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Capacity-building and advocacy initiatives in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in closed institutions

11 May 2022

The Netherlands Helsinki Committee (NHC) has launched a regional “COVID-19 Solidarity Programme 2020-2022” call with the financial support of the European Union and in partnership with People in Need and AFEW International.

Objectives of the Call

In the past year, CSOs in Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine received funding to carry out activities related to monitoring of closed institutions and to supplying equipment to counter effects of Covid-19 in closed institutions. Overall, it appeared that many of the institutions that were monitored performed insufficiently in terms of meeting the needs of these vulnerable groups in the Covid-19 response. This was due to, for example, insufficient protective equipment, barriers to (in-person) contact with family and psychologists, and greater physical isolation. There were also issues in terms of access to medical care more generally. At the same time, institutions carried out good practices that suggest that an appropriate response was possible, and should be the focus of future crisis management or pandemics/waves of Covid-19. Based on the monitoring results, the next step is capacity building and advocacy initiatives around the main findings and understanding which policies and other decision-making processes may be impacted.

Eligibility

This call for proposals is open to non-profit-making civil society organisations or consortia of non-profit-making civil society organizations with the status of a legal person, established in Armenia, Georgia and Moldova. In case of consortia, the main applicant is responsible for the overall implementation of the action. Public administration institutions, state agencies, local or regional authorities, political parties or organisations affiliated with political parties are not eligible.

Applications should provide evidence of the following:

  • Registration status as a non-profit organisation registered under national legislation
  • Experience with managing budgets of similar size

Application Process

Applicants must submit the following:

  • Annex 1 – Application Form (any language)
  • Annex 2 – Budget
  • Registration certificate of the organisation (if possible original with an English translation)
  • Statute of the organisation (if possible in English)
  • Evidence of track record in similar projects
  • CVs of the project team
  • If the proposal is submitted by a consortium: an outline of the cooperation process and the division of tasks between individual members in the application form

Applications can be submitted in English, Armenian, Georgian or Romanian. All submitted applications must be signed by the head of the applicant organisation, scanned and sent electronically.

The application package should be submitted to: mlaxminarayan@nhc.nl. Deadline for submission of full applications is 5 June 2022. Incomplete or late applications will not be accepted.

More details about the call for proposals (English, Romanian, Armenian, Georgian)

Application Form, Budget and Annexes (English, Romanian, Armenian, Georgian)

This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of the Netherlands Helsinki Committee and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.

Please note that potential applicants are able to send questions prior to completing the application. Please find questions from other applicants below.

  • Is there a maximum ceiling in terms of how different costs may be broken down in terms of percentage?

There are no maximum ceilings, however, the breakdown should be reasonable and proportionate.

  • Do we need to receive permission from organizations that will be involved in the project about their participation before submitting the proposal?

For this part of the project, the main organizations that will be communicated with / involved are advocacy targets. For this reason, prior permission is not required.