EU Support to Civil Society Information Session

1. EU Support to Civil SocietyInformation Session Media for All Support to Social Partners Civil Society Facility Dos and Don‘ts

2. Media for All • Deadline: 15 April 2013 • Open Call for Proposals: Concept Note + Full Application • Lot 1: • Improving investigative reporting and the quality of independent and publicly beneficial journalism for TV, online, print and radio media of public and private media operators, including minority media. • amount: € 500.000 - € 550.000

3. Media for All • Lot 2: • Capacity building for bodies relevant to the work of the media (i.e. Kosovo Press Council, Independent Media Commission, etc.) as well in the field of implementation of relevant legal frameworks that directly or indirectly impact the media and their work (i.e. Copy Rights Law, Civil Defamation Law, etc) • amount: € 200.000 - € 250.000 • Co-financing: 5-25% • Duration: 24 – 30 months

4. Media for AllEligibility Criteria Applicants must • be non-profit-making • be specific types of organisations such as: non-governmental organisations, public sector operators, local authorities, international (inter-governmental) organisations • be established in an EU or EEA Member State or IPA beneficiary • have a proven background and a minimum of 3 years experience in delivery of training, capacity building assistance, and/or organisational reform in the field of media (print media, radio, TV, etc.)

5. Media for AllCo-Applicants/Sub-granting • Applicants must act with at least one co-applicant organisation (two if the applicant organisation’s seat/permanent representation is not in Kosovo) • Co-applicants preferably originating from another community within the borders of Kosovo • Applicants are encouraged to act with organisations/ associations/ media operators with less capacity and less experience in implementing EU funded actions. 

6. Support to Social Partners • Deadline: 21 May 2013 • Open Call for Proposals: Concept Note + Full Application • Objectives: • To develop skills and knowledge of social partners in legislative drafting, legal research and analysis, • to strengthen the administrative and management capacities of social partners, • to strengthen the capacities of social partners in advocacy, lobbying and negotiations, • to facilitate the organisational reform of social partners. • Amount: € 500.000 - € 600.000 • Co-financing: 15-45% • Duration: 24 – 36 months

7. Support to Social PartnersEligibility Criteria Applicants must • be non-profit-making • be non-governmental organisations, public sector operators, trade unions and employers organisations, international (inter-governmental) organisations • be established in an EU or EEA Member State or IPA beneficiary • have a proven background and a minimum of 3 years experience in delivery of training, institutional capacity building assistance, and/or organisational reform, preferably in the field of social partners, trade unions, employers associations, chambers of commerce, or similar.

8. Support to Social PartnersCo-Applicants/Sub-granting • Applicants must act with at least one co-applicant (two if the applicant organisation’s seat/permanent representation is not in Kosovo) • Co-applicants preferably originating from within the territory of Kosovo. • Applicants are encouraged to act with organisations/ associations with less capacity and less experience in implementing EU funded actions.

9. Civil Society Facility • Deadline: 15 April 2013 • Restricted Call for Proposals: only submission of Concept Notes in the first step • Duration: 24 – 36 months • Lot 1: • Support the implementation of the "Strategy for government and civil society dialogue in Kosovo" in order to enable a systematic consultation of CSOs in the policy and decision-making process. • Total amount available for this Lot: €1.200.000 • Grant sizes: € 80.000 - € 250.000

10. Civil Society Facility • Lot 2: • Support to social partners, notably employees' and employers' organisations, to strengthen their capacities in order to increase their role and participation in the policy and decision-making. • Total amount available for this Lot: €300.000 • Grant sizes: € 80.000 - € 200.000

11. Civil Society Facility • Lot 3: • Strengthen the ‘watchdog’ role of the civil society in ensuring transparency and accountability of public authorities. • Total amount available for this Lot: €700.000 • Grant sizes: € 80.000 - € 250.000

12. Civil Society FacilityCo-Applicants/Sub-granting • If no sub-granting is foreseen, applicants must act with at least one co-applicant organisation • Co-applicants preferably originating from another municipality and/or another community within the borders of Kosovo • Applicants are encouraged to act with grass-root and remote organisations which have less experience in implementing EU funded actions.

13. EU Support to Civil SocietyInformation Session Questions? Media for All Support to Social Partners Civil Society Facility

14. Dos and Don‘ts The most common mistakes in grant applications

15. Too broad, too ambitious objectives • Often, the objective of the Call, word for word or slightly modified, is the objective of the proposal. • Many applications target too many objectives at the same time, or define very unrealistic objectives • Focus on concrete objectives - to do what you actually can achieve!

16. Examples: Promotion of critical thinking and writing for contribution on developing greater cohesion in working on human rights, political pluralism and democratic political participation and representation, in contributing to the peaceful conciliation of group interest, combating discrimination on any ground and developing equal participation of men and women in social economic and political life, thus becoming an effective force for positive change. Professional Trainings and Capacity Building for Youth, Women and Minorities. The adoption of democratic political culture and creating new social capital in building active communities and improve the quality of life of citizens. Too broad, too ambitious objectives

17. Expected Results wrongly defined • Very often, results are presented in the format of activities or outputs. • Results are the achievements, the actual outcomes of the action and its outputs, not the outputs themselves. • The organisation of an event, training, workshop is not a result. The actual impact of this event, training, workshop is a result.

18. Expected Results wrongly defined Good example

19. Expected Results wrongly defined Other examples • Initiating civic/youth activism with no ethnical, religious and racial discrimination • Formed local teams as new models of public participation • The implementation of 4 human rights monitorings, 4 human rights awareness campaigns, 2 human rights informative campaigns conducted by CSOs • A survey on the quality of life situation of PWDs in Kosovo is made

20. Relevance of the action to the objective of the call • Often, the action itself is described under this section and no reference is made to the objective of the call and why and how the proposed action relates to it. • Or simply, the relevance is missing all together. • Explain how the action relates concretely to the objectives of this specific call, how your action will contribute to achieving the objectives of this specific Call for Proposals.

21. Relevance of the action to the objective of the call Example from the EIDHR call • Objective to provide employment for specific target groups. How is this relevant to promoting Democracy and Human Rights?

22. Relevance to the particular needs/constraints of the country (Problem analysis) • Many applicants use this section to give a general overview of all the problems in the country, i.e. poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, poor education system, discrimination, corruption, poor governance, weaknesses in democratic structures, poor economic situation, etc. • Instead, this section should define very concretely the specific environment of your action, the problems your stakeholders/target group face, the problems you intend to address with your action.

23. Target groups/final beneficiaries • Sometimes, the target groups are poorly identified, too broad, ignoring important stakeholders, etc., thus compromising the implementation of activities and the achievement of the project's objectives. • The more concretely and precisely you define your target groups, the easier it is to identify their individual specific problems which you want to address through your action.

24. Target groups/final beneficiaries Example • Objective: to empower the partnership relations between CSOs and the local authorities in the targeted municipalities; • Target groups: CSOs from Kosovo working with vulnerable groups; Final beneficiaries: vulnerable groups (no involvement of local authorities!)

25. Activities not clear and concrete • Sometimes, the activities are not clearly described, too broad, too vague, not giving enough information on how this will be implemented, with whom, with which effect. • Be creative! Think outside the box! • The more concretely and precisely you link your activities to the problem analysis, the target groups and the actual results, the easier it is to demonstrate the impact of your action.

26. Activities not clear and concrete Examples • Establishment of local teams through interviews based on certain criteria, and the establishment of organizational procedures • Based on which criteria? • Strengthening the capacity of members of local teams. • How??? i.e. 'Provide training to members of local teams on project management' • Advocacy actions to raise awareness on Convention XXX in 6 municipalities • What kind of advocacy actions? Which target groups? Which municipalities? Why? • Public awareness campaign including short radio and TV advertisement and publications • Increase whose awareness on what by which means? • Capacity building workshops for all target groups • Build whose capacity on what by which means?

27. Budget • Activities are often not reflected in the budget. • Budget lines are wrongly presented. Examples • Proposed activity – produce a brochure on 'XYZ' (budget line – Brochure 'XYZ' design, printing, distribution cost – missing in the budget) • Transportation cost for evaluator presented under budget line 5.Other costs, services, while there is a separate budget line for such costs - 2. Travel.

28. Logical Framework • OVIs are very often poorly defined and not measurable. • Example • Objective: to enhance the inclusiveness and pluralism in civil society in Kosovo through support and capacity building actions to CSOs representing specific disadvantaged groups of society. • OVIs: political participation and exclusion, interethnic relations, democracy and the rule of law.

29. Contacts • Gaby Hagmüller Social Development Team Leader Operations Section European Union Office in Kosovo/EUSR • For more information:eeas.europa.eu/delegations/kosovo or www.tacso.org