European Commission offers grants to strengthen Civil Society Organisations in Suriname

Deadline: 31-Aug-23

The European Commission (EC) is inviting proposals to strengthen civil societies as independent actors of good governance and development in their own right.

The CSO programme shall exclusively contribute to an enabling environment for civil society, a more inclusive CSO participation in the dialogue on development policy and domestic policies in partner countries and strengthened CSO partner capacities through a comprehensive approach to capacity building.

The CSO programme preserves the key features of its predecessor CSO-LA in its actor-based nature; its comprehensiveness and worldwide coverage; and its ability to act independently from the consent of government and other public authorities. The first overarching priority of the programme, at both global and partner country level, is an inclusive, participatory, empowered, and independent civil society and democratic space in partner countries and an inclusive and open dialogue with and between civil society organisations.

They should contribute to the achievement of one or more of the following:

• Strengthened capacities of local CSOs to engage in policy dialogue at national level and in dialogue, implementation and monitoring of both the EU and national development plans and programmes.
• Improved capacity and ability of local civil society partners to uphold and promote an enabling environment.
• Strengthened capacity of local CSOs to engage in gender equality and youth inclusion and strengthened capacity of local women’s and youth partner CSOs.

The CSO Roadmap is the country’s strategy to engage meaningfully and continuously with civil society; it is a strategic tool to ensure complementarity between initiatives supporting civil society. This will ensure an effective and meaningful inclusion and mainstreaming of civil society in all five priority areas of the Commission and in selected sectors of the EU Delegation as well as cross-cutting priorities and targets, that enhance their capacity to participate in dialogue on, and implementation of Team Europe Initiatives.

The EU Roadmap for Engagement with Civil Society in Suriname sets its main priorities as follows:

• Strengthened capacity of CSOs, including grassroots/small CSOs.
• Enhanced dialogue with EU-CSOs working within the scope of EU-Suriname MIP priority area on forest partnerships.

Objectives of the Programme and Priority Issues

• This restricted call for proposal is divided into two (2) Lots of which Lot one (1) relates to Human Rights and Democracy thematic programme and Lot two (2) relates to the CSO thematic programme.
  • LOT 1- Gender Equality and Women & Children’s Rights
    • The global objective of the Human Rights and Democracy thematic call for proposals is to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law in Suriname.
    • The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals is/are:
      • SO:1: To strengthen and increase participation of CSOs to promote Human Rights and Gender Equality in Suriname.
    • The priority (ies) of this Lot are:
      • Enhancement of preventive and response measures with strong focus on the structural drivers of Gender Based Violence and to reach out to mothers, young women, teenage girls and boys to encourage sustained transformational change.
      • Promotion of Human Rights and gender equality and to address discrimination, in law and in practice.
      • Support the eradication of child labour, child sexual abuse and child trafficking
      • Indigenous peoples and other minority rights
  • LOT 2 – CSOs as actors of good governance and development
    • The global objectives of LOT 2 of the CSO Thematic programme is to strengthen CSOs in Suriname independent actors of good governance and development in their own right and to contribute to an inclusive, participatory, empowered and independent civil society and democratic space and an inclusive and open dialogue with and between Civil Society Organisations.
    • For Lot 2, the specific objective(s) are:
      • SO: 1: To enhanced transparency and accountability in the natural resources sector (including public institutions) through CSO involvement in forest partnership activities.
      • SO: 2: Promoting the rights of the Maroon and Indigenous peoples as a driving force in sustainable development and forest management and Green Deal Initiatives.
    • Priorities of this lot are:
      • This CSO Lot relates directly to the second and third priorities.
        • To provide relevant empowering capacity-building to the community based organisations to enable them to respond to needs of their peoples and communities and to strengthen them as actors of good governance, both at the local and national levels.
        • To support the socio-economic, and human rights (land rights) of the Marrons and indigenous peoples.

Themes

• Lot 1:
  • Human Rights (Women’s and Child Rights, Indigenous and Maroons people’s rights)
  • Gender Equality
  • Domestic Violence
• Lot 2:
  • Forest Partnership
  • Conservation
  • Good governance, transparency and accountability
  • Land rights

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 590,000.
• Indicative allocation of funds by lot/geographical distribution:
  • LOT 1- Euros 200,000
  • LOT 2- Euros 390,000
• Size of grants
  • Any grant requested under this call for proposals must not exceed the below maximum amount and must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
    • LOT 1
      • minimum amount: EUR 180,000
      • maximum amount: EUR 200,000
    • LOT 2
      • minimum amount: EUR 300,000
      • maximum amount: EUR 390,000
• Duration: The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 24 months nor exceed 36 months.

Location: Actions must take place in Suriname.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant(s)
  • 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
    • non-governmental organisation/civil society organisation/community based organisations
    • be established in a Member State of the European Union or in Suriname
    • be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the coapplicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary
  • International Organisations are not eligible
• 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 and must be from EU Member States or Suriname.
  • LA and ALA are NOT eligible as co-applicants.
  • Co-applicants must sign the mandate form.
• 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 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 European Commission.