Deadline: 25-Aug-20
UNDP Albania initiated the first hackathon on environmental governance innovation in Tirana through a hackathon that explored innovative solutions to improving Albania’s environmental governance capacity.
Therefore, in its next call, UNDP Albania is offering grants to strengthen the capacity for environmental monitoring and information management in the country by establishing operational environmental information management and monitoring system (EIMS).
The project will address the need for an environmental monitoring system that is integrated throughout relevant government institutions and that uses international monitoring standards for indicator development, data collection, analysis, and policymaking. It will also build on existing technical and institutional capacity in Albania to align its management and monitoring efforts with global monitoring and reporting priorities. Increased capacity in this area will improve reporting to the Rio Conventions and lay the groundwork for sustainable development through better-informed environmental policy.
By working together with a growing civic-minded technology in Albania, the hackathon showed new and collaborative ways of working between the public, private and civic sector to make the most of new digital technology opportunities, and strengthen the capacity of Albanian government and agencies to promote sustainable development and counter the risks of climate change and environmental degradation.
Evidently, environmental governance is complex and multilayered, and cannot be resolved by singular interventions. However, the findings and results of the Hackathon indicate opportunities for innovation and will be used to outline a series of possible policy initiatives that could advance digital transformation in Albania’s public sector and collaborative ways of working with citizens and NGOs.
In particular, the project aims at:
- Development of the EIMS to enable the integration of global environment commitments into planning and monitoring processes.
- Development and application of uniform indicators encompassing UNFCCC, CBD and CCD concerns and global environmental threats.
- Stakeholder’s capacity for information management (collection processing) of key global environment data and utilization (interpretation and reporting) is enhanced at the national and local levels.
Funding Information
- Proposal amounts should not exceed USD 15,000 equivalent in all as per the United Nations Rate of Exchange UNROE.
- At least one grant will be awarded to one CSO and the geographical coverage will be observed in grant distribution.
- The amount requested in the proposal should commensurate the organization’s administrative and financial management capabilities.
Purpose of Grant
The purpose of this call for grants is to support interested CSOs (Civil Society Organizations) to contribute in improving capacities through innovative solutions to:
- Identify social opportunities to enhance data-informed policy-making
- Identify opportunities to use project-related data to enhance reporting on the Rio Conventions (e.g. the Biennial Update Report to the UNFCCC, the Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and/or the National CCD Report).
- Mitigating environment monitoring and reporting during global pandemics, or nature-related disasters.
- Opportunities for innovation at the local level related to environmental indicators monitoring and reporting considering the following:
- Automating the bureaucracy.
- Making the invisible, visible.
- Reframing the debate.
- Building capacity of change-makers.
- “Citizen Science” that could support data collection and advocacy related to global environmental issues.
- Adapting technology to provide environmental solutions during pandemics.
Eligibility Criteria
Interested CSOs must meet the following criteria to be eligible for selection, and submit them with the application:
- Be legally registered as a CSO in accordance with the Albanian legislation;
- Be fully operational in the target selected area;
- Mandate and founding document should be in line with the activities for which the fund is being sought;
- Have an established office and experience in similar/related activities.
- Have previous experience in working with the local community and other stakeholder groups.
For more information, visit http://www.un.org.al/employment-and-procurement/environmental-innovation-call-grants-0