Grants to Reduce Economic and Social Disparities

Deadline: 28-Feb-23

Active Citizens Fund Romania is accepting applications for its Grants to reduce economic and social disparities and to strengthen bilateral relations between the 15 beneficiary countries and the Donor States.

This call for proposals is part of Active Citizens Fund Romania programme (hereafter named “ACF Romania” or “Programme”). With a total allocation of 48,000,000 EURO, the Programme aims at a long-term development of the civil society sector sustainability and capacity, stepping up its role in promoting democratic participation, active citizenship and human rights for all, while strengthening bilateral relations with entities from the Donor States (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).

Objectives

The objectives of the ACF Romania are to strengthen civil society and active citizenship and to empower vulnerable groups. The following Areas of Support are targeted by the Programme:

• Democracy, active citizenship, good governance and transparency
• Human rights and equal treatment through combating any discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, sexual orientation or gender identity etc.
• Social justice and inclusion of vulnerable groups
• Gender equality and gender-based violence (GBV)
• Environment and climate change.

Funding Information

• Budget: € 304,391.

Eligible Activities

• Eligible Activities proposed under the current Call must primarily focus on dissemination and valorization of results, products and achievements of the projects financed under ACF Romania. Also, activities must have a consistent bilateral dimension with the Donor State entities, shall contribute to the sustainability of relations with entities from Donor States and contribute also to the capacity building of the applicant/partner(s).
• Type of eligible activities (non-exhaustive list):
  • Participation in or organization of conferences, seminars, training courses and/or workshops;
  • Organization of internships;
  • Organization of study visits;
  • Elaboration and publication of policy papers, reports, studies, scientific papers analysis and/or articles written in cooperation by at least one organization from Romania and an entity from a donor state;
  • Promotion, information and dissemination activities of results achieved in projects financed through the ACF Romania programme;
  • Campaigns, exhibitions and promotional materials aimed to promote and disseminate results achieved in projects financed through the ACF Romania programme;
  • Translation in English and/ or donor state languages and dissemination in donor states of the (tangible) results of projects supported under the ACF Romania programme;
  • Any other common interest activities contributing to the strengthening of bilateral relations and, at the same time, to the development of the applicant capacity.

Please note that the activities listed are only examples that can be part of a project which has to be understood as a defined group of activities implemented to develop a response to a specific need, activities to be done in a logical sequence to achieve a set of predefined targets using the given resources.

Eligible Project Partners

• Eligible partners are:
  • Romanian non-governmental and non-profit organizations (NGOs).
  • Entities from Donor States – any non-governmental organizations, any public or private entity, commercial or non-commercial, established as a legal person in Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway. Public entities could be local and central public authorities, public institutions/ agencies, decentralized governmental public services, territorial administrative units, universities, etc.
• Only the following entities are eligible to receive funding as project Partners under the Programme:
  • NGOs that meet the eligibility requirements set for the Applicants under section 2.2.1 and 2.2.2. a.-j. and are not among the not eligible applicants mentioned in the section 2.3;
  • public entities.
• Other types of partners may not have access to the grant, but may contribute to the activities and/or to the cofinancing of the project.
• Please note that within this Call for proposals it is compulsory to have a partnership at application stage among at least one eligible Romanian non-governmental organization and one eligible Donor State entity. The
• Applicant and Partner(s) will sign and send to the Fund Operator at application stage an official partnership agreement.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible applicants under the present call are only organizations that implemented or are implementing projects with the financial support of the Active Citizens Fund Romania as project promoters or partners.
• Eligible applicants under the Fund for Bilateral Relations are:
  • Non-governmental and non-profit organizations (NGOs), with Romanian nationality that acquired legal personality, are organized and operating under the Government Ordinance 26/2000 and/or the Law 21/1924 on associations and foundations (with subsequent amendments and completions); or
  • County and Bucharest municipality foundations for youth and the National Youth Foundation established under the Law 146/2002 (with subsequent amendments and completions); or
  • National Red Cross Society in Romania established under the Law 139/1995 (amended and supplemented by the Law 524/2004) and its structures with legal personality; or
  • Non-governmental and non-profit organizations (NGOs) legally established in one of the Donor States (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway)
  • In addition to the mentioned criteria, the applicants from Romania and Donor States shall meet the following requirements:
  • Abide by the principles of human rights for all, democratic values, rule-of-law and
  • Do not promote intolerant, discriminatory and/or hate speech, and
  • Act in the public arena and for the public good on concerns and issues related to the well-being of people, groups or society as a whole, and
  • Have the capacity, according to their statutes, to act in the field addressed by the project, and
  • Are independent of the local, regional and national government and other public entities1 and
  • Are independent of political parties, and
  • Are independent of commercial entities2 (such as companies, self-governing regies, individual enterprises etc.), and
  • Do not directly or indirectly promote a religious doctrine, mission or proselytism related to the beliefs of a particular faith (beyond basic religious/cultural awareness raising) and
  • Have transparent structures and elected chair/board, and are accountable to their members and donors, and
  • Are directly responsible for designing and managing the project and do not act as an intermediary, and
  • Have implemented or are currently implementing a project financed through Active Citizens Fund Romania, as project promoter or partner.

For more information, visit https://eeagrants.org/currently-available-funding/ro-activecitizens-fund-for-bilateral-relations