European Union (EU) has announced a call for proposals for Delivering for the Future: Strengthening Civil Society Capacities and Resilience in Armenia.

This Call for Proposals will seek to advance civil society and human rights priorities in Armenia with a particular focus on supporting civil society capacities to engage in policy processes, gather evidence, monitor reforms, supporting recovery and resilience, and become trusted partners that deliver to the communities they serve and represent including through more efficient communication practices.

Objectives & Priority Issues

The global objective of this call for proposals is to enhance the capacity and resilience of Armenian civil society organisations to be effective, trusted, sustainable and accountable independent actors that contribute to raising awareness, deepening democracy and supporting the citizens and groups they serve in expressing their needs, identifying solutions to challenges while empowering them to take own actions to improve their situation including those that pertains to active civic engagement, promotion of human rights, access to justice and monitoring the police reform.

The specific objective of this call is to engage and empower communities and CSOs in Armenia, in particular by 

• LOT 1: Capacity building of Armenian Civil Society
  • strengthening CSO management skills and transformational leadership incl. strategic planning, internal democracy/self-governance principles, transparency, sustainability to promote organisational resilience and adaptation to external shocks, to reinforce CSOs as trusted and professional partners with critical thinking capacity to actively detect and fight disinformation; 
  • improving CSO communication, public outreach strategies and transparency/documentation of work to the public and raising the voice of constituencies by exploring, testing and promoting tools and practices of more strategic engagement, collaboration and information management; 
  • supporting CSOs in professionalising volunteering incl. community service and on-the-job-learning based on principles of agreed objectives, mutual respect, dignity, multi-sectoral and quality service provisions, building social resilience and empowering those most at risk; and launching joint advocacy and learning initiatives incl. in an inclusive and empowering manner;
  • supporting CSOs in serving vulnerable populations (e.g. displaced people, people affected by COVID-19 pandemic, economically disadvantaged families, eta s, elderly, people with disabilities, etc.), building trust and mutually beneficial relationships between the CSOs and the affected populations served to enhance dignified and effective service delivery; advocacy and empowerment of the vulnerable groups to voice their needs and seek effective solutions; 
• LOT 2: Civil society voice on and monitoring of justice and police reforms in Armenia
  • support human rights organisations and other civil society actors in joint country-wide monitoring of reporting on human rights issues and the implementation of justice sector and police service reforms; 
  • increase public awareness and national debate to empower citizens and groups to participate in monitoring efforts and to make recommendations that would enhance human rights protection and improve access to justice for citizens; 
  • identify concrete measures and translate these into concrete recommendations on how to further prevent human rights abuses and increase trust in the human rights, justice and police institutions to deliver justice to citizens; particularly against groups in a vulnerable situation, such as children and women at risk; 

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

• LOT 1:
  • promoting strategies for overcoming systemic challenges in the CSOs sector (e.g. civic, space, accountability and transparency, financial sustainability, etc.) ; inspiring new ideas and encourgaing CSOs to think creatively about their work in the long run;
  • use of evidence-based approaches, modern technology and innovative approaches for need-based and targeted capacity-building and strategic support to CSOs;
  • promoting technical skills to foster relationships, trust and collaboration between CSOs, supporting joint actions and peer to peer learning; strengthening regional, Yerevan-based and cross-border CS collaboration; 
  • galvanising interaction between CSOs and citizen/constituents ensuring inclusions and participation of marginalised/vulnerable groups; bringing CSOs and the constituents they serve closer together in amplifying underrepresented voices and addressing priority community issues; 
  • improving strategic communication by CSOs to ensure better flow of information towards stakeholders and citizens and building trust in CSOs and their work.
• LOT 2:
  • capacity-building of a wide-range of established human rights organisations, youth human rights activists and defenders and engagement with faculties of law in such efforts with a view to improve academic teaching material; 
  • development, testing and launching monitoring and reporting systems on and making recommendations on issues related to transparency and accountability of the justice, human rights and police institutions in Armenia; 
  • development of alternative and creative awareness and communication material and campaigns on access to justice incl. teaching materials, with the involvement of the creative sector in Armenia; 
  • collaboration with leading European and international organisations and experts in the area of justice and police reform.

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 2,760,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.

Indicative allocation of funds by lot:

• Lot 1: EUR 2,000,000
• Lot 2: EUR 760,000 

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 non-governmental organisation, and 
• be established in a Member State of the European Union or in any other eligible country as defined in Article 9  and 11 of the CIR and 
• be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affilliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.

Co-applicant(s)

• The lead applicant must act with a minimum of two co-applicants and one of the co-applicants must be established in Armenia. 
• 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 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 co-applicant(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, as defined in Directive 2013/34/EU 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 EuropeAid and download the guidelines.