Open Call for Civil Society Organisations in South Africa

Deadline: 10-Feb-23

The European Commission (EC) has announced a call for proposals to strengthen the capacity of local and national CSOs, particularly women’s and youth organisations, to engage in gender equality and youth inclusion.

The current Thematic Programme for Civil Society Organisations (the CSO programme), financed under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI-Global Europe) builds on the achievements and lessons learned of the Civil Society Organizations and Local Authorities (CSO-LA) programme 2014-2020.

Objectives

•  The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals are:
• To prevent Gender-Based Violence and femicide in public and private spheres With the following priorities:
  • Challenging and changing traditional beliefs and practices as well as social norms that are inherently, if unintentionally, gender-biased and that perpetuate harmful attitudes and practices toward women, girls and LGBTQ+ people.
  • Working with young people, men and boys, traditional and religious authorities as agents of change, to counter ingrained and learned negative attitudes and discriminatory behaviour towards women and girls, and build their skills and agency to effect change among their peers.
  • Strengthening capacity and multi-sector coordination of CSOs (particularly youth and women led CSOs, women and LGBTQ+ rights organisations, feminists organisations) to advocate the effective implementation of GBVF prevention policy framework and measures.
• To enhance youth and women economic empowerment and financial inclusion With the following priorities:
  • Supporting business or livelihood initiatives targeted toward or initiated by women and young people in the formal and informal economy, particularly in the green transition value chains.
  • Building the capacity and voice of women and youth networks, including but not limited to cooperatives, unions, women farmers, informal traders, waste pickers, and ensuring their participation in policy dialogue and decision making on women and youth economic empowerment.
  • Supporting actions that aim to equal access to financial resources, access to and control of land and other resources for women, youth and LGBTQ+ people.

Priorities

• Proposals can address more than one objective and more than one priority
• Proposals and projects funded under this Call for Proposal will have to be designed and implemented according to the rights-based approach8 methodology and include gender analysis, with sex/age disaggregated data of the different situations and needs for women and men and translate this assessment into indicators, activities and results. Please note that the rights-based approach should be integrated at each step of the project cycle – identification, formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Its integration will be scored in the evaluation of the methodology section of this call for proposals.
  • Gender Equality
  • Youth participation
  • Disability

Funding Information

• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and
• Maximum amounts:
  • Minimum amount: EUR 400 000
  • Maximum amount: EUR 800 000

Any grant requested under this call for proposal 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: 90 % 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 specific types of organisations such as: non-governmental organisations, organisations representing indigenous peoples, community – based organisations, advocacy organisations, organisations representing national and/or ethnic minorities, diaspora organisations, migrants’ organisations in partner countries, local traders’ associations and citizens’ groups, cooperatives, employers’ associations and trade unions (social partners), organisations representing economic and social interests, organisations representing person with disabilities, organisations fighting corruption and fraud and promoting good governance, civil rights organisations and organisations combating discrimination, local organisations (including networks) involved in decentralised regional cooperation and integration, consumer organisations, women’s and youth organisations environmental, teaching, cultural, research and scientific organisations, universities, education institutions, churches and religious associations and communities, the media and any non-governmental associations and independent foundations, including independent political foundations. International Organisations 16, public sector operators and local authorities cannot be the applicant but can be co-applicants, and
  • Be established in South Africa or in a Member State of the European Union or other eligible countries as per the relevant provisions of the NDICI-GE and
  • Be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the coapplicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.
• Co-applicant(s)
  • If the lead applicant is a CSO established in a Member State of the European Union or another eligible countries except South Africa, a minimum of one South African co-applicant is required (i.e. the applicant and one South African co-applicant).
  • 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.
  • In addition to the categories referred to, the following are, however, also eligible:
    • International Organisations , including United Nations agencies, public sector operators and local authorities are eligible as co-applicant.
    • 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
  • 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 firsttier 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.