EU seeking Proposals to Support Civil Society and Human Rights in Somalia

Deadline:  17 February 2020

The European Union (EU) is currently accepting proposals from eligible organizations for a program entitled “Support to civil society and human rights in Somalia”.

Objectives of the Programme

• The global objective of this call for proposals is to support CSOs’ contributions towards reinforced governance, social change, and inclusive policy-making in Somalia.
• The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:
  • To promote culture as a vehicle to foster a sense of citizenship, inclusion and economic integration;
  • To promote the opening of civic and democratic space;
  • To promote the rights of women and girls and reduce all forms of sexual and gender based violence, with a particular focus on female genital mutilation (FGM).

Program Lots

• Lot 1 – Civil society organisations (CSOs) as actors of governance and development
  • Promote culture as a vehicle to foster sense of citizenship, inclusion and economic integration (targeting women and youth)
• Lot 2 – Democracy and human rights
  • Promote the opening of civic and democratic space
  • Promote the rights of women and girls and reduce all forms of sexual and gender based violence, with a particular focus on female genital mutilation (FGM)

Size of Grants (For both lots)

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

• Minimum amount: EUR 300.000 EUR
• Maximum amount: EUR 500.000 EUR

Location

Actions must take place in Somalia.

Duration

• Under lot 1: the initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 36 months nor exceed 48 months.
• Under lot 2: the initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 24 months nor exceed 36 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant: In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  • be a legal person or a natural person and
  • be non-profit-making and
  • be a civil society organization or an association of civil society organizations and
  • be established in Somalia, or:
    • For lot 1, in a Member State of the European Union, or in a developing country or territory as included in the list of ODA recipients published by the OECD-DAC, or in an oversea country or territory covered by Council Decision 2013/755/EU;
    • For lot 2, in any country (all countries are eligible for participation in contracts financed under EIDHR without prejudice to the limitations inherent to the nature and the objectives of the action).
      • 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) of the grant agreement.
  • 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.
• Co-applicant(s)
  • If the lead applicant has the nationality of a country other than Somalia, having a minimum of one (1) Somali CSO co-applicant in the action is mandatory. Their strong involvement in the design and the implementation of the action is essential and will have to be duly demonstrated in the concept note and the full proposal.
  • 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 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.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2S7TABO and download the guidelines.