European PROGRES has announced the second call for proposals (CfP) for supporting the projects to be implemented in cooperation between the civil society organisations and local self-government institutions aimed at social and economic empowerment of vulnerable groups from 34 municipalities in the South East and South West Serbia. The European Union and the Swiss Government will support these projects with EUR 345,000 through the Citizens Involvement Fund (CIF).
All project proposals will have to be based on municipal sustainable development strategies and contribute to one of the following priorities: employment, education and training of the vulnerable and marginalized groups; improvement of equal access to public services; promotion of multi-ethnic dialogue and intercultural cooperation; improved transparency of financing local civil society organizations out of the local self-government funds that will increase the overall degree of good governance in the municipality.
“Partnership between the civil society organizations and the local self-government plays an important role in strengthening the dialogue, accountability, understanding and tolerance but also in establishing the values of civil society without which there is no respect of human rights. Citizens Involvement Fund projects ensure that the citizens’ voice is heard and full support is provided to their participation in the community development”, said Ana Nedeljković, Sector Manager for Good Governance and Social Inclusion within European PROGRES.
Up to EUR 15,000 per project will be provided for individual projects while partnership organisations should ensure financial contribution of minimum 10% of the donor’s share. The total value of the project may not exceed EUR 25,000.
Within the first CIF call for proposals twenty projects were approved and they contributed, among other things, to economic empowerment of women, improvement of accessibility and quality of health services, they helped social inclusion of Roma population and persons with disability and promoted interethnic tolerance.
“Through the Citizens Involvement Fund we wish to show that the civil society represents a key partner to local self-governments in solving community problems and that such joint effort leads to long-term solutions to the problems that citizens are faced with, especially those that are most vulnerable”, said Biljana Kerić, Programme Associate of the Social Inclusion within European PROGRES.
Associations and organisations eligible to participate in this CfP are those registered in at least one of the 34 municipalities participating in the European PROGRES. Projects must be implemented within maximum ten and minimum seven month-period.
The call is open until 4 May, 2016 and more information about the CfP as well as the application documents are available at the European PROGRES website http://www.europeanprogres.org/pozivi/en/
