Pre-Announcement: Making the Most of EU Funding for the Roma
February 29, 2008
Call for Proposals
This pre-announcement is relevant for non-governmental organizations as well as for commercial and public entities in the following five EU countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
Project Generation Facility
Structural Funds and other EU financial resources are an extremely important source of funding available for national governments to assist the inclusion of the Roma in societies of CEE and SEE. The Open Society Institute plans to pursue a flagship role in connecting the objectives of the Decade of Roma Inclusion to the machinery of various European Funds. Governments should make the European funds flow" to local governments, civil society and private sector actors, who have the capacities to contribute to the social inclusion of Roma. The Initiative, called Making the Most of EU funding for Roma" (Initiative) would address these obstacles by complementing EU and national facilities and instruments available in various Decade countries. The Initiative would contain several interventions and OSI is currently finalizing the design of the first one: the OSI Project Generation Facility.
This facility would focus on improving the access of Roma communities to quality for project design and efficient lobbying to EU Structural Funds. At the same time, it would utilize the experience and capacity of the OSI network to stimulate interest of potential beneficiaries and steer them towards projects bringing sustainable improvement for the Roma.
To establish a Project Generation Facility in each of the five target countries, OSI is going to announce in early March 2008 a call for proposals by institutions wishing to participate in implementation of the initiative at the national level. The expected deadline for the applications is April and the final selection should be made by the end of May.
The ideal candidate would be an NGO or a consortium of NGOs and other organisations with a long-standing experience in Roma issues in general and in key sectors (employment and social inclusion, education, local economic development, municipal infrastructure) as well as in design and implementation of projects from Structural Funds (or pre-Accession) with a demonstrated commitment to open society values and track record of successfully delivering complex projects.
In terms of eligibility, proposals can be submitted by individual organisations or consortia of organisations. Only an NGO can submit an individual proposal or be a leader of a consortium. However, public bodies (as defined by Article 10(1) of EC Regulation 874/2002 of 28 April 2004) and for-profit organisations can participate in the consortium if their value added and indispensability to the proposal can be shown.
The selected institutions would primarily serve to implement the Project Generation Facility, but could also be used for specific roles in other actions within the Making the most of EU funding for Roma" Initiative.
The purpose of this pre-announcement is to allow potential applicants to start preparing for the call for proposals, particularly with regard to formation of future consortia.
For more information, see the "Making the Most" home page.
Contact Person: Petra Kovacs
Email: pgf@osi.hu
Yasemin CELIKBILEK
Ankara/ T U R K E Y
http://lgi.osi. hu/documents. php?id=1998& m_id=8
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