UNDP’s Anti-Corruption Grants Programme for Afghan Civil Society Organizations

Deadline: 10 February 2020

The Anti-Corruption, Transparency, Integrity & Openness (ACTION) project calls for a long-term engagement to allow for the civil society networks to grow and work towards the ambitious objective to make the network of CSOs, media and communities stronger and foster the collaboration of the Government with the local communities to co-create solutions or respond to needs and services more efficiently.

The purpose of this Call for Proposals for the Anti-Corruption Grants Programme is to support Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and community groups, including women and youth, in their efforts to better promote transparency, accountability, integrity and public trust.

The ACTION Project seeks proposals from a wide range of Afghan national, regional, and local civil society organizations (CSOs) and media organizations to implement specific activities that fit this purpose with a focus on innovative and targeted activities against corruption. ACTION Project encourages CSOs to design their project in creative ways based on careful needs analysis and CSOs’ experience, successes, and failures. Conducting public information and awareness campaigns as the main activity as well as oversight efforts are not likely to produce the impacts that ACTION is seeking.

Grant projects should include innovative, targeted and localized approaches, especially those that mainstream gender or engage women, as well as encourage collaborative work among several civil society organizations (CSOs) in different regions or levels.

UNDP Afghanistan’s Governance for Peace (G4P) Programme Unit supports the Afghan Government in implementing its strategies for Governance and Rule of Law, developing its institutional capacity and providing services to the Afghan population. This includes supporting the implementation of the Afghanistan National Strategy for Combatting Corruption.

Types of Grants and Award Amounts

Total budget of Anti-Corruption Grants Programme for 2020 is USD 900,000. Grants will be awarded in two categories.

• Category 1: Small Scale Local Projects
  • Small scale projects should be implemented at the local level by one or several civil society organizations. Activities focusing on communities are highly encouraged.
  • For this Category, UNDP is looking for project activities that address particular corruption problems and are likely to yield effective results in reducing corruption on the local level. The ACTION Project is willing to support innovative approaches and welcomes concept notes that reflect targeted actions, creative thinking and a desire to advance the range, depth, and impact of civil society initiatives on identifying and reducing corruption.
  • The maximum amount for this type of project is $50,000. ACTION Project plans to support from 5 to 15 projects in this category.
• Category 2: Strategic Projects
  • Strategic projects should be implemented by coalitions/networks of a minimum of 5 CSOs acting on local and/or national levels, including one well-established CSOs as a lead. Activities focusing both at the central and local levels will be preferred. Under this category, coalitions, partnerships, networks, consortia or other arrangements of civil society groups that connect organizations in different geographic areas and with different skill levels conducting similar anti-corruption activities and sharing their results are particularly invited. ACTION Project encourages larger and more experienced organizations to engage with newer, smaller and less experienced CSOs.
  • To be eligible for strategic grants organizations need to demonstrate significant past-experience conducting anti-corruption projects of similar size and complexity and proven successes that could be scale-up.
  • The maximum amount for this type of project is $150,000. ACTION Project plans to support from 1 to 4 projects in this category. 1 grant will be reserved for trial monitoring of the Anti-Corruption Justice Center.

Thematic Areas

The thematic areas listed below highlight the topics for which UNDP ACTION Project is primarily interested in receiving concepts under this Call for Proposal. This is the not-exhaustive list. Proposed activities may cover one or more mentioned areas or explore another topics, connected with the main objective of Anti-Corruption Grants Programme.

• Promoting the use of the Access to Information Law and how communities can use it to protect their rights and/or increase transparency and accountability;
• Promoting the use of the Access to Information and how media can use it to expose corruption cases and/or monitor the delivery of public services;
• Strengthened capacity of journalists and media to investigate corruption-related issues;
• Monitoring of public service delivery and increasing access to information regarding government activities and public service delivery;
• Social accountability and monitoring of the budgets to understand how the budget is used to pay for public services and publicize the findings to ensure transparency and accountability for the use of government funds;
• Supported informed and inclusive participation of citizens for increased transparency and accountability through community-based monitoring and other activities;
• Building a culture of public trust and integrity through anti-corruption education for children, youth and adults;
• Anti-Corruption Justice Center trials monitoring;
• Fostering participation of communities in public authorities decision-making process;
• Behavioral change: UNDP encourages CSOs and media organizations to use innovative outreach/communications approaches tailored specifically to different audiences who are impacted by corruption when transacting with the government and/or which will induce behavioral change. Conducting public information and awareness campaigns as the main activity will not be supported under this Call for Proposals.

Expected Results

• For Category 1: Civil society organizations and community groups will address corruption problems on local community level with creative targeted ideas. Their project should be very focused, and few well-thought activities will be preferred to project with numerous activities. Activities ideally will have a potential for being scaled-up to other communities or regions of Afghanistan.
• For Category 2: Well-established CSOs with demonstrated experiences in successful anti-corruption, journalism, transparency and participation initiatives will engage and mentor the newer, smaller and less experienced CSOs, involving the formal or informal establishment of coalitions, partnerships, networks, consortia or other arrangements of civil society groups, conducting similar anti-corruption activities and sharing their results. This grant is aimed at strengthening the network of CSO and investigative media through the partnership and peer-to-peer learning between more experienced CSO and smaller groups. Project should demonstrate a transfer of knowledge, both technically but also in terms of organizational capacity (design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, partnership, resource mobilization, etc).

Eligibility Criteria

• Grants will be provided to capable and responsible non-partisan legally-registered Afghan Civil Society Organizations (this may include community-based organizations and other forms of Civil Society Organizations); consortia of CSOs, and media organizations. Individuals and government entities are not eligible to apply under this Call for Proposals.
• Interested CSOs must meet the following criteria to be eligible for selection:
  • For Category 1 (Small scale local projects):
    • Be legally registered as CSO/NGO and in possession of a valid registration certificate
    • Be committed and interested in anti-corruption activities in their local community
  • For Category 2 (Strategic projects):
    • Be legally registered as CSO/NGO and in possession of a valid registration certificate;
    • Have been in operation for a minimum of three (3) years with transparent and accountable financial management systems and procedures;
    • Have a record of similar/related experience in line with this call for proposal with proven experience in managing grants of 150,000 USD or above and be ready to scale-up this experience in partnership with other CSOs

For more information, visit http://www.acbar.org/rfq/10938.jsp