Grants to strengthen CSOs as Independent Actors of Good Governance and Development in their Own Right (Namibia)

Deadline: 18-Apr-22

The European Commission (EC) is inviting proposals entitled “Support to Civil Society in Namibia: Strengthening Civil Society as independent actors of good governance and development in their own right”.

Activities funded under this call for proposals will support an informed, inclusive and constructive CSOs participation in policy dialogue with partner-country actors and the EU, as well as their role as efficient implementing partners, advocates, and watchdogs. All initiatives under the Action will aim at and contribute to strengthening civil society partner’s institutional and operational capacity through a comprehensive approach, enabling and ensuring their participation; and on improving the environment in which they operate.

Actions aimed at funding service delivery through CSOs will only considered under certain circumstances (in fragile and conflict-affected countries and/or in severely restricted environment for CSOs, i.e., where no other type of support is feasible or highly limited etc.) and/or towards specific objectives (support that can be regarded as catalytic and/or innovative etc.).

Objectives

The global objective of this call for proposals is:
- To strengthen local civil society Organisations’ (CSOs) engagement as actors of good governance and development at country level
The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:
- To strengthened capacities of local CSOs’ to engage in policy dialogue at national level and in dialogue, implementation and monitoring of EU and national development plans and programmes
- To improve the capacity and ability of local civil society partners to uphold and promote an enabling environment in Namibia
- To introduce innovative forms of CSOs activities that are conducive to an enabling environment
- Strengthened capacity of local CSOs to engage in gender equality and youth inclusion and strengthened capacity of local women’s and youth partner CSOs

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 2,100,000.
Indicative allocation of funds by lot/geographical distribution:
- LOT 1: Support to CSOs: Youth, Women, Vulnerable/Marginalised people – The overall indicative amount made available under this lot is EUR 1,000,000.
- Size of grants
- Any grant requested under this lot must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  - minimum amount: EUR 200,000.
  - maximum amount: EUR 400,000.
- LOT 2: Support to CSOs: Digitalisation – The overall indicative amount made available under this lot is EUR 400,000.
- Size of grants
- Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  - minimum amount: EUR 200,000.
  - maximum amount: EUR 400,000.
- LOT 3: Support to CSOs: Media Ecology and/or Access to Information – The overall indicative amount made available under this lot is EUR 300,000.
- Size of grants
- Any grant requested under this lot must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  - minimum amount: EUR 200,000.
  - maximum amount: EUR 300,000.
- LOT 4: Support to CSOs: Other sectors – The overall indicative amount made available under this lot is EUR 400,000.
- Size of grants
- Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  - minimum amount: EUR 200,000.
  - maximum amount: EUR 400,000.

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 and
  - be non-profit-making and
  - be a specific type of organisation such as: non-governmental organisation and/or their associations, international (inter-governmental) organisation as defined by Article 156 of the EU Financial Regulation and
  - be established in a Member State of the European Union or:
    - the Republic of Namibia
    - beneficiaries listed in the relevant Annex to the IPA III Regulation and contracting parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area;
    - developing countries and territories, as included in the list of ODA recipients published by the OECD Development Assistance Committee, which are not members of the G-20 group, and overseas countries and territories;
    - developing countries, as included in the list of ODA recipients, which are members of the G-20 group, and other countries and territories, when the relevant procedure takes place in the context of an action financed by the Union under the Instrument in which they participate;
    - countries for which reciprocal access to external funding is established by the Commission; that access may be granted, for a limited period of at least one year, whenever a country grants eligibility on equal terms to entities from the Union and from countries eligible under the Instrument; the Commission shall decide on the reciprocal access and on its duration after consultation of the recipient country or countries concerned.
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.
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 coapplicant(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.

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