Grants available for Education and Youth Empowerment in North Western Nigeria

Deadline: 21-Sep-23

The European Commission (EC) is seeking applications to provide and develop vocational training and critical social skills for youth, including training for green jobs.

The focus of this call for Proposals will be on increasing access, to quality and inclusive education opportunities for adolescent and youth especially through non-formal pathways. It would focus especially in engaging alternative education pathways for out of school children including in vocational education and training in critical social lives skills and training for green jobs with a view to improving better learning outcomes, and, targeting especially female youth for skills acquisition to facilitate their entry into the labour market. Leveraging partnerships with enhanced public and private sector engagement for life skills training by including elements to raise awareness about climate change issues and effective action will be pursued.

Objectives

• The Education and Youth Empowerment in North-Western Nigeria is a basic and vocational education programme aimed at supporting the Nigerian government in ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and skills development, especially for girls in rural, underserved and nomadic communities in the North-West. This project will work with the government at the national level and support three northern states; Sokoto, Kano and Jigawa.
• The global objective of this call for proposals is to emancipate the poorest, underserved and most marginalised population groups including women and girls in the North-West of Nigeria (Sokoto, Kano and Jigawa).

Priorities

• The priorities of this call for proposals are:
  • to develop actions aimed at increasing alternative/accelerated education programmes, as well as transition possibilities to non-formal education or formal education for 500 000 young people in 60 schools/learning centres (20 in each state; Kano, Jigawa and Sokoto);
  • to develop actions enhancing non-formal education, training and skills for at least 60 000 young people (60% girls and 40% boys) with an aim to provide the target group employment– and livelihood opportunities, green jobs included;
  • to provide at least 150 safe spaces for girls and young women, where learning of critical social life skills (ie. financial literacy, livelihood skills) to transition into adulthood is enhanced and preparing for green jobs is supported;
  • to develop action enhancing and integrating peace education and prevention of violent extremism into education for boys and girls;
  • to launch at least 20 behavioural change campaigns, with a focus on girls’ empowerment, and to develop 12 pilots applying innovative media approaches.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 10 000 000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must not exceed the below maximum amount.
• Maximum amount: EUR 10 000 000.

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 Federal Republic of Nigeira in the states of Sokoto, Jigawa and Kano.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant(s)
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person or an entity without legal personality or a natural person and
    • be non-profit-making and
    • be a specific type of organisation such as: non-governmental organisation, public sector operator, local authority, international (inter-governmental) organisation as defined by Article 156 of the EU Financial Regulation 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 and
    • have a minimum of 2 years documented experience implementing projects in particular priority areas of the call for proposals and
    • are not entities or persons found in specific exclusion situations
    • must operate at the state or government level in Nigeria with considerable experience working at the grassroots. Failing this, must have a co-applicant operating at the state or local government level with considerable experience working at the grassroots.
• 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 form.
  • If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator)
  • In addition, please note that contracts cannot be awarded to or signed with applicants included in the lists of EU restrictive measures.
• 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 (EC).