Federal Foreign Office inviting Applications for Expanding Cooperation with Civil Society in Eastern Partnership Countries & Russia
Deadline: 16-Oct-20
The Federal Foreign Office is seeking applications for its programme “Expanding Cooperation with Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership Countries and Russia” that enables civil society organisations and the members of the public active in them to implement joint projects, thereby supporting the ongoing transformation processes in the region.
Seed Grants
Through the programme, the German Government funds measures that provide comprehensive support to the transformation and internal integration processes via collaboration between German civil society and civil societies in the Eastern Partnership countries and Russia.
This includes the entire range of cultural and civic education projects – media, academia, education including vocational training, culture, language and work with young people. In order to enhance social cohesion and the establishment of civil-society structures in the region and to promote the foundations of a fundamental free, democratic and pluralist order, as many dedicated actors as possible from a target country’s rural areas and urban centres should be involved.
Objectives
The measures eligible for funding are those that establish or expand permanent civil‑society cooperation structures between actors from Germany and the Eastern Partnership countries or Russia. Furthermore, projects must reach as many civil-society actors as possible and pursue one of the following four objectives:
Strengthening pluralism ‑ establishing and furthering pluralism of information, opinion and the media
The aim here is to create and expand a pluralistic media landscape and in so doing to increase the recognition of and respect for diversity of opinion within society. There are various ways to achieve this goal, including by providing basic and further training for journalists, bloggers and other media actors and by conducting projects to improve media skills, for instance at schools and universities.
Promoting the discussion of values ‑ strengthening values through civil-society dialogue and cultural measures
Another important goal of the project is to promote a discussion of fundamental values, such as respect for human rights, the legitimacy of the administration, the independence of the judiciary, the right of the individual to life and self‑determination, as well as the principle of a majority decision, by means of exchange and cultural projects and civil-society dialogue.
Opening up prospects for the future ‑ academic, professional and socio-political training and further training measures
Moreover, the aim is to give young people in particular prospects for their own economic, societal and social development. Training and further training projects are regarded as the foundations on which all people build their personal dreams and prospects for the future and so the programme focuses on these, too.
Fostering dialogue and understanding ‑ rebuilding trust lost as a result of territorial conflicts
Another important goal is to restore the willingness to enter into dialogue and build understanding between societies whose states are parties to a territorial conflict. Unresolved tensions resulting from different historical narratives have also led to deep rifts among the civil societies. The programme seeks to support people and organisations that work with the affected groups to encourage them to understand the other side’s point of view and develop a willingness to compromise from this understanding.
Funding Information
The minimum funding amount is 10,000 euro; there is no maximum funding amount.
Eligibility Criteria
Civil-society cooperation projects are eligible for funding if they take place in Germany, Russia or the Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
Participants who receive funding should have their main place of residence in one of the Eastern Partnership countries, Russia or Germany, or in Poland or France.
Projects that involve cooperation between civil-society actors from Germany and one (bilateral projects) or several (multilateral projects) of the Eastern Partnership countries or Russia are eligible for funding.
Partners from Polish civil society can continue to participate in civil-society projects funded by the programme. Both joint Franco-German and German-Polish projects with one or several partners in the target countries are thus also welcome.
Only the German partner is entitled to submit an application, but participants who receive funding may have their main place of residence in France or Poland. The prerequisite for the funding of these projects is the active participation of a Polish or French partner organisation.
The actors involved in the projects to be funded must come from the field of civil society in Germany, as well as France or Poland, and the Eastern Partnership countries or Russia.
Actors outside the field of governance and business thus form the target group of the measures. Typical actors include the media, associations, foundations (including the political foundations), and institutions of higher education, youth associations, culture professionals and other non-governmental organisations. Public-service broadcasters are also regarded as part of civil society.
Actors involved in governance or business can only be regarded as part of civil society in exceptional cases when civil-society actors do not exist because of local conditions and when the concrete measures to be funded provide sufficient guarantee that the political aims being pursued will be achieved.
Submitting Project Ideas
Project outlines (in English or German) can be submitted until 16 October 2020 via this website.
Further information and instructions on how to submit project outlines can also be found on the website.
The evaluation of project outlines is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2021.
Applicants will be notified by email of whether, taking into account all other project outlines received, an application for funding in accordance with Section 44 of the Federal Budget Code is likely to be successful.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3iWqcrP