Deadline: 7-Jun-21
The Increasing Civic Engagement in the Digital Agenda – ICEDA has announced this Request for Applications to provide support to CSOs to promote the Digital agenda through the Small Grants Scheme Cycle LOT 2: Award grants for Digital Agenda Advocacy Initiatives.
The “Increasing Civic Engagement in the Digital Agenda – ICEDA” project is co-funded by the European Union and is implemented by Metamorphosis Foundation, Open Data Kosovo (ODK), e-Government Academy (eGA), Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability – CRTA, Lëvizja MJAFT, NVM 35 MM.
Objectives
ICEDA will provide support to CSOs to perform initiatives within their native countries, by awarding small grants that will contribute to achieving the following overall objectives:
- To increase the capacity of CSOs and media for tackling challenges related to the Digital Agenda, empowering them to become active participants in the process;
- To enhance the role of CSOs in aiding state institutions to better exploit the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in order to improve the quality of their e-services to the citizens and increase their openness including achieving greater transparency and accountability through development of efficient eGovernment systems;
- To strengthen online trust and security by providing trainings and awareness raising through a network of CSOs promoting digital literacy, skills and inclusion at regional, national and local level;
- To increase the visibility of issues related to the Digital Agenda within civil society and media;
- To increase the citizen demand for quality e-services through training and awareness-raising by the CSOs.
Funding Information
The budget for this Lot is EUR 75.000 providing amounts ranging between EUR 3.000 to EUR 7.000 per individual grant (approximately EUR 5.000 per individual grant).
Expected Results
ICEDA will support advocacy initiatives that directly respond to specific issues that specific target groups from the targeted WB country face, in the areas covered by the Digital Agenda and ICEDA. The activities from the proposed advocacy initiatives should be very specific and directly related to the support and facilitation of the solution of the targeted issues, also elevating the importance and visibility of the targeted issues among the public and relevant stakeholders.
The expected results from each of the supported advocacy initiatives should be, at least two of the following:
- Initiation of at least 1 policy/ procedure/ Law/ Strategy change in one of the following areas: cyber security, privacy protection, accessibility, connectivity, ICT, artificial intelligence, digital literacy, digital economy;
- Issuing of at least 3 national level policy recommendations in one of the following areas: cyber security, privacy protection, accessibility, connectivity, ICT, artificial intelligence, digital literacy, digital economy;
- Improvement/ re-design of at least 1 public e-service for citizens;
Advantage will also be given to those advocacy initiatives which apart from the above mentioned expected results, will also achieve one of the following expected results:
- Increasing the number of citizens using eGovernment services by 20%;
- Ensuring at least 15 local and/or national media regularly covering the targeted issue in the targeted WB country where the initiative is being implemented.
Eligible Activities
The ICEDA Small Grants Scheme LOT 2 will support initiatives for stimulating a culture of critical thinking via promotion of media literacy, in particular through activities from the following (nonexhaustive) indicative list:
- Inciting public debate on issues related to the Digital Agenda, relevant for the country where the sub-grant is implemented;
- Engaging citizens to increase their demand for higher quality eGovernment services;
- Establishing cooperation and networking between various stakeholders for Digital Agenda advocacy at local and national level;
- Capacity building of local community members including trainings, workshops and lectures;
- Enabling citizens to use the competent state institutions/regulatory bodies to address shortcomings related to eGovernment development, such as inconsistencies and breaches of privacy and security;
- Production of public education contents for the web or for the traditional media;
- Promotion of public education contents via various kinds of media;
- Online promotion via short videos, banners, and other kinds of multimedia contents;
- Strategic use of social media to reach wider and/or targeted audiences, including online ads.
Eligibility Criteria
- The applicants and co-applicants need to be:
- non-profit-making;
- a civil society organization;
- registered in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia or Serbia for at least 1 year before the date of publication of the call and;
- directly responsible for the preparation and management of the project with the coapplicant(s);
- have 1 year of experience in implementation of projects in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia or Serbia.
- One organization can apply with only one project application as a lead applicant and can participate in only one additional project application as co-applicant/partner. One organization can participate in maximum two projects. Alternatively, one organization can participate in up to two projects as partner.
For more information, visit https://metamorphosis.org.mk/en/aktivnosti_arhiva/call-for-applications-grants-for-civil-society-organizations/