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Call for proposals for grants on national/local budget analysis of health and social services for key populations

Май 21, 2020
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Call for proposals for grants on national/local budget analysis of health and social services for key populations
Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) is looking for 6 national or local NGOs to implement the short-term projects on national/local budgets analysis of available state/municipal funding for health and social services for key populations in their respective territories. Applications can be submitted by registered non-government organizations from countries of the Central Europe and Eastern Europe and Central Asia region (CEECA).

The assignment is implemented in the framework of the Eurasian Regional Consortium project “Thinking outside the box: overcoming challenges in community advocacy for sustainable and high-quality HIV services”, funded by the Robert Carr Fund for civil society networks.

The Eurasian Regional Consortium was established in 2015 in response to a distinct need for stronger collaboration among key population networks in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) to address a shared threat to sustainability of HIV programs for people who use psychoactive substances, gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender people, and women living with HIV. Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA), the lead partner of the Consortium, together with ECOM – Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity and Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS (EWNA) joined forces to respond to funding instabilities of HIV services for key population in countries of EECA.  

The Consortium’s joint efforts focus on addressing the needs of people who use psychoactive substances, men who have sex with men, trans* people and women living with HIV in capacity building and coordinated advocacy for HIV resources mobilization, budget advocacy, and fiscal accountability. Our task is to build NGOs and community-led initiatives and political support for strategic, sufficient and sustainable investments in services along the continuum of HIV care for key populations.

BUDGET ANALYSIS IN REGARD TO TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY 2020

Within the second year of the Project, the Eurasian Regional Consortium implements the learning-in-practice grant cycle on budget analysis with regard to its transparency and accountability.

The aim of the learning-in-practice grant cycle is to implement budget advocacy theory[1] in practice in selected countries of CEECA.

The objectives of the learning grant cycle:

  • To plan and conduct feasible and short-term interventions on budget analysis and fiscal accountability of local/municipal/national budgets by national/local NGOs to analyse budget plans and expenditure to identify the funding gaps in state/municipal budgets for health and social services for key populations, and to develop participatory approaches / advocacy roadmap for addressing those funding gaps on national or municipal level, awarded by grants within the selection process. Budget analysis during COVID-19 pandemic should also help to control state funding for key populations is not left behind the budgets, reprogrammed or reduced in favor of COVID-19 related programs.
  • To gather a pool of national and regional experts in the sphere of budget advocacy, budget analysis and budget accountability for collection and sharing of practical expertise of budget analysis in the CEECA region and provision of technical support to grants recipients. Provision of mentorship will strengthen organizational and budget advocacy capacity of NGOs and will help in effective budget analysis process and in undertaking practical actions to identify the funding gaps in state budgets for services for key populations and finding ways to reduce these gaps.
  • To examine lessons learnt resulting from short-term interventions on budget analysis and fiscal accountability of local/national budgets within the following activities:
  • Compilation of case studies on the basis of conducted budget analysis by NGOs, awarded with grants;
  • Conduction of the meeting of grantees, experts and interested partners to examine the realized interventions on budget analysis and fiscal accountability by grantees in their respective territories, evaluate the results, consider lessons learnt and plan budget advocacy actions for 2021.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

TASK:

  • To plan and conduct feasible and short-term interventions on local/national budget analysis (plans versus expenditures) by national/local NGOs to identify the funding gaps in state budgets for health and social services for key populations;
  • Develop advocacy roadmap for addressing those funding gaps on national or municipal level;
  • Develop a case-study, based on the project realization experience including analysis findings, lessons learnt and further advocacy roadmap actions (case-study will be published online).

Depending on the profile of the applicant organization and key populations it works with or targets to advocate for or on behalf of their interests, the organization is expected to analyze budget availability, spending, transparency and accountability for health and social care services for one or several of the following key populations:

  • People who use psychoactive substances,
  • Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, and trans* people,
  • People living with HIV, specifically women.

Depending on its experience and capabilities, applying organization may target to analyze national or local (municipal) budget.

On behalf of the Eurasian Regional Consortium, EHRA will issue 6 grants to the winners in the open competition (non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, and informal initiative groups which have financial agents).

GRANT AMOUNT – up to 7,000 USD per grant.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT:

On behalf of the Eurasian Regional Consortium, EHRA is gathering a pool of national and regional experts in the sphere of budget advocacy, budget analysis and budget accountability for collection and sharing of practical expertise of budget analysis in CEECA region and provision of technical support to grants recipients. Depending on the technical support needs, on the one hand, and expertise and knowledge of experts, on the other, EHRA will connect NGOs with relevant experts for online and offline (technical support visits, if possible) help provision.

TERMS OF PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION: July 1, 2020 – October 31, 2020.

!!! Please, note that EHRA will sign an agreement with legally registered organization only. EHRA will not be able to provide funds to individuals.

REQUIREMENTS FOR AN APPLICANT:

  • An applicant is a registered NGO in one of the countries of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region or a non-registered initiative group which has an officially registered financial agent;
  • An applicant works with / represents / provides services /advocates for the needs of one or several key population groups – people who use psychoactive substances; gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men; trans* people; people living with HIV, specifically women – on the national or local (city/municipal) level;
  • An applicant which is a non-registered initiative group, has a documented history of activities of not less than 3 years;
  • An applicant (or its financial agent) has the bank account in USD, and there are no any restrictions in receiving funds from Lithuania to the bank account in USD;
  • There are no any restrictions in national legislation which can influence timeframe of the project or project realization itself (such as state registration of the foreign grant funds, etc.);
  • An applicant (or its financial agent) has an accountant or financial specialist;
  • An applicant’s staff participated in budget advocacy trainings/seminars/workshops AND has an experience in budget advocacy projects (applying for budget funding, advocating for state funding for key populations and/or provision of services for key populations from state funds);
  • An applicant is aware how national or local/municipal budget for health and social programs are structured and if there are budget lines dedicated to specific services for key populations;
  • Other things being equal, EHRA, ECOM and EWNA members have a priority.

To apply for the assignment the organization has to submit to natalia@harmreductioneurasia.org till COB June 12, 2020 the following documents:

  • Filled application form, signed by the organization director or responsible representative (application form can be uploaded online);
  • Annex I – Organizational registration document (for the applicant or its financial agent);
  • Annex II – Memorandum of Understanding between a non-registered initiative group and a financial agent (for non-registered initiative groups only).

Total number of documents for submission for NGOs is 2, for non-registered initiative groups – 3. Applicants who will submit an incomplete package of application documents, will not be considered as tender participants.

EVALUATION OF APPLICATION:

The submitted applications will be evaluated by the selection committee of the Eurasian Regional Consortium. Regional Consortium members will delegate 1 representative from each respective network – EHRA, ECOM and EWNA – to the selection committee.

During evaluation of each applicant, each member of the selection committee will award from 0 to 3 points to each of the criteria, identified below, where:

0 – completely does not meet the criterion or information in the application is missing;

1 – partially meets the criterion;

2 – meets the criterion, but not fully;

3 – fully meets the criterion.

Membership in EHRA, ECOM or EWNA is awarded with additional 1 point.

Maximum points awarded to each application by each selection committee member – 22.

The following criteria will be used to evaluate the applications:

Organizational and financial potential criteria

  • Organization and/or its staff has an expertise and experience in budget advocacy.
  • Organization has financial capacity to implement the project (finance manager, experience of foreign grants implementation, ability to receive funds in USD from Lithuania, lack of restrictions in national legislation to implement a grant in timely and effective manner).

Application content criteria

  • Knowledge on current state/local/municipal funding available for health and social services for identified key population group.
  • Problem statement relevant for the tender aim to be addressed within the project and focused on 3 key aspects – access to budget information, specific budget lines, budget execution.
  • Clear and achievable within 4 months goal and objectives of the project.
  • Justification of how activities planned within the project realization will help to achieve its goal and objectives and how its results will be used by the organization in future advocacy.
  • The project engages participation of and partnerships with communities, NGOs, experts and other external stakeholders.

Additional criteria

  • Membership in EHRA, ECOM or EWNA.

When considering several applications from the same country analyzing budgets for services for the same key population group, a grant will be issued to not more than one application taking into account the highest number of points awarded by the selection committee.

[1] Budget advocacy guide for community activists, EHRA, Vilnius, 2018 https://harmreductioneurasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/EACB_AdvocacyGuide_book_20181017_web.pdf

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