EC Call for Proposals on Gender Equality

European Commission (EC) under its Investing in People Programme has issued a Call for Proposals addressing the theme of gender equality. The concept of gender equality includes empowering women and improve the literacy-levels of adult women in poor and least developed countries and provide support to advocates who are promoting gender equality so that they are included in the formulation of development programmes and decision-making processes in their countries. The specific objectives of this Call for Proposals is to support NGOs (or non-state actors) in thier efforts for the promotion of women’s property ownership at the national, regional and international levels and also support them in promoting adult femalte literacy. Building leadership skills among NGOs and promoting networking and partnership among them have been prioritized under this Programme.

The types of activities that the EC will fund NGOs in implementing the projects addressing the theme include capacity-building of NGOs, campaigning, awareness-raising, dissemination of innovative approaches etc, scaling -up of successful approaches in policy-making dialogue on adult female illiteracy/ women’s property rights, building partnerships and strengthening networking with other countries.

NGOs from developing countries are eligible to apply for this Call for Proposals. To know more about the eligibility of countries, visit this link.

The range of the grant budget per selected applicant to be alloted under this Programme is between €200,000 to €1,000,000. As usual, the applicant has to propose only 90% of the total cost of the project to the EC while 10% would be covered from the applicant’s own or other sources.

Also, as a policy, all applicant organizations have to complete a prior registration process under PADOR, which is the online EuropeAid database. You can complete the registration process at this link. Only after completing the registration process, organizations can submit applicants under this Call for Proposals. Also, submission is accepted by mail only (not by email or fax) to the EC’s Brussels office and therefore, organizations need to prepare for the proposal in advance so that there is enough time to cover the mailing period.

The last date for submission of applications is 7 April 2009. However, since this is a restricted Call for Proposals, only Concept Notes are invited by the EC and after reviewing the Concept Notes, the proposals will be sought from the applicant organizations. For downloading application formats and other documents, visit this link.