Call for Proposals: Delivering for the Future – Strengthening Civil Society Capacities & Resilience in Armenia

Deadline: 03-Nov-20

The European Union (EU) has announced a call for proposals for the Delivering for the future: Strengthening civil society capacities and resilience in Armenia through promotion of democratic engagement principles and strategic communication.

Objectives

The global objective of this call for proposals is to further enhance the capacity and resilience of civil society organisations to be effective, sustainable and accountable independent actors that contribute to deepening democracy, citizens’ awareness and empowerment.

• The specific objectives of this call is to provide targeted capacity building to CSOs to:
  • strengthen CSO management skills and transformational leadership incl. strategic planning, internal democracy/self-governance principles, transparency, sustainability and resilience to reinforce CSOs as trusted and professional partners;
  • explore, test and promote tools and practices of more strategic communication methods and resources incl. information management and flows towards citizens, particular constituencies and at community, Marz and national level incl. critical thinking, technical incl. financial literacy and preventing/reducing, detecting and actively fight disinformation;
  • support CSOs in their agenda to professionalise volunteering in Armenia and engage closer with other stakeholders e.g in more collaborative approaches with other CS actors, academia, the private sector, youth such as volunteers and launch joint advocacy and learning initiatives incl. in an inclusive and empowering manner and communicate aspirations;

Priorities

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

• promoting strategies for overcoming systemic challenges in the CSO sector; inspiring new ideas and encouraging CSOs to think creatively about their work in the long run;
• combining different approaches and innovative tools for needs-based targeted capacity-building and strategic support to CSOs,
• offering in-depth tailored organisational development support to a selected group of interested CSO, developing curricula and Training of Trainers (ToT) material and capacities;
• support the use of evidence-based approaches, modern technology and innovative approaches;
• engagement of stakeholders building relationships and collaboration between CSOs; supporting joint actions and peer to peer learning; strengthening regional, Yerevan-based and cross-border CS collaboration;
• explore and pilot new ways of attracting young talents (incl. from the Diaspora) to the non-profit sector and promoting a more strategic, professional, and empowering approach to volunteerism in Armenia, which could include private-public partnership elements too;
• galvanising interaction between CSOs and citizens; bringing CSOs and the constituents they serve closer together in addressing priority community issues,
• improving CSO communication, public outreach strategies, event organisation and transparency/documentation of work to the public and raising the voice of constituencies;

Furthermore, priority will be given to actions that:

• reflect a Rights-Based Approach by which CSOs are supported to ensure the inclusion, participation of and providing a voice to youth, people or groups in a vulnerable situation, minorities, people with disabilities, victims of domestic violence, poor, elderly, homeless people etc. and particularly to those facing such situations in the Marzes;
• enhance awareness of and integration of more environmentally friendly and climate-change related topics and practices into CS strategies and daily work incl. elements of the Green Deal;

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 2,000,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
• Size of grants
  • minimum amount: EUR 1,950,000
  • maximum amount: EUR 2,000,000

Duration

• The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 36 months nor exceed 45 months.

Location

• Actions must take place in the Republic of Armenia and be open to CSOs in all marzes of Armenia, as recognised by the international law, and should as a principle directly benefit civil society organisations or citizens. However, some specific project activities may take place in EU member states and in the Eastern Neighbourhood region, such as participation in events, and attendance of meetings and conferences as long as they clearly contribute to the achievement of the project’s overall objective. The project can cover final beneficiary costs related to attendance of such events or meetings; however, these cases need to be duly justified.

Eligibility Criteria

Lead Applicant(s)

• In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  • be a legal person
  • be non-profit-making
  • be a non-governmental organisation
  • be established in a Member State of the European Union or in Armenia
  • 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
  • have prior experience in implementing and managing larger (at least EUR 1,000,000) civil society capacity development projects.

Co-applicant(s)

The lead applicant must act with a minimum of one co-applicant and one of the co-applicants must be established in Armenia.

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.

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