Grants to strengthen local Civil Society Organisations in Somalia

The European Commission (EC) is proud to launch a call for proposals to strengthen local Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) as independent actors of good governance and development in their own right.

The action aims to contribute to an inclusive, participatory, empowered, and independent civil society and democratic space in partner countries; and an inclusive and open dialogue with and between civil society organisations.

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

To strengthen local CSOs’ capacities to engage in policy dialogue, implementation and monitoring of national development plans and programmes: This component focuses on supporting actions to strengthen the capacity of a broad range of CSO actors to actively engage in policy dialogue on issues of citizen interest, including political representation, rights of disadvantaged groups, environmental protection, and others.
To enhance local governance through participation of CSOs in public decision-making processes and in social accountability: This component is linked to building CSO capacities and will support CSO actions to enhance social development by making local authorities and service providers responsive and accountable to the needs and requests of citizens, in particular groups of people living in vulnerable situations, including women, children and youth, people living with disability, internally displaced people, minorities, etc.
To increase local CSO capacities to engage in gender equality: This component will aim at strengthening CSO capacities to engage in dialogue, lobby, advocacy and awareness raising initiatives that benefit the political representation of women, access to resources, their position vis-à-vis public authorities and the recognition of their rights.
Funding Information
The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 4,000,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
Indicative allocation of funds by lot/geographical distribution:
LOT 1: Support to Somali CSOs – The overall indicative amount made available under this lot is EUR 1,500,000. Only proposals submitted by CSOs established in Somalia are eligible. Any grant requested under this lot must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
minimum amount: EUR 300,000
maximum amount: EUR 500,000
LOT 2: Support to Somali and/or International CSOs – The overall indicative amount made available under this lot is EUR 2,500,000. Proposals submitted by Somali and/or International CSOs are eligible. Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
minimum amount: EUR 800,000
maximum amount: EUR 1,100,000
Eligibility Criteria
Lead applicant(s)
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 organization or an association of civil society organizations and,
be established in Somalia or
be established in a Member State of the European Union or
beneficiaries listed in the relevant Annex to the IPA III Regulation, or
contracting parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, or
developing countries and territories (included in the OECD-DAC list of ODA recipients), which are not members of the G20 group, or
Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs), or
OECD Member States, gold
developing countries, as included in the list of ODA recipients, which are members of the G-20 group, and any other countries and territories when the relevant procedure takes place in the context of an action financed by the Union under this Instrument in which they participate and participate
be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the coapplicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.
Co-applicant(s)
LOT 1: It is not mandatory to act with co-applicants. Only Somali CSOs are eligible as co-applicants.
LOT 2: The lead applicant may act individually or with co-applicant(s). If the lead applicant has the nationality of a country other than Somalia, having a minimum of one (1) Somali CSO as co-applicant in the action is mandatory.
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 form.
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 coapplicant(s):
Only entities having a structural link with the applicants (ie the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
Control, 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, ie the applicant is legally defined as a eg network, federation, association in which the proposed affiliated entities also participate or the applicant participates in the same entity (eg network, federation, association,) as the proposed affiliated entities.
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