The Southern African Community (SADC) Secretariat has launched a call for proposals for the Intergrated Institutional Capacity Building (IICB) Programme Strengthening Engagement and Cooperation with Civil Society Organisations.

Objectives and Priority Issues

The global objective of this call for proposals is to contribute towards strengthening engagement and cooperation with regional civil society organisations in the implementation of the SADC regional integration agenda.

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

• Strengthen civil society/non-state actors’ capacities to engage with the SADC Secretariat and contribute to the definition and implementation of the regional integration agenda;
• Develop and disseminate information and messages designed to enhance the visibility of SADC and the benefits of regional integration.

In this Action, the SADC Secretariat recognizes the importance of civil society organisations in the process of championing the regional integration agenda. However, noting capacity and resource limitations, this Action seeks to deepen engagement and cooperation with regional level civil society organisations in communicating benefits of regional integration being driven by SADC.

The priority issues of this call are:

• Strengthen regional civil society platforms’ capacities to engage with the SADC Secretariat
• Capacity building support to civil society through regional platforms.
• Development of robust and innovative awareness raising strategies at both regional and national levels aimed at communicating the benefits of SADC and regional integration.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is USD 460,000. The Contracting Authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
• Each pilot project/action will be between USD 200.000 and USD 460.000. This amount will depend on the nature and scale of the proposal

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 established in a one or more than one SADC Member State and/or
• be established in a) an ACP State; b) a Member State of the European Union; c) beneficiaries of the Instrument for pre-accession assistance; d) a Member State of the European Economic Area; e) Overseas Countries and Territories; f) developing countries and territories, as included in the OECD-DAC list of ODA Recipients, which are not members of the G20 group, without prejudice to the status of the Republic of South Africa1 (See footnote), as governed by Protocol 3 of the Partnership Agreement; and be a legal person with experience in undertaking research and innovation activities in the SADC region; and
• be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action.

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/herself.
• Co-applicants must sign the mandate form.

Affiliated entity(ies)

• 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 (i.e. the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
  • This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
    • Control 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 a e.g. 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.

For more information, visit SADC Secretariat.