Grants to Support Civil Society initiatives in the Kyrgyz Republic

Deadline: 22-Jun-23

The European Commission (EC) is seeking proposals to support Civil Society initiatives in the Kyrgyz Republic that contributes to the full enjoyment of all aspects of human rights, be they civil, political and economic rights.

The global objective of this call for proposals is the worldwide promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals are:

• Safeguarding fundamental freedoms in the digital sphere, including harnessing the opportunities and addressing the challenges of new technologies: to create and maintain an environment conducive to the full exercise of all fundamental freedoms, online and offline.

The priority(ies) of this call for proposals are:

• Strengthened capacities of civil society, including in advocacy and raising public awareness. Support to resilience of human rights defenders, including legal safeguards for their effective functioning and capacity building.
• Enhanced capacities of civil society in reinforcing gender equality, women empowerment and combating violence against women.
• Strengthened youth role and participation in promoting democratic governance through digital and media enablers and capabilities.

Priorities

• The crosscutting priorities of this call for proposals are:
  • Gender equality
    • Gender mainstreaming remains the primary means to achieve gender equality. Its purpose is to ensure that all policies and programmes maximise their benefits for all and contribute to stop the perpetuation of inequality. The new EU Gender Action Plan for 2021-2025 (GAP III) calls on making gender equality a crosscutting priority in EU external action. Whenever possible, GAP III gender-sensitive and sex-disaggregated indicators and gender-analyses to inform the design of future actions shall be developed for all target groups. This priority will be taken into consideration when evaluating proposals.
  • Rights-based approach
    • The European Consensus on Development commits the EU and its Member States to implementing a rights-based approach (RBA) to development cooperation, encompassing all human rights. The RBA implies that target groups are considered as ‘rights-holders’ with legal entitlements, and government institutions are not mere service providers but ‘duty-bearers,’ who are under an obligation to deliver on people’s human rights. In line with RBA, development cooperation should contribute to the development of the capacities of ‘rights-holders’ to claim their rights and ‘duty-bearers’ to meet their obligations.
  • Youth participation
    • Creating sufficient good quality jobs for young people remains a key challenge. CSOs promote young people’s rights, facilitate their engagement in social, civic, political and economic life, and ensure their contribution to inclusive growth and sustainable development. Young people should also participate in democratic processes and assume leadership roles. The European Youth Strategy 2019-2027 lays out the framework for EU youth policy cooperation and can serve as a source to involve young people in policy dialogue and democratic life.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR2 340 000.
• Size of grants
  • Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
    • minimum amount: EUR 500 000
    • maximum amount: EUR1 000 000
• Duration: The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 24 months nor exceed 36 months.

Location: Actions must take place in the following country the Kyrgyz Republic.

Eligibility Criteria

• 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(international organisations are ineligible) and
  • be established in a Member State of the European Union or the Kyrgyz Republic, or any territory as no nationality restriction applies to applicants and, if any, to co-applicants, and affiliated entities 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 and
  • have been registered for at least two years at the submission deadline for concept notes.
• 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.
  • 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
  • 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, 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.

For more information, visit EC.