant(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

In order to apply for the grants, applicants have to register themselves in PADOR, an on-line database via given website.

For more information, please visit https://bit.ly/2ZCBSH9 and download the guidelines.