It is foreseen that 2 types of sub-grants will be allocated to CSOs and CSO coalitions.
The first type, micro-grants, will be allocated to CSOs to carry out effective monitoring and develop public policies in the target sectors. The second type of grants will be allocated to coalitions of 4 or more CSOs that agree to collaborate on monitoring, policy issues and dialogue with the Government, at the same time trying to ensure the coalitions’ development and sustainability.
Up to 24 small grants (up to 10,000 Euro each) will be available to CSOs to undertake monitoring in the focus sectors. Priority will be given to CSOs that have participated in the Year 1 training and the incubator facility. (The logic is that CSOs which have participated in the training and the incubator facility and therefore have been considerably strengthened with technical inputs – knowledge, skills, contacts, etc – will now get the chance to put that into practice by undertaking monitoring and policy analysis projects.)
Two rounds of grants competitions will be held, in Years 2 & 3 respectively. Each round will be announced after the completion of the corresponding incubator facility.
Larger grants will be available for national coalitions in each of the target sectors. Nine grants of up to 40,000 Euro each will be available in Year 2 for coalitions to develop their strategies and governance structures, as well as to engage in monitoring to gather data on key issues. A further round of nine grants of up to 22,500 Euro each will be available in Year 2 for the coalitions to formulate mid-term sustainability strategies and to adopt and implement communication strategies.
The purpose of the first round of grants to the national coalitions will be multiple:
• to hold internal meetings to agree on governance issues and develop corresponding rules,
• to draft strategies covering issues such as: the overall philosophy and direction of the coalition, the monitoring policy and plan, the sustainability strategy,
• to implement national monitoring of a key issue or issues in the relevant sector and present conclusions and recommendations to the corresponding state bodies.
The purpose of the second round of grants to the national coalitions will be:
• to hold internal meetings to reflect on the activities of the first year and to review the governance documents including overall strategic documents,
• to conduct further monitoring of specific issues based on concerns arising from discussions with stakeholders in Year 2,
• to develop a post-project action plan.
Bearing in mind that these larger grants are closed competitions (i.e. intended for pre-identified recipients), the Action will adopt strict guidelines for assessing the relevance of the grant proposals (relevance to the overall objectives and identified key issues, impact on the reform process, methodologies used for monitoring and for constructive dialogue, value for money budgets). The mentors will work closely with the coalitions to ensure that proposals are of high quality.
For the administration of both categories of sub-grants, the consortium will establish a grants committee to evaluate proposals and recommend awards. ALA, which has experience of awarding, managing and monitoring sub-grants in previous projects, will have overall responsibility for the whole grants process.
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Since December 2016, the Armenian Lawyers’ Association (ALA), in partnership with the International Center for Human Development (ICHD), the Union of Communities of Armenia, the Armenian Centre for Democratic Education-CIVITAS, the SME Cooperation Association, and Agora Central Europe, an NGO from the Czech Republic, formed a consortium to apply for Lot 2 with a project proposal (hereafter: Project) titled “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue”, and won the call. Lot 2 refers to capacity building of civil society organisations aimed at involving them in policy development/monitoring.
The main goal of the Project is to strengthen CSOs’ and CSO coalitions’ influence on the process of public policy development in the target sectors of the Project.
The specific objectives of the Project are: strengthening CSOs’ coalition building capacities, their participation in public policy development processes, identification of problems in the target sectors and development of respective policies, as well as constructive and strategic cooperation with local government and central government agencies in the process of policy development.
The Project duration is 34 months (December 2016-October 2019). The Project budget is EUR 2,222,256. EUR 222,256 of the total budget is to be contributed by the Project consortium.
The target sectors of the Project are justice, education, business and six other sectors.
