Grants to Enhance Meaningful Participation of Women, Youth, and Marginalised Groups in Political Processes (Malawi)

Deadline: 31-Jan-23

The European Union is pleased to announce a call for proposals to Enhance the Meaningful Participation of Women, Youth and Marginalised Groups in Political Processes and Decision-Making.

Through the Malawi Democratic Governance Programme (Boma Lathu, 2021 – 2027) the European Union in partnership with the Government of Malawi aims to influence positive change on the outlook of democracy in the country. The overall aim of the programme is to deepen democracy while strengthening the social contract. The underlying logic towards achieving this goal is based on three intertwined enablers namely (i) strengthening effective civil registration services so as to safeguard human rights and data privacy (ii) increasing public participation, in particular of women, youth and marginalised groups in democratic processes and (iii) ensuring credible and transparent management of electoral processes.

The call seeks to contribute towards past and future efforts by various players, aimed at addressing these challenges. To be eligible, all proposals must significantly demonstrate specific components relating to inclusion and participation of both women and youth. Proposals must further demonstrate specific actions aimed at targeting an especially vulnerable and marginalised group(s). Inclusion and participation as referred here, cuts across national, local and community level governance structures. The action (s) will take place in seven pre-selected districts, however they will closely coordinate with national level actions led by Government actors.

Objectives

• The overall objective of this call for proposals is to empower civil society organisations and support their efforts aiming at deepening democracy and strengthening the social contract in Malawi.
• The specific objective of this call for proposals is to enhance meaningful inclusion and participation of women, youth and marginalised groups in political processes and decision-making structures.

The priorities for this call are:

• Advocacy to policy makers and key stakeholders (i.e. political parties, members of parliament, Government officials, traditional and community leaders, CSOs) for the adoption and implementation of laws, legislation, policies and frameworks that promote and protect inclusive political participation.
• Working with political parties and political leaders to transform and adapt internal party regulations (i.e. rules governing conduct of primary elections, affirmative action in internal electoral processes) that foster equal participation at all levels.
• Empowering women, youth and persons with disabilities to contest for or be nominated into decision-making positions through mentorship, coaching, training, media engagement, networking and support towards campaigning.
• Economic empowerment and income generation activities to enable women, youth and marginalised groups to contest for decision-making positions.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 3,500,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  • minimum amount:  EUR 1,750,000
  • maximum amount:  EUR 3,500,000

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 non-governmental organisation and
    • be established in  a Member State of the European Union or eligible non EU Member States as  established in  Regulation (EU) N° 2021/947 establishing the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (NDICI).
    • 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)
  • The lead applicant must act with a minimum of one (1) co-applicant.
  • Where the lead applicant is an international organisation, participation of a minimum of (one) 1 local co-applicant is obligatory.
  • 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.
  • 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, 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/3E2xGGd