Kosovo: Advancing Role of Civil Society for Social Justice, Participation and Human Rights

Deadline: 16-Jun-21

The European Union (EU) has announced a call for proposals for Advancing Role of Civil Society for Social Justice, Participation and Human Rights.

Objectives & Priority Issues

The global objective of this call for proposals is to promote the role and capacities of civil society and other civic actors in promoting better governance, inclusive policy-making and democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The call intends to promote social rights, participatory democracy, access to justice, safeguard of public health and natural resources. The call also enhances gender equality and participation of youth and encourages innovative partnerships with the double objective of leaving no-one behind and leveraging the strengths of different stakeholders.

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

To improve the working conditions of the most vulnerable female and male workers, respect of labour rights and revitalising social dialogue;
To increase the democratic participation, civic engagement and social inclusion of youth with fewer opportunities, margiuniked and/or with different abilities, in particular women;
To contribute to reduce social inequalities by improving access to justice and quality healthcare, and promoting the right to a healthy environment for women and men equality.

The priority of this call for proposals are:

Lot 1 (CSF): The rights of vulnerable workers
- Improve the conditions of vulnerableileast protected and represented categories, including safety and health standards, of women and men in the labour market, notably in the private sector;
- Combat undeclared work, labour exploitation, discrimination and violations of workers’ rights for women and men equally;
- Promote social dialogue, including through representation of interests of (vulnerable) workers in dialogue and cooperation with employers and institutions.
Lot 2 (CSF): Participatory democracy, youth engagement
- Enhance participation of disadvantaged youth, including young women and men with different abilities to decision making at central and local level;
- Promote social inclusion of disengaged young women and men through skills development and volunteering initiatives;
- Foster democratic dialogue across youth to promote gender equality, solidarity, inter-cultural relations and counter stereotypes and dis-information.
Lot 3 (CSF): Access to quality healthcare
- Enhance transparency, governance andl inclusivity of health related policies and programmes;
- Promote a more efficient, quality oriented and gender responsive healthcare system with the aim to ensure equitable access to all citizens.
Lot 4 (EIDER): Access to justice
- Support vulnerable categories, especially low-income or social groups and women, to report abuses, discrimination or administrative wrongdoings and help access to remedies;
- Support victims of violence, abuses, and/or discrimination to obtain justice, adequate protection and reintegration, and hold responsible institutions accountable;
- Increase citizens’ trust toward the justice system including through civil society contributions for enhanced transparency, access to information and performance of courts.
Lot 5 (EIDER): Healthy and clean environment
- Improve governance of environmental and public health issues through greater transparency, public awareness, advocacy and inclusion of civil society;
- Reduce CO2 emissions, promote climate neutral economy and preserve the environment for future generations.

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 1,700,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.

Indicative allocation of funds by lots:

If the allocation indicated for a specific lot cannot be used due to insufficient quality or number of proposals received, the contracting authority reserves the right to reallocate the remaining funds to other lots.

Lot 1 (CSF): EUR 400,000
Lot 2 (CSF): EUR 400,000
Lot 3 (CSF): EUR 200,000
Lot 4 (EIDUR): EUR 400,000
Lot 5 (EIDUR): EUR 300,000

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant(s)

In order to be eligible for a grant under Lot 1, 2 and 3 the lead applicant must:
- be a legal person and
- be non-profit-making and
- be a civil society organisaiton established in a Member State of European Union or in a IPA II beneficiary country and
- be registered in Kosovo 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 a proven background and a minimum of 3 years of experience in Kosovo over the last 5 years in the field of application from the submission deadline of concept note and
In order to be eligible for a grant under Lot 4 and 5 the lead applicant must:
- be a legal person and
- be non-profit-making and
- be a civil society organisaiton established in a Member State of European Union or in a IPA II beneficiary country and
- be registered in Kosovo 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 a proven background and a minimum of 3 years of experience in Kosovo over the last 5 years in the field of application from the submission deadline of concept note

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 himselt with the exception of the eligibility criterion for Lot 1, 2 and 3 referring to the exclusion of applicants who have signed grant contract’s with the European Commission awarded under the calls
Co-applicants must sign the mandate form.

Affiliated Entity(ies)

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 (grandrlanghter 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.