REQUEST FOR LINKAGE GRANT PROPOSALS
GRANT COMPETITION TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL POLICY RESEARCH ON ENVIRONMENT AND THE EUROPEAN NEIGHBORHOOD POLICY
December 2006
Eurasia Foundation (EF) is a privately managed non-profit organization supported by the U.S. government and other public and private donors. Since 1992, the Eurasia Foundation has invested nearly $335 million through more than 7,700 grants and technical assistance projects in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. While a majority of EF’s funding is from United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Foundation administers programs on behalf of numerous donors, including major foundations, other bilateral aid organizations, corporations, and multilateral institutions. Eurasia Foundation established the South Caucasus Cooperation Program (SCCP) in 1998 to facilitate contact, to encourage collaboration and to build confidence among organizations and professionals in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
This competition constitutes part of an SCCP project entitled “Promoting Civil Sector Participation in the Dialogue on European Integration,” an 18-month project sponsored by UK government's Department for International Development (DFID) and USAID. The project, launched in July 2006, seeks to promote regional cooperation within the framework of European Neighborhood Policy; to foster dialogue and collaboration between regional governments and public-policy organizations on sectoral reforms envisaged in ENP Action Plans of all three countries of the South Caucasus; and to raise awareness of the concrete benefits from European integration and the ENP process among journalists and the general public. These goals are to be achieved, for the most part, through a series of regional policy forums and the subsequent development of joint policy papers on environment, product safety and standards, and vocational education.
The first Policy Forum was held on December 14-15, 2006 and focused on waste-management and land degradation. Environmental experts from government, international organizations, and civil society gathered to set the research agenda and to discuss the structure and methodology of the environmental policy document. A summary of the policy forum is attached as an annex for all organizations participating in this grant competition.
COMPETITION GOAL
The linkage grant competition seeks to bring together a consortium of three public policy institutes and/or NGOs – one from each of the three countries of the South Caucasus – to develop environmental policy document. The policy document should provide a roadmap for government officials, EU representatives, and NGOs to address critical subthemes of the environmental issues of solid waste management and land degradation in the context of the EU’s European Neighborhood Policy.
COMPONENTS OF LINKAGE PROJECTS
The consortium of organizations selected to carry out the research activities envisioned in the project will be expected to submit the following deliverables and undertake the following activities over a four-month period:
1) Deliver one integrated regional public policy document and complementary PowerPoint presentation;
2) Create and periodically convene an in-country working group consisting of local stakeholders;
3) Develop a workplan that maps project activities and benchmarks and that establishes deadlines to be met;
4) Write and submit donor program and financial reports;
5) Participate in project meetings at the beginning and during the course of the project.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE SEE ATTACHED FILES.
The competition schedule is the following:
Competition announcement: December 28, 2006
Deadline for submission of applications: January 25, 2007
Award announcement: February 9, 2007
Applications should be submitted to SCCP offices in hard copy by no later than 17:00 on Friday, January 25, 2007. In exceptional cases, the proposal and the budgets can be submitted via e-mail; however, all financial and legal documents that are to be included in the application package must be submitted in hard copy.
The EF office address and contact information is as follows:
EF-Azerbaijan
67 Fizuli Street
5th Floor
Baku, 1014 Azerbaijan
+994 12 499-1285
[sursa Azerbaijani_Studies]
