Grants to support CSOs, Democracy Activists and Human Rights Defenders – Senegal

Deadline: 21-Jul-23

The European Commission(EC) is seeking applications to support and strengthen civil society organizations (CSOs), democracy activists and human rights defenders.

Objectives

• The specific objectives (SO) of this call for proposals are:
  • For lot 1: Support to CSOs for the promotion and respect of children’s rights in Senegal
    • SO 1: Improve the quality of services and capacity building of CSOs in terms of care, psychosocial, socio-economic and educational reintegration as well as monitoring of street children, on the move and unaccompanied, working children (particularly in mining areas), and in general of all child victims of violence and sexual abuse, in particular through the establishment and strengthening of child protection systems.
    • SO 2: Support activities
      • to strengthen knowledge and build the capacities of Civil Society Organizations on the protection and rights of children,
      • to advocate for CSOs (including for compliance with texts, standards and national and international commitments in favor of children and the monitoring of their implementation), awareness-raising and communication,
      • prevention, led by CSOs, against violations of the rights of the child with the authorities, communities and the children themselves,
      • improve the conditions of detention of minors in conflict with the law, respect for their rights, support and monitoring of their socio-economic and educational reintegration.
  • For lot 2: Support to CSOs for the popularization and effective application of the law criminalizing rape and pedophilia in Senegal
    • SO 3: Mobilize communities, civil society and decision-makers, each at their own level, to say no to sexual violence and ensure advocacy with the authorities and actors concerned for compliance with national and international texts, standards and commitments in favor of victims and the monitoring of their effective implementation;
    • SO 4: Give victims of sexual violence access to holistic services (physical and mental health, psychosocial, legal, judicial support, socio-economic reintegration) through community workers.

Priorities

• This Call for Proposals prioritizes the following activities:
  • Which will allow the direct care of street children or wandering children, exploited children who are victims of violence and sexual abuse, working children (in particular in mining areas and exposed to dangerous tasks) and prevention of violence against children and forced child labour.
  • Which will contribute to improving the conditions of detention and defense of minors and women imprisoned with their children.
  • Which will contribute to the development of alternative justice measures to the imprisonment of minors and the implementation of socio-economic reintegration activities.
  • Which will allow the prevention and direct care of victims of violence against women and children.
  • Which will be designed, conducted and executed according to an integrated approach (prevention, protection, integration/rehabilitation) and taking into account the specific needs of vulnerable categories of children and victims of sexual violence.
  • Which will be designed to create synergies between the actors concerned: Civil Society Organizations, social and sovereign state services (police, gendarmerie, justice, etc.), parliamentarians, local elected officials, religious/customary leaders, neighborhood leaders, socio-cultural associations, academics, etc. for better protection of children’s rights and effective application of the law criminalizing rape and pedophilia.
  • Which will contribute to strengthening people’s knowledge of the rights of minors in conflict with the law and access to justice, as well as the consequences of sexual violence.
• The activities envisaged for the 2 lots must take into account the various interventions envisaged by the government, civil society organizations and the various partners in order to ensure complementarity of the actions initiated in the protection of the rights of the child and the fight against violence of a sexual nature and take care not to duplicate them but on the contrary to reinforce their overall effectiveness.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 650,000 (under the 2022 and 2023 country allocations of the “Human Rights and Democracy” theme).
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  • For batch 1
    • Minimum amount: EUR 300,000
    • Maximum amount: EUR 350,000
  • For batch 2
    • Minimum amount: EUR 250,000
    • Maximum amount: EUR 300,000

Duration

• The initial expected duration of an action cannot be less than 24 months or exceed 36 month.

Eligibility Criteria

• lead applicant(s)
  • To apply for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person and
    • have no profit motive and
    • belong to one of the following categories of organizations: CSO (civil society organization); association, non-governmental organization as defined in Article 156 of the Financial Regulation of the European Union 10 And
    • be established in a Member State of the European Union or in Senegal,
    • be, at the time of publication of this call for proposals, registered for at least 2 years with the relevant services of Senegal 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
  • Potential applicants who find themselves in one of the situations
• Co-applicant(s)
  • If the lead applicant is not a Senegalese entity, at least one of the co-applicants must be a Senegalese entity. In other words, for each proposal, the main applicant, or one of the co-applicants, must necessarily be a Senegalese entity.
  • participate(s) in drawing up and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those borne by the lead applicant.
  • The co-applicant(s) must meet the same eligibility criteria as those that apply to the lead applicant itself.
  • The co-applicant(s) 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 on annual financial statements, 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 at 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 European Commission(EC).