Contest "Development of the public component of the initiative"Eastern Partnership"

The "East-East: partnership without borders" program and the European Program for the International Fund "Revival" re-announce the contest "Development of public initiatives component of the "Eastern Partnership" initiative.

The International Fund "Revival" is convinced that the civil society in the Eastern Partnership countries is  a full-fledged participant of the initiative along with the governments of the countries involved and the EU-institutions. Moreover, it is thanks to the joint efforts of the civil society in these countries that it can potentially overcome the lack of political will for the reforms that can be observed in most countries of the region.
The objective of the contest is to increase the engagement of the civil society into the "Eastern Partnership" initiative, to fill the activity of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership with a meaningful content, to put all the efforts of the public together to promote the reforms according with the European standards and to promote the European integration into Eastern Europe.

Participants of the contest are public organizations of Ukraine.

It is obbligatory to engage into to the project at least two partner countries of the "Eastern Partnership" initiative (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova). Additional engagement of representatives of EU-member states, the Russian Federation and Turkey (if necessary) is also encouraged. Additional advantage will be cooperation with Ukrainian National Platform of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership.  

Thematic priorities:

• fulfillment by the partner countries of the Eastern Partnership initiative of commitments, emanating from their membership of the Council of Europe and participation in its conventions;

• promoting reforms on the agenda of the Eastern Partnership countries (for example, judicial, pension, tax, administrative and territorial reform, educational reform, health, milice (police) reform, reforms in the economy and other spheres);

• good governance and public participation in policy-making, anti-corruption policy, constitutional and electoral laws;

• solutions to regional conflicts, in particular, confidence-building measures;

• visa and migration issues;
  

• free trade zone, state aid and public procurement;
  
  
• development and implementation of national transport policies;
  
  
• transparency of energy policy;
  
  
• environment, climate change and making the economy more “green“;
  
  
• the Bologna Process and European standards in education sphere, recognition of non-formal education;

• cross-border cooperation;
  
  
• evaluating the effectiveness of EU aid (ENPI);
  
  
• implementation of other priority agenda of the Association (Action plans) with the EU;
  
  
• implementation the recommendations of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership;

• implementation of other priorities of the four multilateral platforms of the Eastern Partnership.

Mandatory requirements for project proposals:

• Joint activities with foreign partners (exchange of experience of successful public advocacy and monitoring of reforms, joint activities for mutual awareness with European platforms), in particular, within the framework of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership and its constituents (Working groups and National platforms);

• Clearly defined problem (one of the thematic priorities of the Eastern Partnership). Project proposals dedicated to the Eastern Partnership as a whole, without specifying the subject matter will not be supported;

• Projects should be planned jointly with foreign partners as long-term strategic initiatives. Disposable measures will not be supported;

• At the time of submission of project proposals Ukrainian public organization should have an agreement with foreign partners, this fact must be documented;

• Clear plan of the project implementation and list of persons engaged, with their activities‘ description in the framework of the project;

• Clear pattern for disseminating results and drawing attention to them in the partner countries and in the official structures of the "Eastern Partnership" initiative;

• The budget of the project proposal should include coverage of costs for organization and holding events in Ukraine (including the arrival of foreign participants in the Ukraine), travel costs of Ukrainian project participants through Ukraine, dissemination of the results (publications), moderate remuneration of labour of participants from the Ukrainian party;

Activities and events of the contest that will take place abroad will not be remunerated (costs for travelling of the Ukrainian participants and foreign partners in other countries, except Ukraine). If additional project activities are planned abroad, the relevant foreign partners of the project should be separately submitted project proposal as to the standard procedure of the "East-East: partnership without borders" program.

Criteria for selecting the winners:

• Rationale of the relevance of the topic of the project for the countries involved;

• Organizational and expert organization's ability for the project implementation;

• The broad range of foreign partners, their organizational capacity and expertise;

• Proper representation and application of results;

• Rationale of the plan of project activities and budget.

Upper limit size of the expected sum of the grant from the fund - 120 000 ucrainian hryven.

The budget of the competition is open. Deadline for the proposals submition the 10th of October, 2011.

Results of project proposals examination will be announced no later than on the 28th of November 2011.

Take note!

• Only project proposals processed as according to the application form for this contest will participate in the contest;

• Into the text of the project proposal should be included:

- Short summary on the applicant and on each of partners: the organization mission; description of the experience according to the project, rationale for selecting these partners;

- Letters from partner organizations in cooperation within the project;

- List of all the members of the organization and external experts involved in the project, their CVs (to indicate their functions in the project);

- Program of all the international activities that are planned in the framework of the project activities at the expence of the Fund;

- Plan of informing of the public about the project and its results;

- Samples of press-releases and media coverage of events that the organization hold before;

• The project proposal with all the attachments must be submitted in the Ukrainian language in 3 copies (one original and two copies), it is always mandatory to submit it in electronic form (all the applications should be sent as one separate file in addition to the text file with the project proposal) - to the e-mail address: ep@irf.kiev.ua and kukharenko@irf.kiev.ua;
  
  
• If the project will be approved by the Council of Board of the Fund (the first stage of the review of the project), it is necessary to send the English translation of the project to the e-mail address: kukharenko@irf.kiev.ua for the project proposals examination at the international level;
  

• The Fund officially acknowledges submition of project proposals by a letter, which is send directly to  applicants within 7 days of receipt of the correspondence. Applicants will be notified of the results of project proposals examination in written form;

• The materials submitted to the contest are not returned or reviewed;

• The final decision on the project proposal can not be revised;

• The reasons given for denial of project proposal support are not disclosed;

• The Fund does not support political parties, religious communities and individuals.

Project proposals should be sent by e-mail or brought to address:

04053, Kiev, International fund "Revival", ul. Artema, 46,
Contest "Development of the public component of the initiative "Eastern Partnership".            

Also, the project proposals should be sent by e-mail address: ep@irf.kiev.uan and kukharenko@irf.kiev.ua (providing an electronic version of the project is a mandatory requirement for its consideration.)

Contacts:

Dmitry Shulga, European Program: shulga@irf.kiev.ua

Tatiana Kukharenko, "East-East: Partnership without Borders": kukharenko@irf.kiev.ua 

04053, Behterevsky per. 13-A

Tel. (044) 461-95-00

Fax: (044) 486-01-66


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The objective of the program "East-East: Partnership without Borders" is developping the cooperation between representatives of the international community to address social and socio-economic problems in the transition period after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialistic system.

The objective of the European program is promoting the European integration of Ukraine by providing financial and expert support to community initiatives.

Source: International Fund "Revival"