The European Commission has announced a call for proposals to empower civil society to play a stronger role in regional dialogues, policies and initiatives, through setting up or reinforcing existing networks and alliances at regional level in the South Western Indian Ocean (focusing mainly on Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles).

Objectives of the Programme and Priority Issues

The specific objectives are to develop their joint capacity to:

Become recognised stakeholders in regional dialogues with public authorities, the private sector, international organizations etc, facilitating citizen participation in governance processes to promote transparency, inclusivity and accountability in one or more of the four priority areas mentioned hereunder;

Strengthen the impact of their actions in one or more of the priority areas of mentioned hereunder, by developing multi-country or regional synergies, through networks and alliances.

The four priority areas to be targeted in the region are:

• Addressing the vulnerabilities of children, youth, and women;
• Promoting democratic governance;
• Advancing inclusive green growth and sustainable development;
• Strengthening entrepreneurship for economic empowerment of disadvantaged groups

CSOs from Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles are the main actors eligible for this Call, but the networks and alliances to be set up and strengthened can also include other countries in the East and Southern African region as well as member states of the European Union, as long as the proposed actions focus mainly on the above mentioned four countries.

Crosscutting Issues

To promote effectiveness of the action, it is important that the latter adequately mainstream following crosscutting issues where relevant:

• Environmental integration: taking into account the environmental impacts of the activities that they will implement, ensuring the “do no harm” principle.
• Gender action: promoting gender sensitive approaches, as well as gender equality, empowerment and equal opportunities as recommended in the EU Gender Action Plan III.
• Digitalization: tapping the potential of digitalization in the priority areas of this call.

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 1,500,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.

Size of grants

• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
• minimum amount: EUR 300,000
• maximum amount: EUR 750,000

Duration

• The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 24 months nor exceed 48 months.

Challenges

The main challenges faced by each of the four eligible countries under the priority areas of the Call for Proposal are presented below. However, this information is indicative; applicants should not necessarily restrict their proposals to these specific challenges.

• Mauritius (including Rodrigues Island)
• Key challenges faced by children, young people and women include:
• Gender based violence and harassment;
• Teenage pregnancy and other reproductive health issues;
• Gender inequality on the labour market and at the workplace;
• Trafficking and exploitation of women and young migrants.
• Key challenges in the area of democratic governance include:
• Freedom of information and media freedom;
• Protection of whistleblowers;
• Citizens’ participation in public decisions and fight against corruption;
• Transparency and integrity in financial governance, public perception of police practices.
• Key challenges in the area of green growth and sustainable development include:
• Sustainable land management and land use planning;
• Integrated coastal zone management;
• Adoption of circularity principles in the enterprises and value chains and awareness on sustainable consumption;
• Waste prevention, recycling and management.
• Key challenges in the area of entrepreneurship for economic empowerment of disadvantaged groups include:
• Access to finance and more demanding markets;
• Business management skills;
• Knowledge and skills on quality and sustainability management of production processes;
• Compliance with regulatory and fiscal requirements.
• Madagascar 
• Key challenges faced by children, young people and women include:
• Chronic malnutrition,
• Access to drinking water and sanitation in rural areas;
• Neonatal mortality;
• Completion of primary school and generalization of preprimary education.
• Key challenges in the area of democratic governance include:
• Corruption, accountability and transparency;
• Integrity and transparency of financial governance;
• capacity for the management of public resources;
• Economic and social inequalities in access to public services (notably health, education and others).
• Key challenges in advancing inclusive growth and sustainable development include:
• Environmental ethics and corruption also among businesses;
• Degradation of forests and soils;
• Biodiversity loss;
• Unsustainable waste management and insufficient waste prevention and recycling.
• Key challenges in strengthening entrepreneurship for economic empowerment of disadvantaged groups include:
• Skills for a qualified workforce, especially for green jobs;
• Access green financing for green entrepreneurial initiatives;
• Difficulty to export green products.

Seychelles

Key challenges faced by children, young people and women include:

• Mismatch between the requirement of the labour market and the skills of youth;
• High prevalence of substance abuse;
• Persisting gender-based violence and violence against children;
• Teenage pregnancy.
• Key challenges in the area of democratic governance include:
• Financial governance, including corruption;
• Accountability of public authorities;
• Implementation of a human rights-based approach;
• Participation of citizens in public decisions.
• Key challenges in advancing inclusive growth and sustainable development:
• Resilience to the impacts of climate change, notably extreme weather events and sea level rise and ocean acidification;
• Nature based solutions for adaptation to climate change;
• Capacity to manage large marine resources and protect marine ecosystems;
• Adoption of circularity principles in the enterprises and value chains and awareness on sustainable consumption.
• Key challenges in strengthening entrepreneurship for economic empowerment of disadvantaged groups:
• Compliance with regulatory framework and access to information governing the business environment;
• Financial literacy and access to funds;
• Business management skills;
• Knowledge and skills on quality and sustainability management of production processes.
• Comoros 
• Key challenges faced by children, young people and women include:
• Socio economic vulnerability to external shocks, notably as regards child malnutrition and access to health and education services;
• Integration of youth into society and the labour market;
• Social, economic, legal and political conditions for women empowerment;
• Violence against women and children.
• Key challenges in the area of green growth and sustainable development:
• Unsustainable exploitation of terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems strongly affected by pressures linked to erosion, various pollutions and overfishing, leading to exacerbated environmental degradation.
• Resilience to climate change, including acute exposure to natural hazards and exacerbated environmental degradation;
• Waste prevention and management;
• Integration of digital tools for the management of natural resources and Green Deal related initiatives.
• Key Challenges in strengthening entrepreneurship for economic empowermentt of disadvantaged groups:
• Lack of vocational training for green jobs;
• Difficulty to access green financing;
• Lack of support to promote businesses competitiveness and business climate;
• Constraints face by diaspora for productive investment.

Location

• Actions must take place in at least 3 of the main eligible countries for this Call for Proposal (Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles).
• The networks and alliances to be strengthened can also include other countries in the Eastern and Southern African region as well as member states of the European Union, as long as the proposed actions focus mainly on the above-mentioned four countries.

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant

In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:

• be a legal person and
• be non-profit-making and
• Be a nonpublic type of organisation such as an association, a federation, a foundation, a cooperative, a trade union, a media organization, NGO, etc, having successfully implemented at least two projects in the relevant priority areas, in one or more of the 4 main countries for this Call and
• be established in a Member State of the European Union or in any of the four main eligible countries and
• be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.

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.
• Co-applicants must sign the mandate form.
• If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator).

Affiliated entities

• 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 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.

Source: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/online-services/#/