Հայտերի ընդունում. Խաղաղարարական ծրագրերի դրամաշնորհի հնարավորություն, հունիս 2018

Peacebuilding through Capacity Enhancement

and Civic Engagement (PeaCE)

Eurasia Partnership Foundation in Armenia (EPF-Armenia), Eurasia Partnership Foundation in Azerbaijan (EPF-Azerbaijan) through Caucasus Research Resource Centre in Georgia (CRRC-Georgia), and International Alert (Alert), hereinafter the Partners, announce a Call for Full Proposals under the Peacebuilding Funds Opportunity. The Peacebuilding Funds Opportunity is part of the “Peacebuilding through Capacity Enhancement and Civic Engagement” (PeaCE) programme funded by the European Union under the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP).

Description:

The PeaCE programme aims to re-engage Armenians and Azerbaijanis from geographic areas affected by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in peacebuilding activities, as well as revive the peacebuilding process within and between these societies. The Partners expect that the PeaCE program will facilitate the engagement of interested civil society actors and grassroots in bridging the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict divide. 

The Peacebuilding Funds Opportunity is an instrument that enables individuals and organizations to implement innovative in-country, bilateral or multilateral peacebuilding initiatives that aim at building trust and confidence across the conflict divide. These initiatives should focus on (but not limited to) one or more of the following areas and target groups in random order:

Target groups: 

• Youth
• Women
• Communities living along the conflict divide
• Refugees and IDPs
• Persons with disabilities (as a result of the conflict)
• Ethnic and religious minorities
• War veterans
• Professional categories seeking cross-border exchanges or joint activities (e.g. journalists, writers, education professionals, etc.)

Areas: 

• Education
• Human and leadership capacity building and development
• Civic activism related to peace and conflict transformation
• Human security and management of emergency situations
• Women’s participation in and contribution to peace and stability
• Peacebuilding awareness raising
• Confidence-building (including dealing with the past)
• Dialogue between different social or professional groups
• Policy relevant advocacy and research.

Overall, the Peacebuilding Funds Opportunity comprises two cycles. Under the first cycle that started in summer 2017, the Partners received 99 applications from local and international applicants out of which 10 projects were selected and are currently implemented. The current Call indicates the start of the second cycle of the Peacebuilding Funds Opportunity.

Eligibility of applicants: 

Non-profits (NGOs, foundations), for-profits (e.g. media outlets, small and medium enterprises) and individualsare eligible to apply for funding from the Peacebuilding Funds Opportunity. This includes applicants who participated in the first cycle of the Peacebuilding Funds Opportunity but were not successful. Beneficiaries who already received funding under the first cycle of the Peacebuilding Funds Opportunity are also eligible to apply; however, provided other conditions are equal, the preference will be given to new-comers. 

Preference will be given to local applicants (non-profits, for-profits and individuals) who come from geographic areas affected by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. International applicants will need to prove maximum value added in terms of engaging and empowering local actors. 

Non-profits and for-profits should be able to prove that they have: 

1. Formal registration and availability of a bank account;
2. Sufficient administrative, financial and technical capacity to implement a project;
3. Demonstrable good track record of working with donors in the past.

Individuals should be able to demonstrate a suitable track record, e.g. educational background, professional affiliation(s), engagement in similar initiatives in the past (if at all). NOTE: the Partners expect that individual applicants will propose smaller-scale projects that can be managed by one person, e.g. writing and publishing a book, doing a research, creating multimedia products, etc. In case an individual applicant proposes a larger-scale project involving a team of implementers, he/she must assume responsibility for a proper financial management of the project.

Budget and timeframe: 

From the technical point of view, the Peacebuilding Fund is either a service contract or a grant award to a beneficiary or a group of beneficiaries in the aggregate amount of up to EUR 25,000 to implement an in-country, bilateral, or multilateral project. Please note that cost-efficiency is one of the most important selection criteria; therefore keep your budgets as low as possible. 

The aggregate budget of a project may exceed EUR 25,000 only in exceptional and well-justified cases that fall into one of the following two categories:  

• Several beneficiaries (co-applicants) apply with one and the same (joint) project with each co-applicant taking a responsibility to implement its own part of the joint project based on its own budget. In this case, the aggregate budget (combination of individual budgets of co-applicants) may reasonably exceed EUR 25,000, and the co-applicants should clearly justify the expense distribution among co-applicants in Section 15 (Amount requested) of the Annex 1: Full Proposal Form.

 

• A beneficiary applies with a project that includes other actors located within its own geographic area or across the conflict divide. These actors may have a significant role in the implementation of the project; however, they do not apply with their own budgets, which makes them a partner but not a co-applicant. In this case, the budget of the beneficiary may include allocations for these partners, and may go slightly above EUR 25,000. However, the beneficiary should clearly justify the expense allocation in Section 15 (Amount requested) of the Annex 1: Full Proposal Form.

The implementation period of a project should not exceed 12 months.

Application and selection process: 

Interested applicants should briefly notify the Partners (at [email protected]) about their intention to apply to the Peacebuilding Funds Opportunity before June 18, 2018. This brief notification (one sentence is sufficient) will make it possible for the Partners to build an e-mail list of interested applicants. The Partners will then inform the interested applicants about Information Sessions (to be held in late June 2018) that will explain the technical aspects of the application process, as well as will discuss the eligible areas of engagement, and other relevant matters. Applicants that will not be able to attend Information Sessions will be able to receive an on-line consultation in case they send their question(s) to [email protected].

Applicants are invited to submit their Full Proposals in the requested format (Annex 1: Full Proposal Form) to[email protected] before July 23, 2018.

The language of the Full Proposals can be English or Russian. 

The PeaCE programme’s Evaluation Committee will evaluate the submitted Full Proposals against the following criteria:

1. Relevance of the project to the peacebuilding agenda of the PeaCE programme;
2. Extent to which the project addresses the needs of people and local communities affected by the conflict and/or increases interaction among them;  
3. Extent to which the project focuses on one or more of these target groups and areas indicated above;    
4. Feasibility of the project: soundness of analysis of identified problem(s) and evidence of ability to contribute to solving the problem(s), analysis of beneficiaries, local and external stakeholders, etc.;
5. Extent to which the project provides measurable and realistic long-term results/outcomes, and promises a certain degree of sustainability;
6. Extent to which the project is creative and innovative; 
7. Extent to which the project is cost-efficient; 
8. Extent to which the project provides a relevant mitigation strategy to minimise potential negative effects resulting from the project activities;
9. Formal or informal partnership with counterpart(s) from across the sides of the conflict;
10. Completeness of the application. 

Preference will be given to those proposals that a) engage new actors, i.e. those who have not participated in peacebuilding initiatives in the past, in a capacity of beneficiaries or participants; b) are cross-border, i.e. engage co-applicants and/or partners from the sides of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict; c) are creative and innovative, and promise a certain level of sustainability. 

Based on the evaluation results, the Partners will make a decision on successful applicants to the Peacebuilding Funds Opportunity eligible to receive financial support to implement their in-country, bilateral, or multilateral projects.

In order to ensure that everyone has an equal chance, the Partners established a transparent and objective selection procedure. Unsuccessful applicants will receive a letter that will clearly explain the reasons for which the application was rejected. The letter will also describe an appeal procedure, which includes a written communication or a meeting or phone conversation with the PeaCE programme’s Program Managers and Grants Managers who will provide immediate explanation.

 Pre-award and post-award process: 

The entire process from the time when the funding decision was made to the expected start time of the selected Full Proposals may take about one calendar month. In the course of this month, successful applicants (non-profits and for-profits) will be required to undergo a Pre-award Site Visit. PeaCE programme’s Program Managers and Grants Managers will pay a due diligence visit to interview future key staff in the beneficiary organization, assess organizational capacity and identify risk factors that may impact the ability to implement the project and to be fiscally responsible. Successful individuals will have an Interview with PeaCE programme’s Program Managers and Grants Managers. The award decision may be reverted in case the Pre-award Site Visit or Interview demonstrates that the applicant’s capacity to implement the project is questionable. 

The successful applicants (non-profits, for-profits and individuals) will also need to attend a Funds Management (FM) Seminar, which they will be additionally informed about by the respective Partner. The FM Seminar is a workshop that helps the award recipients (beneficiaries) to understand the Partner’s requirements with regard to the programmatic and financial management of the financial award.

Following the FM Seminar, the beneficiaries will sign an award agreement (either a service contract or a grant award) with a respective Partner.

The Partners expect the selected projects to start in October 2018. The implementation period of these projects should not exceed 12 months.

Throughout the project life cycle, the beneficiaries will submit to the Partners periodic financial and narrative reports. The Partners will make the next disbursement of funds only upon the approval of both the financial and narrative reports. The PeaCE programme’s Program Managers and Grants Managers will conduct occasional site-visits to assure adequate progress in the implementation of the supported projects. Along with other components of the PeaCE programme, the supported projects will undergo external (programmatic) evaluation and (financial) audit. 

 The Partners will assist the beneficiaries with networking, as well as will advise them on the nuances of publicity regarding their engagement in the PeaCE programme. The Partners will also include the beneficiaries into the PeaCE programme’s mailing list to keep them updated on programme-related developments and opportunities, including capacity-building opportunities.

You can download all 4 annexes here:

Annex_1_Full_Proposal

Annex_2_Budget

Annex_3_Declaration_by_Co-applicant

Annex 4_Declaration_by_Partner