European Commission has issued a restricted call for proposals seeking concept notes at first stage from eligible organizations with the purpose of implementing prison reform and humanized criminal code in the Kyrgyz Republic.
Condition of prisons in this former Soviet republic is quite desperate owing to insufficient nutrition, overcrowding, and spread of infectious diseases. There is hardly any budget available for maintenance of prisons. During the Soviet period the prisons were profitable, since they produced goods with free labor. There is a common lack of awareness of the fact the maintenance of prisons is costly and that reducing the number of prisoners would reduce costs.
The situation may easily exacerbate if serious measures are not taken in time. Although there is awareness of this threatening situation and the Kyrgyz government has been trying to address it, it is unlikely, despite of strong political will among key persons, that the Kyrgyz Republic can achieve a radical reform on its own. Involvement of international organizations and outside support is vital for the attempts to succeed.
In order to improve the situation the EU signed an agreement with UNODC on 18 December 2009 for the implementation of 3-years-long project to support prison reform in the Kyrgyz Republic. The purpose of this project is to support the Kyrgyz Government in policy formulation and design, in institutional capacity building and in improvement of sanitary premises in the designated prisons.
Activities:
Projects should be self-contained operations indicating a coherent set of activities with clearly defined operational objectives, target groups and planned, tangible outcomes, within a limited timeframe. Activities should be designed to meet the specific needs of the target groups identified by the project.
The following types of indicative activities addressing the priority themes are eligible:
- Training/capacity building;
- Awareness campaigns;
- Lobbying actions;
- Advocacy actions to increase the awareness of institutions on human rights promotion and respect;
- Drafting of policy or legislation recommendations by civil society representatives as part of a Working Group in the law-making institutions;
- Publication of manuals, leaflets on best practices related to the priority themes;
- Promoting innovative approaches in addressing human rights issues, e.g. following best practices of other countries;
- Facilitating dialogue, consultation and discussion between different stakeholders;
- Organization of conferences, workshops and seminars. However, conferences can only be funded if they form part of a wider range of activities to be implemented in the lifetime of the project. For these purposes, preparatory activities for a conference and the publication of the proceedings of a conference do not, in themselves, constitute such “wider activities”.
- Opinion surveys and analytical papers if they form part of a wider range of activities.
Note. This is an open Call for Proposals, where all documents are submitted at one stage (Concept Note and full proposal). However, in the first instance, only the Concept Notes will be evaluated. Thereafter, for the applicants whose Concept Notes have been pre-selected, evaluation of the full proposal will be carried out.
Last date for submission of proposals is October 28, 2011
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