EU seeking Proposals for supporting Women’s Economic Empowerment through Entrepreneurship Development Interventions (Afghanistan)

Deadline: 03-Aug-2020

The European Union (EU) is seeking applications to support Women’s Economic Empowerment through Entrepreneurship Development Interventions.

The inclusion of women in the local economy is the more important in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The economic impact of the crisis will be felt across Afghanistan, putting additional pressure on the most vulnerable, including women. This action will contribute to the creation of sustainable jobs and businesses, which will support communities in becoming more resilient to possible adverse effects of the crisis, including in terms of food security. By creating business in the agricultural sector, this action will also contribute to the development of further activities related to the agricultural sector, which in turn will support Afghanistan in better addressing the economic impact of COVID-19.

Objectives and Priority Issues

The global objective of this call for proposals is to advance Afghan women’s economic empowerment and to maximise their contribution to growth and poverty reduction.
The specific objective of this call for proposals is to promote female entrepreneurship in agricultural value chains, by supporting Afghan women in developing and executing their business ideas and women-led micro and small enterprises in expanding their existing business, through facilitated access to bundled services (inter a/ia, access to finance, business training, mentorship and support networks, assets transfer, and etcetera).

PrioritiesThe priorities of this call for proposals are:

To strengthen and broaden the capacity of Afghan women to develop and execute their business ideas and to expand their existing micro and small enterprises;
To strengthen women’s economic agency, i.e. their capacity and confidence to act on available opportunities and to influence decision-making;
To foster respect for women’s role as economic agents and to combat stereotypes, prejudices and harmful practices; and to promote awareness of the capabilities and contributions of women to the economic development of their communities.

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 5,000,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.

Size of grants

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

minimum amount: EUR 4,500,000
maximum amount: EUR 5,000,000

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant(s)

In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:

be a legal person and
be non-profit-making and
be a specific type of organisation such as: a member state agency, non-governmental organisation, civil society organisation, international research organisation, university or university related organisation or an international organisation as defined by Article 156 of the Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046″ and
be established in a Member State of the EU or an eligible nation as per Article 9 (DC1) of the Regulation (EU) 236/2014 (OR). This obligation does not apply to international organisations and
be operational in Afghanistan at the moment of the launch of the call for proposals.
be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicants(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.
Co-applicants must sign the mandate.
If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator).

Affiliated entity(ies)

The lead applicants and its co-applicants(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 (grandrImghter 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.