Source: www.gmfus.org
The Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation of the German Marshall Fund (BST) are continuing their joint funding initiative to support confidence building activities of non-state actors in the South Caucasus, Ukraine and Moldova, and its neighboring countries. The partners are convinced that civil society can make a valuable contribution to the process of confidence building, mutual understanding and reconciliation between populations in territories presently of recently involved in (armed) conflicts. This initiative is designed to encourage grantees to investigate new ways, methods and approaches for fostering mutual understanding.
Program Description
The projects should be initiated by civil society organizations which can effectively engage target audiences within the population of the region in their projects’ activities. Organizations requesting grants must be legally registered in one of the following countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. The involvement of additional partners (especially those from the EU) is possible and welcome.
Projects working in the following areas would be especially appreciated:
- approaches to build and/or strengthen local, regional and national capacities to promote coexistence and reintegration;
- cross-border initiatives for youth;
- approaches to civic education or active citizenship;
- approaches to reconciliation and peace that incorporate experiences from history and convey them to the younger generation;
- arts and cultural work to advance peace and reconciliation;
- the role of media in overcoming stereotypes.
A special emphasis is placed on multilateral initiatives and those that reach out to the neighboring countries.
Projects should be exemplary, make use of novel and innovative means of building trust, and have a realistic and economical budget calculation.
BST and RBSG encourage applicants to be creative and bold. Project ideas can focus on creating various platforms (environment, music, sports, etc.) that bring together people from territories involved in conflicts, on facilitating contacts between state actors in the South Caucasus and the surrounding regions in non-formal settings, on using different media tools (traditional and/ or new) to foster mutual understanding, etc.
The average grant will be around 23,000 USD (about 18,000 EUR). Multilateral projects may exceed that amount in exceptional cases.
Application and Selection
The entire program administration is carried out by BST on behalf of both partners.
The Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation invite interested organizations to apply per the below mentioned contact information.
Decisions about selection and funding of the submitted projects will be taken jointly by representatives of both donors.
A grant letter to the selected projects will be issued by the end of July 2017, and respectively, December 2017.
Applicants are strongly advised to submit proposals for projects that will take longer than 6 months in the May 2017 call.
Applications have to be sent to [email protected]
Two different application deadlines are offered in the 2017 – 2018 Call. The partners recommend applying in spring since funds are limited.
1) For the May 26, 2017 deadline, interested organizations are invited to submit project proposals from April 20, 2017 until May 26, 2017 at 18:00 in Bucharest, Romania (UTC+3:00).
The projects must be completed and reported to BST by July 2018. The maximum duration of the project should not exceed 11 months.
2) For the September 29, 2017 deadline, interested organizations are invited to submit project proposals only from August 1, 2017 until September 29, 2017, at 18:00 in Bucharest, Romania (UTC+3:00).
The projects must be completed and reported to BST by July 2018. The maximum duration of the project should not exceed 6 months.
Project proposals must be submitted in English only, using the application and budget forms from BST’s webpage: http://www.gmfus.org/initiatives/application-and-reporting-forms
Grantees must submit the final reports in English only, using the two forms below from BST’s webpage: http://www.gmfus.org/initiatives/application-and-reporting-forms
Interested parties may consult the following contact persons, who are prepared to provide advanced consultation if needed:
- Sergiu Panainte – BST representative for Armenia ([email protected])
- Mehriban Rahimli – BST representative for Azerbaijan and Georgia ([email protected])
- Dinu Toderascu – BST representative for Moldova and Romania ([email protected])
- Ana Aelenei – BST representative for Ukraine ([email protected])
BST and RBSG encourage the applicants seeking to develop projects that may exceed the maximum duration and budget to contact BST representatives for consultations.