Priorities and activities to be co-financed
1. Priorities
1.1 Prevention of gender-based violence (GBV): The focus of this priority is on primary prevention, in particular changing social norms and behaviour, in order to end tolerance of all forms of gender-based violence. This includes concrete and practical activities to tackle prejudices and gender stereotypes, norms, attitudes and behaviours that encourage, condone or minimise violence, as well as to arm women and men with the tools to call out and stand up to violence through empowerment and bystander intervention programmes. Actions could include, but are not limited to education and training. Any form of gender-based violence can be covered under this priority, including specific forms, such as harmful practices. Proposals must explain which social norms, attitudes and behaviours they aim to address, and how, and justify how activities, encouraging or discouraging these attitudes and behaviours, will contribute directly to the prevention of gender-based violence.
(Indicative amount: € 2 900 000)
1.2 Protection and support for victims and witnesses of domestic violence, including through tackling under-reporting, promoting multi-disciplinary cooperation, and capacity building for relevant professionals. This involves the strengthening of child-centred and/or gender-specific responses to domestic violence (including child victims/witnesses of domestic violence), through capacity-building and multi-disciplinary strengthened cooperation and coordination among relevant actors, such as child protection and law enforcement professionals. Projects involving organisations and authorities working directly with the relevant target groups, with an empowerment/child participation focus, will be welcome. Projects that seek to address known gaps in protection and support for victims and witnesses of domestic violence (e.g. such as where responses/shelters/activities/therapeutic services may not cater to children of all ages, exclude older children, innovative approaches to empower victims, etc.) will be welcome (see example of business start up support for women victims of domestic violence).
This call aims to contribute to the implementation of:
- the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention), particularly Chapters IV and V related to support and protection measures, (including the provisions on child victims/witnesses);
- Directive 2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime.
(Indicative amount: € 2 900 000)
1.3 The coordination and/or adaptation of support services for sexual and gender-based violence to include refugees and migrants (children, women, LGBTI persons, men and boys),in particular to ensure their recovery from such trauma. The aim is not to create new, separate or parallel services but to adapt existing services in an inclusive manner. This call will not fund operating or running costs, but is intended to build capacity and adapt frameworks to include people in migration, for example where outreach to new facilities and structures are needed or where the involvement of cultural/health mediators/interpreters could help.
(Indicative amount: € 2 400 000)
1.4 Prevention and responding to cyber sexual- and gender-based violence (targeting children, women, LGBTI persons, men and boys), such as revenge porn, extortion with the use of sexual imagery ("sextortion"), sexual or gendered online harassment/bullying, grooming, etc. This involves capacity-building for relevant professionals, awareness-raising with the general public, education and empowerment for (potential) victims in claiming their rights, as well as tackling prejudices and gender stereotypes and norms that encourage or condone violence.
(Indicative amount: € 2 400 000)
1.5 Promoting the embedding of child safeguarding policies across different settings and sectors, such as sports clubs and organisations, extra-curricular activities and/or leisure/recreation clubs/organisations for children (including faith/church-led; scouts and girl guides, private schools), both as a means to protect and safeguard children as well as to equip staff with the necessary training and guidance. This covers activities such as the adoption and formalisation of appropriate child safeguarding and child protection policies, protocols and frameworks, capacity-building of professionals on child protection, and awareness-raising of existing standards, in line with the standards of the "Keeping Children Safe - Child Safeguarding Standards and how to implement them" guidance. Activities could also include practical application of Keeping Children Safe standards to specific settings.
(Indicative amount: € 2 700 000)
2. Description of the activities
Project activities may include:
For all priorities:
Given the challenges and known gaps in national as well as transnational cooperation and coordination, all proposals submitted under call priorities, 2, 3 and 5, should describe how their project wouldenhance interagency and multidisciplinary cooperation and collaboration, both at national and at transnational levels (e.g. in planning for dealing with cases with cross-border aspects), including across governmental departments, to ensure the closer involvement of relevant authorities, in cooperation with other actors (e.g. civil society, academia, practitioners, etc.).
For priority 5, we recommend the Keeping Children Safe standards. There is also a self-audit tool on the Keeping Children Safe website. Bearing in mind that for any allegations of child sexual abuse or exploitation, law enforcement should be involved, we would expect to see a good range of relevant stakeholders involved, including those to whom reporting would take place (e.g. child protection authorities/police/child helplines/implementation of vetting checks prior to recruitment; consultation of the European Criminal Records Information System). The starting point(s) and the rationale for project choices must be clearly described.
For priorities 1, 2, 3 and 4, projects are welcome to focus on specific forms of violence or particular groups of victims, e.g. child-centred, or services for women or for men. Proposals should include justification for these choices, which will be assessed under the award criterion ‘a) relevance’.
This call does not aim to fund projects in the areas of:
The following types of activities will not be funded by the Commission:
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Applicants are invited to take note of previously funded projects.[1] The continuation or follow-up of successful initiatives, including the scaling-up of existing initiatives and/or testing them in a different context, may be funded if it is aligned with one of the priorities. However, the exact duplication of an initiative will not be funded.
Applicants shall explain and demonstrate how their proposals are aligned with the respective EU policies and with the documents published by the European Commission or referred to below (see bibliography). The degree of relevance to the priorities of the call for proposals will be assessed under the award criterion ‘a) relevance’.
For projects in the area of violence against children, projects must take a child rights-based approach and be clearly grounded in the EU Charter of Fundamental rights and the UN Convention on the rights of the child (UNCRC).[2] Applicants are required to include clear and explicit references to EU and international law and standards they will adhere to and/or be guided by in project design, implementation, evaluation and monitoring and explain the project rationale.
This call aims to fund targeted, practical projects ensuring maximum tangible and demonstrable benefits and impacts on the lives of beneficiaries. Research activities are not excluded, but the accent is put on the practical side and projects should include a combination of elements to form a coherent whole. While the projects should build on evidence of what works (e.g., from previous available research), they should have an applied nature and lead to practical applications. We expect the project components to form a coherent whole clearly linked to objectives and better outcomes for end beneficiaries (e.g. if you will apply child safeguarding standards to a specific setting, we also want to see that those working in the setting are involved and will take ownership of and implement the standards. All projects should not only develop a sound methodology using recognised existing good practice or tried and tested intervention models but consist of a large proportion of practical implementation measures and outcomes. These aspects will be taken into account when evaluating the quality of proposals. Applicants are invited to consider the weighting of the work streams, with a view to ensuring maximum practical benefits, positive outcomes and impacts for the target groups and the final beneficiaries, and to check that the management and coordination work streams (including travel) are not over-resourced. All applications should describe how access to the selected target group(s) will be assured, considering, where appropriate, whether it is useful to ground activities to a place/geographical space also, e.g. school, workplace, kindergarten, museums, city, etc. Activities such as the development of materials, the mapping of existing materials or research should be, at most, minor components of project proposals. If included, the need should be solidly justified in the proposal; they should lead to practical applications and interventions.
For all priorities, applicants are encouraged – wherever possible – to apply insights and practical tools from behavioural sciences in their projects,[3] in view of achieving changes in attitudes and behaviour. Below is a step-by-step approach to guide applicants in the incorporation of behavioural insights in their projects. For illustrative purposes, the examples below refer to gender-based violence, though the same reasoning could apply to other issues.
1) First, applicants should provide a clear description of the issue that will be tackled by the proposed action. If we consider gender-based violence, the description should specify the type(s) of violence (for example physical, emotional), its characteristics (for example prevalence, severity) and the concrete context(s) (for example university, workplace, household) that will be covered by the proposed action. Additionally, the objective(s) of the action should be clearly defined. These should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely (SMART) and should be set ahead of the action.
2) Second, the proposed action should identify the underlying determinants (also called behavioural causes) [Further details can be found in Section 3 'Understanding the causes of target behaviour' Sara Rafael Almeida, Joana Sousa Lourenço, Dessart François Jacques, and Emanuele Ciriolo. Insights from behavioural sciences to prevent and combat violence against women. Literature review (2016) pp. 8-13 https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/insights-behavioural-sciences-prevent-and-combat-violence-against-women-literature-review] of the issue at stake. This could be, for example, passive stance of bystanders, low reporting of violence by victims. As the issues identified under point 1 likely have multiple underlying determinants, the proposed action could focus on several of these, or on only one. Each of the different underlying determinants the projects aims to tackle should be clearly indicated in the proposal.
3) Third, the proposed action should encourage a specific target group(s) to perform target behaviour(s) [Further details on potential target groups, subgroups and behaviours to be targeted by actions can be found in Section 2 'Identifying the target group and target behaviour' Sara Rafael Almeida, Joana Sousa Lourenço, Dessart François Jacques, and Emanuele Ciriolo. Insights from behavioural sciences to prevent and combat violence against women. Literature review (2016) pp. 7-8 https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/insights-behavioural-sciences-prevent-and-combat-violence-against-women-literature-review] or discourage them from doing so. Actions may aim, for instance, at encouraging victims of violence to report the incidences of violence to the relevant authorities and/or to seek help in dedicated shelters; aim at changing ways of working of professionals to make it easier to report incidences of violence; aim at motivating journalists to avoid stereotypes by changing the way they report on and portray violence against women; or aim at changing men's perception of traditional gender roles, which support the acceptability of violence against women, etc.
4) Fourth, once the target group(s), the underlying determinants and the target behaviour are identified, applicants should describe the solutions [Further details on behavioural solutions can be found in Section 4.3.1. 'Content of the message: behavioural levers' Sara Rafael Almeida, Joana Sousa Lourenço, Dessart François Jacques, and Emanuele Ciriolo. Insights from behavioural sciences to prevent and combat violence against women. Literature review (2016) pp. 16-25 https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/insights-behavioural-sciences-prevent-and-combat-violence-against-women-literature-review] (also called behavioural levers) that will be implemented. For example, if the proposed action aims at reducing the social acceptance of gender-based violence, the project could focus on changing social norms (ifor example, signalling the appropriate behaviour by comparing an individual’s conduct with that of the majority of his /her peers/neighbours/friends), or make use of so-called "commitment devices" (convincing the target group to make a public pledge to carry out a certain behaviour/ support the target group in developing a specific plan to achieve a certain goal) as part of the intervention.
5) Fifth, the proposed action should specify the outcome that the proposed solution aims at generating and how the outcome(s) will be measured. Outcomes refer to impact, change in attitudes or behavioural change resulting from the action, and should not be confused with project outputs (e.g. number of leaflets published, number of people reached). If possible, projects should propose a measurable objective, compared to a baseline. For example, if the goal is to increase reporting of violence, a valuable outcome measure would be the number of cases reported to the police following the implementation of the project. If the goal is to change attitudes of a certain group of professionals, projects should not only measure how many attended training, but also ask them about their attitudes before and after the training. All interventions should include collection of relevant data, to be able to compare the situation before and after the project.
6) Sixth, to find out whether the proposed actions will have the desired effects, ideally the project should include a phase of pre-testing the solutions before implementing them in full-scale [Further details on qualitative and quantitative pretesting methods can be found in Section 5 'Pretesting the initiative' Sara Rafael Almeida, Joana Sousa Lourenço, Dessart François Jacques, and Emanuele Ciriolo. Insights from behavioural sciences to prevent and combat violence against women. Literature review (2016) pp. 25-28 https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/insights-behavioural-sciences-prevent-and-combat-violence-against-women-literature-review].Such ex-ante assessment of the expected effect of the intervention will provide valuable insights on whether the proposed action has the intended effects and helps to ensure that, once fully deployed, the action focus is on what works. One possibility would be to use a randomised controlled trial..[In case quantitative pretesting using a randomised controlled trial (RCT) is carried out, this phase includes the identification of the most feasible randomisation unit (i.e., individual or group). For example, the initiative could be delivered in all universities of Region A (the treatment group), keeping the curriculum of universities of Region B (the control group) unchanged (randomisation at the group level). The inclusion of a control group and the use of randomisation allow the comparison of the outcome of in Region A against the outcome in Region B, hence determining whether the intervention was effective, all other things being equal. See « Test, Learn, Adapt » (UK BIT, 2012) for more information on this approach.]
7) Seventh, the proposed action should include an evaluation of impact. Such evaluation should be part of the initial project plan, to make sure that the most appropriate evaluation design is used, and to set up valid outcomes measures (together with robust and feasible metrics) that allow the actual impact of the action to be determined. Several evaluation methods can be used such as after-only designs, before-after or pre-post designs, RCTs and field experiments. [Further details on evaluation methods can be found in Section 6 'Evaluating the impact of the initiative' Sara Rafael Almeida, Joana Sousa Lourenço, Dessart François Jacques, and Emanuele Ciriolo. Insights from behavioural sciences to prevent and combat violence against women. Literature review (2016) pp. 28-33 https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/insights-behavioural-sciences-prevent-and-combat-violence-against-women-literature-review].
Any training and/or practical tools should have an overarching objective to make the system work better to improve outcomes for the beneficiaries. This may include development and delivery of new training modules/tools or roll out and delivery of previously tried and tested training modules/tools. Proposals should describe how access to those to be trained will be assured and describe how training/tools will be rolled out in the participating countries. In terms of promoting sustainability, capacity-building should preferably focus on train-the-trainer approaches and may also include tools such as checklists/draft protocols, etc. For transnational projects, any training modules developed should be made available with a view to being replicated or adapted for reuse in other EU Member States. New training modules must be piloted and, if necessary, adapted prior to delivery.
All projects for each of the priorities under this call can be either national or transnational and should be elaborated in close partnership with and/or be led by appropriate key players, such as child protection agencies, police, health services, the judiciary, victim support organisations, helplines, refugee, migrant and asylum seeker services, social workers, etc. Applicants must document that they have the prior commitment of participating key players. Good quality cooperation among partners will be instrumental in making innovative projects successful. Regardless of whether projects are national or transnational in nature, they should aim to produce results that create or contribute to implementation of standards at European level, or that could be transferable to other Member States.
At least one public authority from each participating country must either be involved in the project (as applicant or co-applicant) or by providing substantial support. For projects related to gender-based violence, these public authorities can be national, regional or local Ministries/agencies/equality bodies responsible for gender equality and/or provision of services to victims of violence or perpetrators; police, judicial, health or education authorities etc., as relevant. For projects related to children, these public authorities can be Ministries and/or agencies responsible for children (e.g. child protection agencies and services, national guardianship institutions, Ministries for children, child protection, education, health, social affairs, justice, children's ombudspersons and/or national human rights institutes for children, responsible regional authorities, law enforcement authorities etc). The rationale for the choice must be documented and explained in Part B Project Description and Implementation. In practical terms, it means that if, for instance, a transnational project is submitted by a partnership involving four different eligible countries, at least four public authorities as described above (one per each eligible country) must either be involved in the project as applicant or partner(s) or express in writing their support of the application. In the latter case, this support will be expressed through Annex 5 - Letter from the public authority supporting the application. The requirement will be assessed under the award criterion b) quality.
Mainstreaming
Projects funded under this call shall also seek to promote equality between women and men and the rights of the child. Gender and rights of the child mainstreaming means integrating a gender and rights of the child perspective in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a project, as appropriate. Consequently, when relevant, the applicant shall take the necessary steps to ensure that gender equality and child-related issues are taken into account by paying attention to the situation and particular needs of women and men and of children. It is, for example, essential that projects do not silence, stereotype, stigmatise, lay the blame on or discriminate against women or men. Projects should contribute to empowering women and to ensuring that they achieve their full potential and enjoy the same rights as men.
As has been the case for several years, all proposals relevant to children are expected to respect the child's right to participate and be aligned with Article 24 of the Charter, relevant EU law and the UN Convention on the rights of the child and describe how they will contribute to the implementation of the 10 principles for integrated child protection systems (see bibliography). This year, we expect applicants to take ownership of this requirement and consider and document what every phase of their project means for child participation. The child's right to be heard, and to be involved in all decisions that concern him or her, as set out in UNCRC Article 12 and General Comment No 12, must be an integral part of all project activities. Proposals must make children's involvement central and integral to the project, for example in designing and reviewing responses to reports and actual cases of child victims, in reviewing services, in assessing what needs to be changed at system level, in empowering children to be involved in decisions that affect them and in empowering children and young people to help themselves and other children, on child-sensitive services for sexual and gender-based violence, in consulting children on the rollout and design of child safeguarding policies in a particular setting or type of organisation, on how to make the policy clear for all children, in designing the policy in a child-friendly way, on how to inform parents and other adults, etc. Are there possibilities to involve children in project design prior to submission of proposals? Are the views of children on issues addressed in the call (possibly gathered elsewhere, including through other EU projects – see compilation) reflected in the proposal? Accessible guidance on how to ensure child participation is also contained in the Lundy Model of Participation and the Lundy Voice Model Checklist for Participation, designed by Professor Laura Lundy of Queen's University, Belfast (see bibliography). Child participation aspects will be assessed under the quality criterion.
Projects funded under this call shall also comply with the prohibition of discrimination based on any of the grounds listed in Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the "Charter"), in accordance with and within the limits set by Article 51 of the Charter. Among others the Commission encourages applicants to promote equal employment opportunities for all its staff and team. The beneficiary is encouraged to foster an appropriate mix of people, whatever their ethnic origin, religion, age, gender and ability.
Finally, all projects under this call shall respect and shall be implemented in line with the rights and principles enshrined in the Charter.
Child protection/safeguarding policy
If a project will involve direct contact with children, the beneficiaries of funding (including partners) need to provide their child protection/safeguarding policy, if they work directly with children during the project. Each partner must provide their own child protection policy if they will be working directly with children. However, given the subject matter of these calls, for all projects concerning children, child safeguarding must be central to project design and implementation, and must be addressed. The applicant must describe and submit the child protection/safeguarding policy it will adhere to (see Annex 4 of the Guide for applicants). A child protection policy should include standards that cover four broad areas: (1) policy, (2) people, (3) procedures, and (4) accountability. More information on these areas can be found in "Child safeguarding standards and how to implement them" issued by Keeping Children Safe (see bibliography). The quality of the applicant’s child safeguarding/protection policy will be assessed under award criterion b) quality.
Monitoring and evaluation
Appropriate attention has to be given to developing a robust evidence base and involving reliable monitoring, evaluation and reporting procedures based on recognised methodological approaches, developed by a competent and experienced policy impact evaluator (for further details please refer to "Applying Behavioural Sciences to EU Policy-making", Joint Research Centre Scientific and Policy Report (2013): http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC83284.pdf), in consultation with the relevant project partners. This should include defining the expected impact of the activity in measurable terms and defining a robust methodology and indicators to measure the impact of the activity. For priorities 1, 2, 3 and 4, this should go well beyond simply surveying participants on their appreciation of activities and deliverables, and consider how best to assess how activities and the use of project outputs impact on attitudinal and behavioural changes among the target group(s), e.g. there is lower tolerance of gender-based violence and the target group reports actual intervention or states they are more likely to intervene when witnessing it, or when witnessing a situation that could lead to gender-based violence, victims are more likely to report experiences of violence, the target group uses learned techniques in their daily/working life, etc. Though applicants are free to choose the method for evaluating the impact of the activities, the method should be robust and appropriate, and involve rigorous data collection and monitoring. For priorities 1, 2, 3 and 4, it should provide reliable results on "what works" and "what does not work" (for further details please refer to "Social Experimentation - A methodological guide for policy makers", Written by J-Pal Europe, at the request of Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) – see bibliography. See also Turning the Curve: outcomes-based accountability in the bibliography.
Proposals must make provisions to document the number of persons reached, provide anonymised data disaggregated by sex and by age, and must describe in their grant application how this will be done and how the target group will be reached.
Sustainability of projects and dissemination of results
Applications should also include a clear communication, dissemination and sustainability plan, with measures to maintain and monitor results after the end of funding. Applicants should also describe the potential for scaling up the measure, should the activities produce the expected results. The projects should aim at ensuring their durability and appropriate dissemination, including at the end of funding (by promoting and enabling access to their results to the widest possible audience).
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3. Expected results
4. Bibliography
Behavioural insights and experimentation
Gender equality and violence against women
Policy documents/background information:
Data and reports:
Domestic violence
Violence against children and rights of the child
Child refugees and migrants
Refugees and migrants (men and boys)
Compilation of previously funded projects violence against children/rights of the child
Child safeguarding and information specific to the sport setting
Child participation
Monitoring of outcomes
[1]EU-level projects: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/grants/results/daphne-toolkit/; and http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/files/rights_child/compilation_previously_funded_projects_rights_of_the_child_and_violence_against_children.pdf; and http://ec.europa.eu/justice/grants1/closed-calls/index_en.htm
[2]For projects relevant to children, see child rights approach definition: paragraph 59 of General Comment No 13 of the UN Committee on the rights of the child.
[3]See e.g., "EAST: Four Simple Ways to Apply Behavioural Insights" (BIT, 2014)
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