GRANT COMPETITION: CIVIL SOCIETY RESILIENCE AND PARTNERSHIP DURING COVID-19

Source: Kolba Lab 

Within the EU-funded “Future Today: Empowering women, youth and children for deepening democracy in Armenia” project UNDP Armenia’s Kolba Lab opens a special call for proposals aimed to support civil society organizations, making them more resilient against shocks and crisis. The project has envisaged support for proposals suggesting solutions and innovative models towards collaborative action on the national and municipal level, citizen participation schemes, new oversight and monitoring mechanisms and peer-to-peer support actions, responding to the emerging challenges of 2020. The call is aligned with the ongoing ADB/OGP global initiative to ensure government accountability and responsiveness during COVID-19 and the new regional “EU for Integrity Action for the Eastern Partnership” initiative, which includes support to OGP in enhancing EaP government and civil society dialogue on accountability and transparency reforms.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The call is open to registered CSOs, and informal Initiative Groups in Armenia while preference will be given to CSOs and consortia with Tech Sector companies. The selected proposals will receive potential funding of up to USD 30,000 for pilots in Armenia to be implemented over a period of maximum 12 months. Up to 5 projects will be funded through current Call.

The deadline for submissions is December 10, 2020. The applications should be submitted online through the following form.

BACKGROUND

On December 31, 2019, a new type of viral infection, COVID-19, was registered in China. In a short period of time the virus spread throughout the world and COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by WHO on March 2020, affecting close to all countries in the world. In Armenia, over 139.000 cases have been registered so far, out of which over 2277 fatalities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led  almost to a collapse in many known systems, both in public governance and in the private sector. It is already evident that the outbreak will have significant impacts on all aspects of livelihoods of Armenians – in the short, medium and long-run, and that it is deepening existing vulnerabilities. Considering the potential negative impact of the COVID-19, RA Government launched and implemented over 22 support actions to address the economic and social impact of the disease.

The uncertainty and liability of the situation causes serious threats to the role and perception of civil society organizations. In many domains CSO activities were limited to humanitarian support and short-term response actions, compromising the core mission of civic leadership and brokerage between the policy makers and the citizenry. In order to nudge new strategic partnerships between the public administration and civic actors and to encourage a collaborative effort towards common challenges,  Future Today is launching a new call for proposals among CSOs and active groups.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CALL

The second wave of the COVID-19 is currently raging and the pandemic continues to threaten lives and livelihoods throughout Armenia.  Local civil society organizations have been vocal and active in providing humanitarian response, engaging with international organizations and coordinating community-level peer-to-peer actions.

Current call aims to support civil society organizations to engage in more structured partnerships on local level with multiple actors, including public administration bodies, private sector and active groups.  Sustainable engagement models, innovative monitoring and oversight mechanisms, new public-private partnerships, community-based participatory schemes are among those mechanisms expected to be created through this call.

PRIORITY THEMES

• Tools and applications that enable direct participation of citizens in municipal and national governance;
• Models and platforms that enable collaborative action between multiple stakeholders and better alignment with national and local strategies;
• Tools or applications that provide easy-to-understand and accessible information to target beneficiary groups (individuals, specific communities, or businesses including small and medium enterprises) on specific assistance or relief provisions (eligibility criteria and process for assistance);
• Tools or applications that create mechanisms for targeted beneficiaries to provide feedback on government assistance and programs;
• Tools or applications which expand the reach and accessibility of underserved and/or marginalized populations to government programs, including but not limited to youth, women, the disabled, etc;
• Tools or applications that allow CSOs to track budgets, disbursements and expenditures on COVID-19 related stimulus measures, safety net packages, public procurement, or sectoral budgets, expenditures, and spending.

PROJECT ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:

• The challenge will be open to CSOs and Active Groups in Armenia.
• All entries must focus on solutions that can be implemented in Armenia.
• Demonstration of synergies and partnerships with local and national government, alignment with existing strategic documents is an asset.
• Applicants submitting original work that has not been previously submitted to other support schemes will be preferred. Prior experience with the targeted group is an advantage.
• Fund will be disbursed based on UNDP Innovation Grants scheme.

THE PROJECT SELECTION PROCESS:

Submission

• All entries must be submitted on or before December 10, 2020 with a deadline set at 17:00. Applications must be submitted through the following form. The following content must be provided:
• Team Profile: Please submit the following information: team name, assigned team leader and the names of all team members alongside a short bio of each member of the team (100 words only per team member).
• Application Form: Answers need to clearly articulate how the proposed solution addresses the core problem statement of the challenge. It should include the proposed model, its functionalities and features, the underlying process, where relevant, the data required to make the solution work, and the feasibility of taking the proposed solution from idea to implementation. It should include information on the technical capacity of the team to advance the further development of the solution.

Evaluation

All submissions will be evaluated and up to 8 will be shortlisted for further due diligence. The winners will be notified by December 15, 2020 at 18:00. The selected solutions will receive potential funding of up to USD 30,000 for pilots in Armenia to be implemented within 12 months.

ALL PROPOSALS WILL BE JUDGED BASED ON THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA:

• Relevance of the solution to a clearly defined challenge and the rationale of the suggested solution – 30%
• Operational and technical feasibility, scalability, and sustainability of the project – 25%
• Innovation – 25%
• Qualification, capacity, and experience of the organization/team  in working with the groups or type of expense to be targeted 20%

If any questions, please contact to UNDP/Kolba Lab Task Lead Hovhannes Yeritsyan via email [email protected] email address.

***

This initiative was created with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of UNDP Armenia and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.