ROYAL NORWEGIAN EMBASSY - BELGRADE

Strengthening Civil Society in

Serbia Phase Two
Call for Proposals

BACKGROUND
Democratic equality, representative democracy and in particular, participatory
democracy, are the democratic principles promoted throughout Norwegian external
assistance. A vibrant and strong civil society is crucial to participatory democracy. If
capacitated, organized civil society can contribute to more effective policies,
equitable and sustainable development and inclusive growth and add value to local
and/or national governance. Competent, visible and effective, civil society
organizations remain the main channel through which citizens may take an active
part in setting the political agenda, contributing effectively to a growing demand for
transparent and accountable governance.
In view of this, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has established separate
funds for support to civil society organizations in the Western Balkans in 2011,
administered by the Embassies in Belgrade, Prishtina and Sarajevo.
The Embassy in Belgrade has supported 15 projects in the year 2012 as the first
phase of this funding program. The details on the awarded projects are available at
http://www.norveska.org.rs/Global/SiteFolders/webbel/List%20of%20SCS%20projects
%20in%20Serbia.docx.

Country context
Civil society organizations (CSOs) have been crucial for embedding the democratic
processes in Serbia. They continue to be active in the social, economic and political
life of Serbia. However, according to recent assessments of the civil society in
Serbia, CSOs are in the midst of realignment 1. Human right NGOs that led the sector
in the 90s are now struggling to sustain their activities. Many CSOs face a problem
with defining and reaching their constituencies. Some of them are over-depend on
donor funding. A recent study found that 85% of 3,000 surveyed NGOS believe that
the sector has too little influence on state policies. Public in Serbia still views CSOs
negatively2. People regard the sector as self-focused and unable to engage in
meaningful, salient actions. Inability to gain public support erodes the efforts of
the sector. Coalitions are rare and made on ad-hoc terms.
The limited capacities of the CSOs are one of the reasons for the existence these
problems. Many CSOs operate on a project-by-project basis which diminishes
sustainability potentials and disables coherence and long-term planning. The
available funds for the running costs of the CSOs are particularly and typically rare.

The purpose of the Call

Making a difference requires sustainable infrastructure; competent staff members,
available expertise and public visibility and recognition. Many sources of influence
are required, to secure quality and maximize results, as well as specific coalitions,
capable of mobilizing their constituency groups. It is therefore fundamentally
important to support the improvement of the physical and human infrastructure of

Republic of Serbia Civil Society Assessment report, Catherine Barnes for USAID
Serbia and Montenegro

Strategic Puls Group, May 2009 Public Perception and Attitudes Towards NGO
Sector in Serbia
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the civil society as this in turn, increases their sustainability and professionalism
and contributes to transparency, legitimacy and public accountability.
The Royal Norwegian Embassy publishes the present Call for proposals with a view
to selecting on the basis of a triennial strategic plan and detailed annual work
plans groups of civil society organizations which shall receive the support for the
running costs of their operations for a period of 12 months, and with the possibility
of extension to three years in total. The Call does not intend to provide funds
for specific individual projects, but to cover costs inherent to the
functioning of groups of civil society organizations that are active in the
priority areas of the Call.

Priority areas
Applicants responding to this Call must demonstrate their competence, experience,
achieved results and feasible short term and long term plans in any of the following
priority areas of the Call:

Human rights and non-discrimination;

Representation and social inclusion of minorities and vulnerable groups;

Anticorruption and transparency.

GUIDELINES FOR the APPLICANTS

These guidelines present the rules for preparation, submission and selection of
grants that will be supported in the framework of this Call for Proposals.

Who is eligible to apply?

The eligible Applicants are not profit making civil society organizations active in the
priority areas of the Call; based and active in Serbia, registered in line with the
provisions of the Law of Citizen Associations of the Republic of Serbia (Slubeni
glasnik RS 51/09) or the Law on endowments, foundations and funds of the Republic
of Serbia (Slubeni glasnik RS 88/10); acting alone (in which cases support will be
awarded only exceptionally) or in partnership with other civil society organizations.
In cases of partnership, a lead applicant should be nominated, but costs must be
shared amongst all applicants. Applicants acting in partnership are encouraged to
legally formalize their partnership prior to the submission of the application by
jointly forming a separate legal entity or by signing a detailed partnership
agreement.
Applicants may decide to include additional associates in their applications, such as
local authorities, cultural, educational institutions and/or other public institutions,
including the independent state bodies.
The Applicants are responsible for the implementation of the grants, which includes
adherence to the approved work plan, sound financial management, internal
monitoring and reporting to the donor.

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Eligible activities
This Call for Projects will fund running costs that improve infrastructural and
organizational sustainability, impact and public outreach of the civil society
organizations activities in the priority areas of the Call; provided they bring clear
and tangible benefit to local communities and its residents.
Activities that can be funded include:

Sustaining core management,

Mobilizing public support through public outreach, production of events

and innovative use of media and execution of advocacy in regards to
publicly salient issues,

Enhancing of the expertise of civil society organizations by collecting and

producing data, through cooperation with experts and through production
of policy analysis,

Enhancement of internal organizational capacities through trainings,

certification and the purchase of planning and management software.

Improvement of infrastructural capacities through restoration and

reconstruction of state owned buildings and premises sublet to applicants
or otherwise held by applicants, construction and capital investments of
CSOs held premises; and purchase of equipment.

The deadline for applications is 9 th November 2012; 16hrs CET. Selection is likely to
be finalized by 10th December 2012.

Financial parameters and eligible costs

Financial parameters
Amount of money requested per grant shall not be lower than 75,000 EUR.
Financial participation in the project budget
Financial contribution is not required.
Eligible costs
In order to be acceptable according to this Call for Proposals, the expenses must:

be inherent for the functioning of the Applicants

be in line with sound financial management, which particularly

relates to the best value for money and the effectiveness of the
costs;

be recorded in financial accounting and tax related documents

of the Applicants and identifiable, verifiable, and supported by
original documents justifying them.

The expenses may include, but are not limited to:

Core management costs

Expertise costs
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Travel costs

Equipment

Office supplies

Maintenance

Rent of the office space

Communication costs

Rehabilitation of space, reconstruction and/or construction, including

capital investments

Visibility costs

Expenditure verification costs

Limitations on staff salaries and experts fees: Core management salaries, including
executive directors, programme directors, financial managers and administration
cannot exceed rates set for the similar work in state institutions in Serbia. All staff
salaries and fees are to be paid to individual bank accounts, and not to any
economic operators registered by the staff and/or experts in question. No
outsourcing of core management is allowed. Staff receiving salaries cannot act as
experts at the same time. Payments of fees and/or salaries to public servants are
not allowed.
Other limitations:
Office related costs shall be paid on the basis of 10 m2 per staff member.
Reconstruction and refurbishment costs shall be approved only if the premises in
question are accessible to wheelchair users.
Ineligible costs
The following expenses will not be covered:

debts and losses;

due passive interest;

items already financed from other sources, including all budget lines
requested, and all donors of the applicants concerned;

Overheads.

What is the application and selection process?

An applicant (lead or partner) may at the same time act as the applicant (lead or
partner) in another application; however support will only exceptionally be awarded
in such cases.
The Embassy will put emphasis on both thematic and geographic diversity among
the recipients.
Any attempt to obtain confidential information and/or influence the Embassy and/or
consultants assessing the received proposals by the applicants, associates or other
interested parties will immediately lead to exclusion.
Decision not to grant an application will be made if:

the application was sent after the deadline has expired;

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the application was not complete;

the application was evaluated as technically and financially inferior to

other proposals received.

Decisions not to award grants are final.

How to apply
Applicants shall fill in the unified application form (s51), in English.
In addition, the applicants shall submit:
A three year strategic plan, with the following elements:
a) Details on organizations acting as Applicants and Associates, with
i) reasons for joint application and clear explanation of the different roles
and responsibilities of each applicant involved, and the specific benefits
and expertise brought by the inclusion of each partner and/or associate
and
ii) Overview of past joint and individual experiences and the impact obtained
through past work.
b) Improvement of organizational and management capacity plans, with details
on
i) Staff policy of each applicant concerned, including details on salary policy,
staff retention policy, other human resource management plans and
career development plans.
ii) Organizational development plans, of each applicant concerned; with

details on plans for improvement of internal management structures,

processes and procedures within the organization, as well as between
the applicants acting in partnership and

Details on plans for establishment of collaboration with other

organizations and sectors and further coalition building.

c) Outreach and service delivery plans, with the following elements:

i) Joint public outreach plans, including provision of benefits to
constituencies of the applicants in form of legal aid, community based
services, advisory services and/or effective ways of spreading information.
ii) Joint visibility plans, including the organization of public events, effective
use of media and communication tools such as websites, publications etc.
d) Joint policy and advocacy development plans with details on
i) Plans for influencing policy making at the national and local level, with
details on aspired policy changes, tools to be used, advocacy strategy and
expected impact.
The template for the strategic plan is not provided. The above elements must all be
included and each section explained with details on methodology to be applied,
expected outputs and timing. The plans for the initial 12 months of the operating
grant shall be presented in details, in a form of a gantogram and attached to the
strategic plan. The maximum amount of pages, excluding Annexes, if any, is 5
pages.
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Applications must include a budgetary estimation for the three year period, for
information purpose, with the detailed budget requested for the initial 12 months of
the operating grant.
The Application Pack includes:

Application form (S51) (available in Annex 3)

Three year strategic plan, with a gantogram (Gant Chart) for the first 12
months (example is provided in Annex 1)

Triennial budgetary estimation, with detailed budget for the first 12

months (example is provided in Annex 2)

Information on the global income and expenditure for the past 3 years, for
each applicant concerned

Registration documents for each applicant concerned

Letters of support for each associate listed.

Partnership Agreement signed between all applicants, clearly indicating

that power of representation is given to the lead applicant.

Where to send applications:

Applications should be sent by mail to the address indicated below:
Projects.Belgrade@mfa.no, with a subject of the mail clearly titled SCS 2
application.
Additional information
The interested parties may contact the Embassy at +381 (0)11 36 70 404 if they
need any information related to the application procedure.
The info session will take place on the 18 th October 2012, in Medija center Belgrade,
Terazije 3, starting at 09.30 hrs. Interested applicants are encouraged to attend the
info session, in order to become more familiar with the provisions of the Call.
Selection Procedure
Applications will be scored according to the grid bellow:
Area

Max points

Relevance to the goals of the Call

10

Appropriate planning and feasibility

20

Beneficiality for the constituency groups

20

Innovativity

20

Budget effectiveness

20

Additional points for involvement of membership

based organizations

10

TOTAL

100

After the deadline for submitting the project proposals expires, but before the final
decision on financing is made, the Embassy may make some suggestions to the
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applicant regarding certain modifications of the proposals concerning the budget

and the planned activities. Applicants have the right to accept or refuse these
suggestions, but they shall not be the subject of further negations.
In case of the successful application, the Embassy will sign the contract with the
lead and partner applicants.

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Implementation Schedule
Year 1 (Month)
Lead & Participating Bodies
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Organisational and management capacity improvement
Activity

Activity 1
Activity 2

Lead applicants
All partners with inputs from the
Associates

Outputs

Xx staff trained

Etc.

Outreach plans

Policy development plans

XX policy proposals developed etc

Service delivery plans

Advocacy plans

Coalition building

Visibility plans

Annex 1 Example of the Gantt chart

Annex 2 Example of the detailed budget (with instructions) click twice on the
icon bellow to open

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Example of Budget
SCS 2.xls

Annex 3 S51 form click twice on the icon bellow to open

S51Applicationform.d
oc

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