Deadline: 15-Feb-23
The European Commission (EC) has announced the call for proposals to strengthen CSOs as independent actors of governance and development in their own right.
Objectives
- The action aims to contribute to an inclusive, participatory, empowered, and independent civil society and democratic space in Lesotho and an inclusive and open dialogue with and between Civil Society Organisations.
- The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals are:
- To establish a funding mechanism (e.g. through financial support to third parties) that provides diversified types of support tailor-made to the size and capacity of civil society actors;
- To strengthen the capacities of local civil society actors with diversified and tailor-made capacity building to fulfil their mandates;
- To strengthen the capacity of local CSOs to engage in gender equality, people with disabilities and youth inclusion.
Priorities
- The priority (ies) of this call for proposals are:
- Priority 1: Put in place an innovative and differentiated funding mechanism for civil society organisations in Lesotho, through the financial support to third parties (which will represent at least 65% of the action’s budget). To that end, the action will adopt a differentiated approach according to the different types of CSOs (size, level of capacity, mission, etc.)
- Priority 2: Strengthen the capacities of local CSOs to engage in policy dialogue at national level and in dialogue, implementation and monitoring of national development plans and programmes. Improved capacity and ability of local civil society partners to uphold and promote an enabling environment to promote dialogue and policy influence at national level.
- Priority 3: Strengthen the capacities of local CSOs to engage in gender equality (tackling gender-based discrimination, gender-based violence, etc.), people with disabilities (inclusion, participation) and youth inclusion (economic, social, political, etc.), particularly local women and youth CSOs.
Funding Information
The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 2,457,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
- Minimum amount: EUR 2,200,000
- Maximum amount: EUR 2,457,000
Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum percentages of total eligible costs of the action:
- Minimum percentage: 50% of the total eligible costs of the action.
- Maximum percentage: 95 % of the total eligible costs of the action
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 specific type of organisation such as: non-governmental organisation, public sector operator, local authority, 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 in Lesotho or other eligible countries as stipulated in the NDICI-Global Europe regulation ,
- This obligation does not apply to international organisations
- 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 themselves.
- Co-applicants must sign the mandate.
- 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
- 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 European Commission.