Grants to improve the Nutritional Status of Children and Reproductive-Age Women in Timor-Leste

Deadline: 26-Aug-2024

The European Commission (EC) is seeking proposals to promote Community-Based Interventions to improve the Nutritional Status of Children and Reproductive-Age Women in Timor-Leste.

Objectives of the Programme and Priority Issues 

• The global objective of this call for proposals is to contribute to the reduction of malnutrition and its consequences in Timor-Leste.
• The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:
  • to promote an integrated nutrition approach leading to the reduction of malnutrition amongst Timorese mothers and children.
  • to promote community-based interventions that improve the nutritional status of children in early childhood and women of reproductive age in the worst affected rural areas of Timor-Leste.
• The priority of this call for proposals is to fund activities that improve nutrition at community level in Timor-Leste, with a special emphasis on the most vulnerable categories such as children under five and women of reproductive age, including those with mental and/or physical disabilities. These activities should focus on municipalities that have been identified as most affected by stunting and underweight. In addition, this call for proposals also aims to develop the capacity of Timorese civil society to undertake activities that promote improvement of nutrition at the community level in Timor-Leste, through policy implementation and monitoring of government’s policy implementation.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 2,000,000. 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 665,000
  • maximum amount: EUR 665,000

Duration

• The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower nor exceed 36 months.

Approaches

• The project should mainstream the following approaches:
  • apply the working principles of the human rights-based approach (HRBA): applying all human rights for all, meaningful and inclusive participation and access to decision-making, non-discrimination and equality, accountability and rule of law for all, and transparency and access to information supported by disaggregated data;
  • contribute to the implementation of the EU Gender Action Plan III in Timor-Leste by improving the nutritional status of women, more specifically young and (pre-) pregnant ones, and children.  This includes attention for factors such as gender-based violence, which has been demonstrated to have a negative effect on the nutritional status of women as well as children (through women’s avoiding personal food consumption and breastfeeding their babies, etc.) as well as on families’ healthcare-seeking behaviour;
  • the role of Civil Society Organisations (CSO) at community level remains crucial. Therefore, the projects should promote the active participation of these organisations from the formulation of the proposals to the implementation of the projects.

Types of Activities

• Promoting local food production such as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) models that could directly connect low-income communities with local farmers. This could encompass urban agriculture and community gardens, such as initiatives that create gardens in community spaces, schools, or rooftops that provide access to fresh produce and promote self-sufficiency.
• Activities to support mobile markets and innovative farm stands in underserved areas, bringing fresh produce directly to women and children including  those with disability and eliminating transportation barriers.
• Food hubs and distribution networks, including use of technology-based solutions to create networks connecting local farmers, producers, and distributors to efficiently deliver fresh produce directly to communities at lower costs.
• Food cooperatives and related activities that can establish community-owned grocery stores or cooperatives where residents collectively own and manage the store, ensuring affordability and accessibility of nutritious foods.
• Nutrition education about the importance of a balanced diet and the impact of nutrition on overall health. This may include cooking classes, workshops, and educational campaigns to teach communities about healthy eating and budgeting on a limited income.
• Activities aimed to improve access to water, sanitation, and to promote good hygiene practices, that aim to reduce undernutrition children, specifically for the rural communities.
• Activity promote breastfeeding, promote complementary feeding, micronutrient supplementation to children, pregnant mother and adolescent girls, provide access to improved sanitation and hygiene, and contraception.

Location

• Actions must take place in Timor-Leste.

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 civil society organisation (CSO), and
    • be established in Timor-Leste or in a Member State of the European Union or one of the eligible countries as stipulated in Article 28 of the Regulation (EU) 2021/947 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 June 2021 establishing the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument, and
    • In case the lead applicant is not established in Timor-Leste, it must have a country office registered in the relevant ministry of Timor-Leste, 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
• 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.
  • In addition to the categories referred, the following are however also eligible:
    • be profit-making, and
    • be public and private sector organisations, or
    • be international (inter-governmental) organisation as defined by Article 156 of the EU Financial Regulation.
  • Establishment requirement specified in Section (1) does not apply to international organisations.
  • 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 EC.