Technical Assistance for sending organisations Capacity Building for humanitarian aid of hosting organisations - EACEA/14/2018

Deadline: Jun 1, 2018  
CALL EXPIRED

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.

1. OBJECTIVE

The objective of this call is to contribute to strengthening the Union’s capacity to provide needs-based humanitarian aid and to strengthening the capacity and resilience of vulnerable or disaster-affected communities in third countries, particularly by means of disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction and by enhancing the link between relief, rehabilitation and development. It also seeks to contribute to increasing and improving the capacity of the Union to provide humanitarian aid through enhancing the coherence and consistency of volunteering across Member States in order to improve opportunities for Union citizens to participate in humanitarian aid activities and operations.

Additionally this call seeks to support interested organisations to help them to comply with the standards and procedures regarding candidate volunteers and EU Aid Volunteers in order to apply for certification which is required in order to deploy EU Aid Volunteers.

In this framework, the present call for proposals will provide funding through support for actions aimed at strengthening the capacity of prospective hosting organisations to prepare and respond to humanitarian crises. In addition it will provide support for actions aimed at strengthening the technical capacity of prospective sending organisations to develop or improve their compliance with the standards and procedures required to participate in the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.

With this call, the European Commission expects to achieve the following results:
Capacities of around 115 sending and hosting organisations are strengthened in areas such as:

• Disaster risk management, preparedness and response
• Linking relief, rehabilitation and development (LRRD);
• Strengthening local volunteering in third countries;
• Capacities to undergo certification including administrative capacity;
• Capacity to provide early warning to local communities.

2. ELIGIBLE BODIES

2.1 Technical Assistance for sending organisations

The applicants are sending organisations and projects are designed and implemented by transnational partnerships involving entities from at least three different countries participating in the programme and belonging to one of the categories mentioned in Article 10(3)(c) of the Regulation;

• -  The coordinator in each project must have been active in the field of humanitarian aid as defined in article 3 (d) of the Regulation3 for at least 3 years;

• -  At least the coordinator or one applicant in each project must have been active in the field of volunteer management for at least 3 years.

2.2 Capacity Building for hosting organisations

Projects are designed and implemented by transnational partnerships involving as a minimum, two sending organisations from at least two different countries participating in the programme belonging to one of the categories mentioned in the Regulation (Article 10(3)(c)) and at least two hosting organisations from two different third countries in which humanitarian aid activities and operations as per Article (3)(d) take place and which belong to one of the categories mentioned under Article 10(4)(c).

- In each project, the coordinator and at least one applicant from a country participating in the programme must have been active in the field of humanitarian aid as defined in Article 3(d) of the Regulation for at least 3 years.

• -  In each project, at least one applicant from third countries in which humanitarian aid activities and operations take place is active in the field of humanitarian aid as defined in Article 3(d) of the Regulation.

• -  At least the coordinator or one applicant from a country participating in the programme in each project must have been active in the field of volunteer management for at least 3 years.

In addition to the minimum number of organisations specified above:

• the International Federation of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and international agencies and organisations may be part of the partnership pursuant to Article 10(3)(c)(v) and Article 10(4)(c)(iii) of Regulation No 375/2014.
• other organisations pursuant to Article 10(5) of Regulation No 375/2014.

3. ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES

Applicants are invited to take into account the results of previous EU Aid Volunteers Capacity Building and Technical Assistance projects and activities. In particular, they should not duplicate projects currently or previously financed under the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.

The following types of activities are eligible under this call for proposals: For example:

 Study / scoping visits to refine and finalise needs assessment of the action;  Activities to build / strengthen capacities;
 Training courses for third country trainers/coaches/mentors/ multipliers;
 Seminars and workshops;
 Job shadowing;
 Twinning arrangements and exchange of staff;
 Exchange of knowledge, organisational learning and good practices;
 Studyvisits;
 Activities to foster partnership building;
 Activities to assist organisations in meeting the Core Humanitarian Standards;
 Activities to strengthen regional cooperation;
 Administrative costs for the development of, and managing EU Aid Volunteers online

volunteering opportunities published on the EU Aid Volunteers Platform (https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/echo/eu-aid-volunteers_en/) in support of the project activities.

Additional eligible activities per sub-action:

 Technical Assistance

 Coaching/mentoring of key sending organisation paid staff and volunteers;  Seeking synergies with national volunteering schemes;
 Promoting EUAV volunteering standards in Member States.

 Capacity Building

 Training courses for third country trainers/coaches/mentors/multipliers; 3

Study visits of up to 3 months for key paid staff or volunteers from third countries to be based in EU applicant/partner organisations;

Technical Capacity Building on humanitarian operations focusing on:

•   Needs assessment methodologies/information management;

•   Disaster risk management;

•   Disaster risk reduction/disaster preparedness;

•   Crisis response (and related sectors);

•   Linking relief, rehabilitation and development;

•   Resilience and climate change adaptation.

   

4. ELIGIBLE IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD

Projects for both actions must start on 15th of December 2018 with a minimum duration of 6 months and a maximum duration of 24 months.

Applications for projects scheduled to run for longer periods than that specified in this call for proposals will not be accepted.

5. AWARD CRITERIA

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

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

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

•   Quality 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.

All projects, regardless whether they cover Capacity Building or Technical Assistance will be ranked according to the number of points they reach.

6. BUDGET AVAILABLE

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects is estimated at EUR 7 770 000.

The maximum grant will be EUR 700 000. Each grant will amount to between EUR 100 000 and EUR 700 000.

Grant requests below EUR 100 000 will not be considered for funding. The Agency expects to fund 22 proposals.

The Agency reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available.

7. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS
Proposals duly completed must be submitted by 12:00 (mid-day, Brussels time) on June 1st

2018.
Applications sent by post, fax or e-mail will not be accepted.

Applicants may submit projects for both Technical Assistance and Capacity Building. In this case, applicants shall indicate in their application that they apply for both actions.

8. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Applications must comply with the provisions contained in the application guidelines – Call for proposals EACEA 14/2018, 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