Deadline: 23 May 2019

The European Union (EU) has announced a Civil Society Fund (CSF) III Call for Proposals for Large Grants 2019 to increase the participation of citizens and CSOs in the development and democratization process of the country.

Objectives

The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals are:

• Strengthening citizens’ voice for policy dialogue.
• Reinforcing citizens’ role in the monitoring of national policies.
• Strengthening the sustainability and contribution of CSOs, including those working on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and of women’s groups to the development and democratisation process.

Program Lots

The program is divided into three lots:

• Lot 1: Democratic Governance and Rule of Law
• Lot 2: Service Delivery and Community Engagement
• Lot 3: Gender equality, women’s and girls’ empowerment and protection

Priorities

The priorities of this call for proposals are as follows:

• Actions must focus on strengthening the capacity of CSOs and their networks to engage in structured, evidence-based policy dialogue and effectively influence Government’s reform processes and nation-building interventions at Regional and Federal levels.
• Actions must facilitate partnership opportunities amongst CSOs (including the media and academia), building on existing networks, supporting emerging networks, and encouraging the building of coalitions and the creation of platforms to exchange knowledge and create momentum and collective positions on common issues of interest.
• Actions must support the creation of an enabling environment to ensure the development of a credible, accountable, independent, inclusive civil society sector with the capacity and space to act as an interlocutor between citizens and the state, and undertake strategic engagement with all levels of Government in order to reinforce the democratic process.

Size of Grants

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

• In the case of applications from individual organizations:
  • minimum amount: EUR 150,000
  • maximum amount: EUR 300,000.
• In the case of applications from networks or consortia of organisations(with legal personality) or a local Individual Organisation (as coordinator) in partnership with one or more local or International NGOs (as co-applicants):
  • minimum amount: EUR 300,000
  • maximum amount: EUR 500,000.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person,
      be non-profit-making,
    • be a local civil society organisation formed under the laws of Ethiopia. Such entities include non-governmental organisations; faith-based development organisations; mass-based associations (including youth, women, disabled, elderly, etc); professional associations; trade unions and labour federations; employers’ federations, chambers of commerce and other not-for-profit private sector entities; non-profit institutes of higher learning and research; consortiums (including consortia of consortiums and networks of local CSOs), and
    • be established in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and
    •  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,
    • be able to demonstrate that they have experience in carrying out activities implemented in the fields covered by this Call for Proposals.
  • Potential applicants may not participate in calls for proposals or be awarded grants if they are in any of the situations.
• 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, except that they do not need to be established in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
  • In addition to the categories, the following are however also eligible:
    • Non-governmental organizations established in European Union or African UnionMember States, and registered to operate in Ethiopia.
    • 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 the grant agreement general conditions.
  • Note: Only one non-Ethiopian partner is permitted per application.
• Affiliated entities
  • 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-applicants):
    • Only entities having a structural link with the applicants(i.e. the lead applicant or a co-applicant), inparticular 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, for example, a 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.

How to Apply

• The application procedure consists of two phases:
  • Concept notes
  • Full applications
• The concept note together with the declaration by the lead applicant must be submitted at the address given on the website.

For more information, please visit https://bit.ly/2VysAu2 and download the guidelines