Call for Grant Applications: Civil Society Monitoring of Public Service Delivery and Public Accountability

Call for Grant Applications: Civil Society Monitoring of Public Service Delivery and Public Accountability

Grants supporting civil society actions to monitor the effectiveness of government resource allocation and public service delivery are being made available under Partners in Empowerment, an EU-funded project led by PASOS (Policy Association for an Open Society), working closely with partners in five Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine).

Partners in Empowerment (PIE) supports projects and organizations working on public accountability and effective policymaking towards sustainable development to foster stronger, interconnected CSOs and CSO leaders in five Eastern Partnership countries and hold governments to account by becoming effective watchdogs engaged in policymaking processes and in leveraging expertise to monitor public service delivery and government decisions.

Grantees will be supported by mentoring from experienced civil society organisations (CSOs) and experts and they will have access to webinars/toolkits on organisational capacity development and watchdog/monitoring methodologies.

Deadline for applications: April 22, 2018
Country coverage: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine

Budget per project: minimum EUR 8,000 up to a maximum of EUR 20,000

Projects per country: maximum three project will be approved from every country

Co-funding: all projects must have 10% co-funding from the applicant which cannot be EU-funds

The project can support an already existing project or be an extension of a previous project.

Project implementation period: May 15 – October 31, 2018

Deadline for reports: November 15, 2018

Language of applications: Applications can be submitted in English or in Russian

CRITERIA

Eligible organisations: Not-for-profit, civil society organisations (CSOs), with particular emphasis on local CSOs with proven ability to implement their projects.

Eligible activities: Actions by CSOs that help to monitor policy making, policy implementation, budget transparency, effectiveness of allocation of public resources in terms of budget allocations, and public service delivery. Initiatives should include strong grassroots engagement and public outreach to enhance public accountability.

The core focus of activities should cover one or more of the following:

monitoring national or local budget preparation and management,
monitoring of public procurement and effective government use of EU financial support, e.g. in connection with Comprehensive Institution Building (CIB) support or Association Agreements or national or local budget expenditure that includes EU support,
monitoring of local government service delivery,
monitoring of public accountability mechanisms, e.g. public controls over conflicts of interest, public participation in budgeting, state agencies/state enterprises/local or regional government, and their observance and implementation of laws and procedures, anti-corruption, transparency or accountability issues,
monitoring and evaluation of implementation of environmental standards.

Expected outputs:

well researched watchdog reports and monitoring
empirical-based arguments and reliable data on government policy and performance
structures in place for CSO – government dialogue on policymaking and public service delivery
coalitions advocating for change
exchange with well established CSO working in watchdog areas similar to the mandate of the applicant
tools, websites, knowledge to monitor public procurement and public service delivery
analytical writings about budget transparency, public service delivery, and accountability of public officials
policy briefs or policy recommendations that reach policymakers and/or are cited by policymakers.

Final beneficiaries: the projects should benefit (1) the public as consumers and beneficiaries of public services and accountable government, policymakers and public officials, and (2) other CSOs and CSO leaders learning through skills transfer.

Project support to grantees: The project partners will provide grantees with expert mentoring. Approved applicants will be supported with:

online mentoring to implement the project;
monitoring and supporting their capacity building,
external evaluation and help to reporting on outcomes,
webinars and watchdog/monitoring toolkits in English or Russian on how to hold governments to account, e.g. public procurement monitoring methodologies.

Budget considerations: Budgets should not include organisational development mentoring, online webinars and attending the project workshop in November. These costs will be provided by the Partners in Empowerment project partners.

About the project and grant scheme: Partners in Empowerment is an extended three-year project supported by the EU’s Neighbourhood Civil Society Facility (European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument) Regional actions. The lead partner is PASOS (Policy Association for an Open Society) – a network of independent think-tanks in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia with experience of subgranting, capacity-building, and international project management.

The project partners are:

PASOS (Policy Association for an Open Society)
Transparency International Anticorruption Center, Armenia
Center for Economic and Social Development (CESD), Azerbaijan
Office for a Democratic Belarus
Transparency International Moldova
Transparency International Ukraine

Grants timeline:

April 22, 2018: deadline for submitting the applications
May 2, 2018: shortlisted (10 per country) and unsuccessful applicants will be informed
May 7, 2018: deadline for shortlisted applicants to submit budget and activity plan
May 11, 2018: applicants will be informed
May 14-18, 2018: contracts with successful applicants will be signed
May 15, 2018: project activities can begin and payments of the first instalment of 80% of the approved budget will be made
May 15 – October 31, 2018: Grant activity period, accompanied by mentoring and webinars tailored to applicants’ needs and activities
October 31, 2018: deadline for project activities and grantee expenditure
November 2018: project workshop (location to be confirmed)
November 15, 2018: deadline for reports
November 15 – 25, 2018: evaluation and payment of the last instalment.

Proposals should be submitted in English or Russian online by midnight CET, April 22, 2018.

For any questions, please contact:

Ianina Spinei

Transparency International –Moldova

office@Transparency.md

Phone (373 22) 20 34 84

Download Call for applications and application form from the links below. Please read the instructions on the front page of application very carefully and do not leave it in the last minute. The application form must be filled in one go, it cannot be saved.

English: http://bit.ly/PIE-ENG

Russian: http://bit.ly/PIE-RUS