EU announces CFPs for “Civil Society Organisations as Actors of Governance in Israel”

Deadline: 30 January 2020

The European Union (EU) is currently accepting proposals for a program entitled “Civil Society Organisations as Actors of Governance in Israel”.

Objectives

The global objective of this call for proposals is to contribute to the enhancement of Civil Society Organisations’ participation in public policies and programmes, in Israel, in the fields of climate change and gender equality.

The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:

• Specific Objective 1: To increase the participation of CSOs in tackling climate change and mitigating its adverse effects through supporting CSOs actions aimed at promoting climate change mitigation and adaptations such as:
  • promoting the design and implementation of climate-related strategies in key sectors, such as agriculture, energy, urban development, within the framework of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement through multi-stakeholders approaches;
  • promoting the involvement of local stakeholders in climate action (“think global, act local”);
  • enabling the transition to a climate-resilient, low-emissions, circular economy through i.e. resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production, including the sustainable management of chemicals and waste;
  • decoupling economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation;
  • capacity building to mainstream climate change, climate adaptation, just transition, disaster risk reduction and environmental sustainability and the pursuit of green growth into national and local development strategies;
  • making better use of science, technology and innovation to promote climate action and environmental sustainability;
  • promoting ecosystem or nature-based approaches with a view to offering sustainable solutions to cope with climate change mitigation and adaptation challenges, using ecosystem services to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to conserve and expand carbon sinks, as well as to enhance resilience to the impacts of climate change, especially peripheral areas;
  • promoting the use of the comprehensive data and information available through research programmes and institutions, and technological centres, including European and international Earth observation programmes, to support evidence-based decisions that take into account the state of the climate and the environment.
• Specific Objective 2: To increase Women’s participation in decision-making through supporting CSOs actions aimed at promoting gender equality such as:
  • strengthening policy dialogue on gender equality, women’s and human rights to empower women and girls;
  • promoting women and girls’ role as agents of development and change;
  • increasing targeted action towards gender equality;
  • involving men and boys’ associations, women’s organisations, faith based organisations, youth organisations, and media in the transformative process of engendering social change, in particular by challenging stereotypes;
  • deepening multi-stakeholder partnerships, i.e. including “non-usual” stakeholders (who have been less involved until now) in processes: trade unions, media, financial actors etc.;
  • including the gender perspective in all “other” relevant debates, policies and initiatives: environmental protection, resilience, economic development, urban planning, migration, youth empowerment;
  • strengthening the capacity of CSOs to carry out gender-responsive budgeting and planning;
  • capacity building and training for women’s organisations and CSOs working on gender equality;
  • supporting CSOs working on gender equality and women’s empowerment in engaging in policy dialogue in order to advocate for gender sensitive policy making;
  • ensuring the active participation of women and women’s organisations in decision-making processes at all levels.

Size of Grants

Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:

• Minimum amount: EUR 400,000
• Maximum amount: EUR 700,000

Location

Actions must take place in Israel.

Duration

The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 30 months nor exceed 42 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant: In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  • be a legal person and
  • be non-profit-making and
  • be a civil society organisation, including non-governmental non-profit organisations, community based organisations, universities and private sector non-profit agencies, institutions and organisations, and networks thereof at local, national, regional and international level; and
  • be established in a Member State of European Union or in Israel
    • For British applicants: Please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. Unless sector-specific eligibility rules provide otherwise, if the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, applicants will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible to participate) or will be required to leave the project on the basis of Article of the grant agreement’.
  • 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)
  • The lead applicant must act with at least two co-applicants.
  • 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.
  • In addition to the categories, the following are also eligible as co-applicants:
    • be a Local Authority or Association of Local Authorities from Israel.
• 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.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2PaIDxu and download the guidelines.