Zantchito – “Skills for Jobs” Programme in Malawi

Deadline: 28-Feb-22

The European Commission is calling for proposals for the Zantchito – “Skills for Jobs” Programme, an intervention aimed at addressing the Malawi economy’s need for skilled professionals and providing decent jobs and self-employment opportunities for young Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (TEVET) graduates, in particular girls.

TEVET is a focal sector under the 2014-2020 National Indicative Programme (NIP) – 11^th European Development Fund (EDF) for Malawi. Two programmes have been designed for total amount of about EUR 90 Million: “Skills and Technical Education Programme” (STEP) which is about to end; and “Zantchito – Skills for Jobs”. The current Call for Proposals is part of the implementation of “Zantchito – Skills for Jobs”.

Objectives

• The global objective of this call for proposals is to increase employability and self-employment opportunities available to young TEVET graduates, with special attention to gender, equity and environmental principles.
• The specific objective of this call for proposals is to provide relevant, innovative and labour market oriented Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training programmes for both formal and informal training with a main focus on girls and youth living in vulnerable situation in view of enhancing self- and employment opportunities.

Priorities

The priorities of this call for proposals are (not in order of relevance):

• to increase access to informal and formal relevant, innovative and labour market oriented TEVET training with particular attention to vulnerable youth through provision of both technical, entrepreneurial, vocational and life skills training;
• to promote greater gender and women empowerment (including fight against Sexual and Gender Based Violence), equity and environmental inclusion in the TEVET system through (but not limited to) linkages with i) interventions fighting SGBV (e.g. EU-UN Spotlight Initiative) and providing preferential access to SGBV victims or vulnerable girls; ii) the Government led Social Cash Transfer Programme targeting vulnerable youth belonging to ultra-poor households; iii. initiatives targeting secondary schools youth (e.g EU-ISEM – Improving Secondary Education in Malawi) to ease transition from Secondary to TEVET;
• to promote innovation, market-driven and evidence-based approaches in the TEVET sector through improved linkages with the industry and the private sector;
• to contribute to diversify and innovate the TEVET offer, including (and not limited to) areas such as Digital/ICT skills and Green TEVET/Climate resilient skills by responding and anticipating the labour market opportunities;
• to increase the quality of the TEVET offer as well as the capacities of staff and instructors to meet the labour market requirements;
• to promote entrepreneurship and employability skills and the transition of TEVET graduates to decent jobs, being employment and/or self- employment;
• to inform the policy dialogue in the TEVET sector through applied research and analysis (labour market assessment, tracers studies, skills gap analysis, solid monitoring and evaluation, etc..) around the responsiveness of the sector to the evolving economic opportunities;
• to support collaboration amongst various entities and TEVET providers (public, private, etc.) at different levels to enhance their respective training offer, innovation, exchange of practices as well as operational and financial sustainability (e.g. support to Community Skills Development Centers, Community Technical Colleges and Technical Colleges targeted (and not limited to) by the EU STEP Programme).

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 5,000,000.
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  • minimum amount: EUR 1,000,000
  • maximum amount: EUR 2,500,000
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum percentages of total eligible costs of the action:
  • Minimum percentage: 60% of the total eligible costs of the action.
  • Maximum percentage for International lead-applicants: 80% of the total eligible costs of the action.
  • Maximum percentage for Malawian lead-applicants: 95% of the total eligible costs of the action.
• The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 36 months nor exceed 48 months.

Location

Actions must take place in Malawi.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person
    • be a specific type of organisation such as: national and international non-governmental organisation, Civil Society Organisation, public sector operator, local authority, international (inter-governmental) organisation
    • be a specific type of organisation such as: local and international NGOs, public or private TEVET providers as well as others TEVET providers such as the grant-aided technical colleges,
    • be established in a Member State of the European Union, or in a country of the European Economic Area or an ACP State or Member State of the OECD or developing countries and territories, as included in the OECD-DAC list of ODA Recipients, which are not members of the G20 group, without prejudice to the status of the Republic of South Africa, as governed by Protocol of the partnership Agreement or in Malawi. This obligation does not apply to international organisations,
    • The lead applicant may act individually or with co-applicant(s). For an applicant not established in Malawi, the involvement in the action of at least one co-applicant established in Malawi is obligatory,
    • 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
• Co-applicant(s)
  • 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.
  • Co-applicants must sign the mandate in Annex A.2 Section 5.
  • If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator)
• Affiliated entity(ies)
  • 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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