The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Republic of Armenia is pleased to announce a Call for Concept Notes for 2022 budget year for the civil society organizations, research institutes and individuals under two instruments: Human Rights Fund and MATRA programme.
Human Rights Fund
Human rights are the foundation of a democracy in which every person counts. The Netherlands strives to protect and promote human rights all over the world. The Human Rights Fund therefore supports organizations and individuals, that work for human rights worldwide. Promoting and protecting human rights worldwide is a priority of the Dutch Government foreign policy. The Dutch human rights policy focuses on certain human rights priorities.
For 2022 the priorities for Armenia will be:
- Equal rights for women and girls
– Decreased occurrence of all forms of violence against women and girls in public and private life.
– Strengthened women’s voice, agency, leadership and representative participation in decision-making processes in public, private and civic sphere.
– Reinforced women’s economic rights and empowerment and female entrepreneurship encouraged.
– Women’s and girls’ rights protected in crisis and conflict situations and women’s meaningful participation and leadership in peace- and state-building promoted.
– Equal rights for women and girls is a cross-cutting theme and should preferably be integrated in all project proposals.
Equal rights for LGBTI people, with a focus on:
– Decreased criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity worldwide;
– Decreased occurrence of violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity;
– Increased levels of social acceptance of LGBTI people;
– Better legislation in place for LGBTI community.
- Human rights defenders and space for civil society, with a focus on:
– Increased (holistic) security of human rights defenders and CSO’s, with specific attention for women HRD’s and the most vulnerable groups of HRDs, such as land and environmental defenders and indigenous groups.
– Enhanced legitimacy for human rights defenders at the local, national and international level.
– CSO’s are able to address shrinking civic space and influence norms and decision-making.
- Freedom of expression and internet freedom, with a focus on:
– Increased access to information, through a free, open and secure Internet.
– Enhanced safety of journalists worldwide, with a particular focus on female journalists.
– Press freedom, including a diverse and open media landscape;
– Better reader-education, critical thinking and fight against fake news.
MATRA
MATRA is a Dutch abbreviation and stands for “societal transformation”. The objective of the MATRA fund is to contribute to sustainable societal transformation by supporting reforms in the areas of rule of law, good governance and democracy.
Activities supported under the MATRA fund have to fall within the following areas:
- Rule of law, including reform of the judiciary;
- Public administration and good governance, including fight against corruption; promotion of integrity, transparency and accountability;
- Public order and law enforcement;
- Stability and security, with a focus on reconciliation, countering disinformation and prevention of hate speech;
- Democracy, including the functioning parliament, electoral processes and procedures, upholding the separation of powers and democratic participation, and inclusion of minorities;
- Building resilient civil society.
Activities supporting implementation of the CEPA Agreement can be considered.
Eligibility criteria:
– This call is open to independent civil society organizations, research institutions and individuals, preferably based and operating in Armenia.
– Projects obligatory should met the requirements of the mentioned directions of the Human Rights Fund and MATRA programme.
-The Concept notes should be in line with the attached format, must have feasible, realistic goals and defined results and activities.
-Budget must be realistic, for Human rights fund from EUR 0-50.000, for MATRA programme EUR 25.000-50.000, core funding is not allowed, overhead costs should be not higher that 7.5 % of the project;
– Duration of the project should be between 4 and 24 months.
Procedure and provisional timeline:
– An organization submits a concept note using the enclosed form by 31 January 2022,18:00 Yerevan time to JER-PROJECTS@minbuza.nl;
– Questions related to this call can only be asked at two webinars: on 20 January 2022 at 12:00, and on 25 January 2022 at 15:00. If interested, please register via JER-PROJECTS@minbuza.nl (write “Registration for the Webinar” in the Subject of your email.) Please note that questions submitted via email will not be answered.
– Applicants who have not been selected will receive a rejection letter by 28 February 2022.
- Shortlisted applicants (based on the concept notes) will be informed by 10 March 2022 and will be requested to submit a full proposal by 20 March 2022 (Full proposal form will be sent together the offer of presenting the Full proposal).
– Final selection will become known by 30 March 2022.
The Embassy of the Netherlands might deviate from the schedule above depending on the number of the received proposals and the time it may take to process and assess them.
Criteria for assessment of proposals:
The projects team of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Armenia will be paying special attention to the following elements of the submitted concept notes:
– Does the proposed activity fall under one of the priorities mentioned above;
– How innovative, unique and original is the approach;
– How big is the added value of the intervention – to what extend have other organizations already addressed this issue;
– How realistic is the expected impact of the intervention;
– How the sustainability of the project can be insured after the end of the funding;
– Projects implemented in the regions of Armenia will be prioritized;
– Project with woman participation will be prioritized;
– Projects will a larger group of beneficiaries will also be prioritized.
