EU // Grant program for CSOs from the Centre Development Region, launched by the European Union and implemented by the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance AGER, in partnership with AO ADR Habitat

• Regiunea Centru

The Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance (AO AGER), in partnership with AO “HABITAT”, regional partners of the project “Citizens’ Empowerment in the Republic of Moldova” for the Center region, launched the second Call for project proposals within the European Union Local Grants Program.

The Local Grants Programme aims to empower citizens of the Republic of Moldova through active and constructive participation of civil society organizations (CSOs) and citizens in local and regional decision-making processes on sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) and public service infrastructure, in particular at local level.

Under the second call for project proposals, grants will be awarded to project proposals which include the following activities:

Objective 1: Empowering and involving citizens to monitor infrastructure projects, implemented with European Union funding:

·         Increasing the energy efficiency of the Holercani Theoretical High School, Dubasari rayon;

·         Increasing the energy efficiency of the Alexei Mateevici Theoretical High School from Soldanesti town;

·         Increasing the energy efficiency of the Theoretical High School "Ion Vatamanu" from Straseni municipality;

·         Increasing the energy efficiency of the Mihai Eminescu Theoretical High School, Ungheni municipality;

·         Improving water supply and sanitation services in Ungheni municipality;

·         Improving water supply and sanitation services in Calarasi town. 

The budget allocated for the projects in Lot 1 is 180,000 Euro

Projects submitted under this objective must include at least one of the infrastructure projects listed above.

 Eligible activities under Objective 1:

·         Monitoring activities of the planning and implementation processes of EU investment projects, including procurement procedures carried out within them;

·         Informing citizens (including young people, vulnerable people, other categories) about the results of the monitoring of acquisitions and construction works, carried out within the EU investment projects;

·         Awareness campaigns to increase the number of citizens who benefit from higher quality public services as a result of the implementation of EU investment projects.

·         Information campaigns for citizens and increasing the level of awareness regarding the payment for the public services provided;

Project proposals are supposed to include at least 2 types of activities from those listed above.

Implementation period - up to 7 months.

Objective 2. Empowering and involving citizens to participate in a meaningful way in the monitoring of the procurement processes, management and maintaining public infrastructure and solving critical local problems.

 The amount of financing available for Lot 2 - 190 000 Euro.

  Eligible activities under Objective 2:

·         Activities for capacity building and consolidation of civil society organizations, initiative groups for the mobilization and involvement of citizens in the governance process at local, rayon, and regional level;

·         Activities to involve citizens in monitoring the development and implementation of local and regional public policies in the following areas:

        ·    Water supply and sewerage;

        ·   Waste management;

       ·    Energy efficiency of public buildings;

       ·    Environment and climate change;

·         Participation of citizens in monitoring procedures for procurement, management and maintenance of public infrastructure;

·         Monitoring activities, increasing transparency and accountability of the decision-making process at local level;

·         Activities to facilitate the mobilization of citizens in solving critical local problems as active partners of public authorities;

·         Partnership activities with public service providers for transparency and information of citizens on the structure of tariffs for waste management services and water supply and sewerage services.

·         Activities to monitor the efficiency of the use / redistribution of LPA financial savings in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Implementation period - up to 7 months.

 In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, we recommend that project proposals contain the component of activities / measures designed to reduce the risk of spreading the COVID-19 infection and the impact of the pandemic on people categories, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Types of grants: Within the second call for project proposals, two types of grants will be awarded, taking into account the following conditions:

 Eligible applicants:

 To be eligible, applicants must cumulatively meet the following conditions:

a) to implement the activities in Hincesti, Straseni, Rezina, Soldanesti, Telenesti, Ungheni, Dubasari, Calarasi rayons;

b) to be non-profit (non-commercial) organizations;

c) be able, according to their articles of incorporation, to act in the areas of intervention of the project, according to the purpose and priorities of the local grants program;

d) to be independent of the government and other public authorities, as well as of political parties;

e) to be legal entities registered according to the law;

f) to be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the project, without acting as an intermediary.

Applications submitted by an NGO association / consortium with a clear delimitation between the roles and responsibilities of each NGO are eligible.

Eligibility of projects:

·         All the activities of a project must be carried out in one or more of the localities from Hîncești, Straseni, Rezina, Soldanesti, Telenesti, Ungheni, Dubasari, Calarasi rayons of the Center Development Region. Chisinau is not considered part of the Center Development Region.

·         The theme of the projects must be in line with the objectives and activities of this Program, described above.

·         All projects will comply with the principles of sustainable development, good governance, non-discrimination, gender equality and social inclusion.

·         Project proposals must take into account the needs, but also ensure the empowerment of various social groups (men and women, young people and the elderly, people with disabilities, poor people, ethnic minorities, etc.).

·         The donor reserves the right not to examine incomplete files.

Conditions for participation in the grant competition for CSOs in the Centre Development Region are specified in the Applicant's Guide, available on the Eu4civilsociety.md website.

Application procedure:

In order to participate in the grant competition, the interested organizations will submit the application file on-line, on the page www.eu4civilsociety.md, which must contain the following documents:

1)    Project proposal, Annex 1;

2)    Project budget in MDL, annex 2;

3)    Profile of the organization, Annex 3;

4)    CVs of the implementation team;

5)    Excerpt from the State Register of non-commercial organizations from the Public Services Agency issued in 2020;

6)    Copy of the registered articles of incorporation of the organization;

7)    The financial statements for the last year submitted to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The deadline for submission of project proposals is December 4th , 2020, 18:00.

Sample forms for the project proposal, budget and profile of the organization can be downloaded from the website www.eu4civilsociety.md. Details on the procedure for selecting and submitting the application file, as well as the Frequently Asked Questions section can be found on the website: https://www.eu4civilsociety.md/ro/page/centru.

Contact persons:

Revenco Ala, Project director, ala.revenco@ager.md, phone 079660035

Olga Diaconu, Project coordinator, olga.diaconu@ager.md, phone 068418188

The Local Grants Programme is launched under the Single Support Framework for European Union (EU) support to Moldova (2017-2020) within the European Neighbourhood Instrument  through the Action "Citizens' Empowerment in the Republic of Moldova" (2019 -2021), funded by the European Union and implemented by the German Development Cooperation through GIZ. In the Center Development Region, the project implementation partners are the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance AGER and AO "HABITAT".