Deadline: 18 November 2019

The Council of Europe has launched a call for proposals on project “Strengthening democracy and building trust at local level in Ukraine” to support selected local authorities in implementing sustainable and replicable ethical, innovative and inclusive policies and practices in their municipalities with a view to increasing citizen trust in local political actors and institutions.

Aims

In particular, local initiatives shall aim at:

• Strengthening of an ethical, transparent and participatory decision-making;
• Fostering the engagement of under-represented groups (in particular Roma, other ethnic minorities, IDPs);
• Promotion of gender perspective in local political action and equal opportunities for women and men to participate in local political life.

General Objective

• Selected local authorities will be provided with expert support by international and local experts throughout the planning and implementation of the local initiatives, including potential revisions of action plans (monitoring) and the development of indicators of change (evaluation).

The project supports decentralisation and the implementation of good practices on local democracy in Ukraine through local and international expertise and capacity-building activities, including trainings, workshops, study visits, and peer-to-peer exchanges with the participation of members of the Congress, both from Ukraine and other Council of Europe member states.

Project beneficiaries include:

• Local and regional authorities, mayors and Councillors;
• National associations of local and regional authorities;
• Civil society organisations and the media;
• Representatives of the Government and the Parliament of Ukraine.

Means of Action

The local initiatives should have a participatory approach engaging public at all stages of planning, implementation and monitoring, and should consider the following:

• Feasibility: the process should concern a local issue on which citizens have room to influence decisions to be made by the municipality;
• Responsiveness: local authorities should indicate in which ways the inputs from citizens will be taken into account;
• Inclusiveness: opportunities should be given to a wide range of citizens, including underrepresented groups (in particular Roma and other ethnic minorities, and internally displaced persons), to engage them in local affairs and thus enhance resilience at local level;
• Gender mainstreaming: should be embedded in all actions and decisions of local authorities to ensure that women are included as stakeholders rather than only as beneficiaries;
• Result-oriented: the process should be constructive and solution-oriented;
• Sustainability and continuity: long-lasting outcomes of local initiatives should be properly planned and ensured.

Award Criteria

Applications will be assessed against the following criteria:

• the relevance and added value of the proposal with regard to the promotion of a more responsive, inclusive, transparent and accountable governance (40%);
• justification of the proposed activities in terms of their sustainability and replicability (25%);
• the inclusiveness of the process: active involvement of vulnerable groups in the whole consultation and implementation process (25%);
• the quality, accuracy, clarity, completeness and cost-effectiveness of the proposal (10%).

Target Stakeholders

Local initiatives should target the following key stakeholders:

• local and regional authorities;
• educational institutions and media;
• citizens (with a particular focus on under-represented groups and minorities) and civil society organisations.

Eligibility Criteria

In order to be eligible for a consultative support, an applicant must:

• be a local self-government in Ukraine, including amalgamated communities of Ukraine;
• be legally eligible and have full authority to carry out the activities indicated in the proposed local initiative;
• have sufficient financial capacity (i.e. stable and sufficient sources of funding/budget allocated) to maintain the local initiative throughout the whole period of implementation;
• have sufficient operational, human resources and professional capacities, including gender balanced staff and the involvement of under-represented groups of population, to carry out the activities described in the proposed local initiative;
• declare that the activity is not part of another project and that it is not financed nor supported by any other organisation.

How to Apply

Applicants can download the application form via given website.

For more information, please visit https://www.coe.int/en/web/kyiv/-/call-for-proposals-for-local-initiatives-on-ethical-innovative-and-inclusive-policies-and-practices-at-local-level-in-ukraine