Deadline: 12-Feb-21
The project of the Government of Switzerland “Together for an active civil society – ACT” has announced a Call for grants for innovative partnership initiatives between civil society organizations (CSOs) and local self-government units (LGUs).
The call for grants for innovative partnership initiatives aims to promote and strengthen partnerships between civil society organizations and local governments through the launch, development and implementation of joint initiatives that will create innovative solutions and tools for greater citizen participation in decision-making processes and to improve public service delivery services, and better monitoring of the work of local authorities.
For the purpose of this call, innovation is defined as any good practice that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and citizen participation in support of democracy and good governance. It is basically an innovation: a novelty for the organization or institution in which it is applied (practice, model, service that did not exist before or was not used) and which has / can have the potential to make a measurable public impact in the local community.
Project Lots
Project proposals for innovative partnership initiatives between civil society organizations and local self-government units will be supported within four parties (LOT):
- LOT 1: Innovative solutions and tools for citizen participation in decision-making processes (up to 10 grants);
- LOT 2: Innovative solutions and tools for providing services to citizens (up to 5 grants);
- LOT 3: Innovative solutions and tools for monitoring the work of local self-government bodies (up to 5 grants);
- LOT 4: Democratic response to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic (up to 10 grants).
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants can be:
- Partnership made up of one or more civil society organizations and one local government unit (city or municipality);
- Mandatory partnership concluded between CSO (lead partner) and local self-government unit (mandatory project partner).
- Partners operating within the following geographical area: Šumadija and Western Serbia and Southern and Southeastern Serbia (except Belgrade and Vojvodina);
- A partnership whose proposal for a joint initiative focuses on some of the following key areas of action: involving and mobilizing citizens in the decision-making process, monitoring the implementation of laws and policies, human and civil rights, good governance, gender equality and related topics, decentralization, environmental protection, social inclusion and marginalized groups;
- Partnerships may not submit more than one project proposal and may receive only one grant under this Call;
- A CSO that is already supported through other grants under the ACT project (institutional grants, local advocacy grants, community strengthening grants, network grants) may submit a project proposal under this Call. CSOs can be supported up to twice within the ACT project, but there can be no overlap of activities and resources;
- The local self-government (municipality, city) can be an obligatory partner in a maximum of two projects, in which the project holder is a different civil society organization, and the project proposal is not within the same party;
- CSOs can be the lead partner in only one project within one party;
- A CSO that is a lead partner in one project may be an additional partner in a maximum of one project within other parties where it is not a lead partner, but may not be a beneficiary of funding granted to the partnership.
For more information, visit https://act.org.rs/grants/grantovi-za-inovativne-partnerske-inicijative-izmedu-organizacija-gradanskog-drustva-i-jedinica-lokalne-samouprave/