EU Aid Volunteers - Deployment - EACEA 04/2018

Deadline: Apr 6, 2018  
CALL EXPIRED

All consortium members acting as sending or hosting organisations for volunteers, must be certified or must have applied for certification no later than 9th of March 2018

Deployment of EU Aid Volunteers, including apprenticeship placements for junior professionals and capacity building / technical assistance for implementing organisations, administrative costs for online-volunteering opportunities

The Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council establishing the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps – EU Aid Volunteers (hereinafter referred to as 'the EU Aid Volunteers' initiative)1 and related legislation2 establish a framework for joint contributions from European volunteers to support and complement humanitarian aid in third countries.

The present call for proposals will provide funding to deploy EU Aid volunteers in support of actions that support and complement the provision of humanitarian aid in third countries, that improve the resilience of vulnerable and disaster affected communities, or in support of actions that aim at linking relief rehabilitation and development (LRRD).

1. OBJECTIVES

The objective of the call is to fund projects involving the selection, preparation and deployment of EU Aid Volunteers to contribute to strengthening the Union's capacity to provide needs-based humanitarian aid aimed at strengthening the capacity and resilience of vulnerable and disaster-affected communities in third countries. It also supports actions aimed at strengthening the capacities of implementing sending and hosting organisations participating / intending to participate in the initiative.

With this call the European Commission and the Education, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agency (hereinafter referred to as "EACEA") expect to achieve the following results:

• To prepare the selection, training and deployment of 250 EU Aid Volunteers in vulnerable and disaster-affected communities in third countries;
• To strengthen the capacities of implementing sending and hosting organisations participating / intending to participate in the initiative;
• To achieve synergies and complementarity with EU-funded operations in humanitarian aid, civil protection, resilience-building and linking relief, rehabilitation and development in the respective countries / region where EU Aid Volunteers are deployed;
• To provide junior EU Aid Volunteers with the possibility to take part in apprenticeship placements of up to 6 months in the EU before deployment;
• To communicate the Union’s humanitarian aid principles and the EU Aid Volunteers initiative in line with the Communication Plan of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.
• To provide opportunities for online volunteering to support or complement project activities.

2. ELIGIBLE BODIES

Before submitting an electronic application, all consortium members acting as sending or hosting organisation for volunteers, including affiliated entities having legal or capital link with certified sending organisations, must be certified or must have applied for certification under the EU Aid Volunteers initiative no later than 4 weeks before the submission deadline of this Call for Proposals, which means submission by 09/03/2018.

More details about the certification mechanism and the application procedure can be found at:

https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/eu-aid-volunteers/funding/certification-mechanism-for-sending- and-hosting-organisations_en

Projects are designed and implemented by transnational partnerships involving at least two certified sending organisations from two different countries and two certified hosting organisations.

3. ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES

Activities supported under this call must include:

•   Deployment of senior and junior EU Aid Volunteers to humanitarian aid projects in the area of disaster risk reduction, preparedness and LRRD in third countries based on identified needs by local communities (including the selection, recruitment and preparation of EU Aid Volunteers)

•   Communication activities in compliance with the Communication Plan of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.

Activities to support the implementation of the main action may include:

•   Apprenticeship placements for junior volunteers in EU sending organisations

•   Online volunteering opportunities, via the EU Aid Volunteers Platform managed by the Commission, to support the actions of the EU Aid Volunteers

•   Capacity building of vulnerable, disaster affected communities and local organisations

•   Capacity building of hosting organisations

•   Technical assistance for sending organisations

Project activities may include:

• - information, communication and public awareness
• - hazard, risk analysis and early warning
• - contingency planning and preparedness for response
• - protection of livelihoods, assets and small scale mitigation works

4. ELIGIBLE IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD

Projects must start on 15 September 2018 with a maximum duration of 24 months.

Within the project duration:

•  Deployment placements of EU Aid Volunteers can range between 1 month as a minimum and 18 months as a maximum. Before being deployed a volunteer must successfully undergo the selection phase. For more details please refer to the selection timeline: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/eu-aid-volunteers/actions/deployment_en
•  Apprenticeship placements prior to deployment (only for junior volunteers) may last a maximum duration of 6 months.

5. ELIGIBLE VENUE OF ACTIVITIES

An indicative list of third countries for 2018 for deployments in third countries has been defined prior to the call according to a needs assessment methodology similar to that for humanitarian aid actions but excluding areas with on-going armed conflict. This list plus details of the methodology can be found under the following link: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/eu-aid-volunteers/funding_en

Volunteers can only be sent to countries indicated on the list at the time of deployment. The list can be modified at any moment due to the events that could endanger the security and safety of volunteers.

Apprenticeship placements prior to deployment (only for junior volunteers) must take place in one of the sending organisations’ offices participating in the project, where possible in a country other than the country of origin of the EU Aid Volunteer.

6. ELIGIBLE CANDIDATE VOLUNTEERS

Sending and hosting organisations shall adhere to the standards and procedures regarding candidate volunteers and EU Aid Volunteers as provided by Regulation (EU) No 375/2014, Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1398/2014 and Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1244/2014.

The following persons having a minimum age of 18 years shall be eligible to apply as candidate volunteers:

• -  citizens of the European Union; and

• -  third country nationals who are long-term residents in a Member State

  Justification for both statuses will be required.

  Candidate volunteers can be:

• -  junior professionals, in particular recent graduates, with less than five years

  professional experience and less than five years experience in humanitarian action; or

• -  senior professionals with five years professional experience in positions of responsibility or expert positions.

Volunteer profiles must be clearly linked to the objectives and the scope of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.

An indicative timeline for the selection phase can be found here:

https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/eu-aid-volunteers/actions/deployment_en

7. AWARD CRITERIA

Eligible applications will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria:

•   Relevance of the project, including the number of volunteers (maximum 30 points)

•   Quality of the project design and implementation (maximum 30 points)

•   Quality and relevance of the partnership and cooperation arrangements (maximum 20 points)

•   Impact and dissemination (maximum 20 points)

PROJECTS SCORING LESS THAN 60 OVERALL POINTS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR FUNDING.

8. BUDGET AVAILABLE

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects is estimated at EUR 8 400 000.

The maximum grant will be EUR 1 400 000. Grant requests below EUR 100 000 will not be considered for funding.

9. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS
Proposals duly completed must be submitted by 12:00 (mid-day, Brussels time) on 6 April 2018.
Applications sent by post, fax or e-mail will not be accepted.

Please note that no more than one project proposal can be submitted by the same applicant under this call for proposals.

10. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Applications must comply with the provisions contained in the application guidelines – Call for proposals EACEA 04/2018, be submitted on the e-Form provided for this purpose and contain the relevant annexes (official templates to be used).

The said documents can be found at the following address:

https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/eu-aid-volunteers/funding_en
In case of questions, please contact: EACEA-EUAID-VOLUNTEERS@ec.europa.eu