Grants to Strengthen the Role of CSOs in Protecting Human Rights (Congo)

Deadline: 25-May-22

The European Commission (EC) has announced a call for proposals to strengthen the protection of human rights and the promotion of good governance through the active participation of citizens and Congolese civil society organizations.

Objectives

The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:

• Promote and protect the rights of individuals, including vulnerable groups and minorities;
• Contribute to respect for fundamental freedoms and human dignity;
• Improve democratic governance and respect for the principles of the rule of law.

Priorities

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

• Support the promotion of social-economic, political and environmental rights of people
• Strengthen the capacity of people to empower themselves and take ownership of the defense of their socio-economic, political and environmental rights;
• Promote equality between women and men; defends the rights of women and girls; fight against all forms of discrimination and violence against women;
• Promote and protect the rights of vulnerable populations, in particular children and young people, indigenous populations, sexual and gender minorities, people with disabilities;
• Strengthen the capacities of Human Rights Defenders, – in particular Environmental Rights Defenders and their Organizations;
• Fight against torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, combat the culture of impunity and/or provide assistance (legal, psychological, etc.) to victims;
• Support the active participation of citizens and Congolese civil society organizations in favor of respect for the principles of the rule of law;
• Promote democratic governance through the fight against corruption and strengthening the accountability of public actors.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 1,080,000. The Contracting Authority reserves the right not to allocate all available funds. Likewise, this amount could be increased if more funds become available.
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  • Minimum amount: EUR 250,000
  • Maximum amount: EUR 350,000

Preference

Preference will also be given to actions:

• Which are presented and coordinated by Congolese CSOs as lead applicants, with the aim of encouraging local ownership – while taking into account their effective capacities to carry out such action;
• Who supports the partnership between Congolese and non-Congolese CSOs;
• Which rely on local human resources and strengthen their skills;
• Which focus on the most disadvantaged, isolated or fragile regions of the country;
• Which contain objectively verifiable, quantifiable, broken down, disaggregated indicators according to the needs of the action;
• Which encourages the creation of networks of local organizations and strengthen synergies between donors, local/national/regional authorities, public and private sectors and any other relevant stakeholders;
• Which generate complementarities with the actions carried out by other European Union programs or by other international partners in the Republic of Congo;
• Which use innovative approaches and methodologies with the potential to be replicated on a larger scale, in particular the use of new communication and information technologies, social media, etc.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant(s)
  • To be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  • be a legal person or an entity without legal personality or a natural person and
  • have no profit motive and
  • belong to one of the following categories of organisations: non-governmental organisation, public sector operator, local authority, international (intergovernmental) organization as defined in recital 46 of the NDICI and
  • be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and the affiliated entity(ies) and not act as an intermediary.
• Co-applicant(s)
  • Co-applicants participate in the development and implementation of the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those borne by the lead applicant.
  • Co-applicants must meet the same eligibility criteria as apply to the lead applicant itself.
  • Co-applicants must sign the mandate form.
• Affiliated entities
  • The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with one or more affiliated entities.
  • Only the following entities can be considered affiliated to the lead applicant and/or co-applicant(s):
    • Only entities that have a structural link with the applicants (the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
    • This structural link mainly encompasses two notions:
      • control, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings.
        • Entities affiliated with an applicant can therefore be:
          • entities controlled directly or indirectly by the applicant (subsidiaries or first-tier subsidiaries) or controlled by an entity itself controlled by the applicant (sub-subsidiaries or second-tier subsidiaries). This is valid for the other control levels;
          • entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Similarly, they may be entities controlling a company controlling the applicant;
          • entities with the same level of direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies);
      • membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as, for example, a network, federation or association of which the proposed affiliated entity is a member, or the applicant is a member of the same entity (for example, a network, a federation or an association) than the proposed affiliated entity.

For more information, visit https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/online-services/index.cfm?ADSSChck=1648811912294&do=publi.detPUB&searchtype=QS&orderby=upd&orderbyad=Desc&nbPubliList=15&page=1&aoref=174023