CARE Deutschland e.V. Office in Kosovo within the Kosovo Youth Participation Project – KYP

announces:

Call for Applications

Support to Youth NGO’s for Initiatives Focusing on Youth Employment

Date: 20 December 2023 Application Deadline: 3 January 2024

This call for applications is aimed for financial support to non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) who work with youth, for implementation of their initiatives aimed at youth employment.

This call for applications is announced in the frame of the project “Kosovo Youth Participation – KYP”, funded by the European Union and implemented by CARE Deutschland e.V., Office in Kosovo. CARE Deutschland e.V. has been awarded a grant contract in the frame of the call for proposals: European Commission (Lot 2 –Participatory democracy, youth engagement), which aims to help disadvantaged youth, mobilisation in decision-making, voluntarism and employability.

The overall objective of the KYP Project is to support youth with fewer opportunities, especially young women, from rural areas and small towns of Kosovo, in order to create additional prospects for their increased social and economic participation. The specific objectives of the project are: to increase democratic participation, civic engagement and social inclusion of youth with fewer opportunities, marginalised and/or with different abilities, particularly women. The project focuses on three main components:

• Increased participation of disadvantaged youth in decision making, in local communities, and on the central level.
• Enhanced engagement and employability of marginalized youth, in particular young women, through skills development and involvement in volunteering initiatives.
• Fostered democratic dialogue across Kosovo youth, through raised awareness on and promotion of gender equality, solidarity, inter-cultural relations, and counter stereotypes and disinformation.

The position of youth in Kosovo is defined by the lack of practical opportunities for their social and economic participation. With 53% of the population under 25[1] years old, Kosovo has the youngest population in Europe, which represents a large demographic and economic pressure on Kosovo society, as each year a generation of youth finishes their education and starts searching for jobs. Kosovo youth of 15-24 years has an extremely high unemployment rate of 46,9 %. Unemployment of young women (15-24) is even higher according to the same statistics, at 61%, which points to multiple marginalization and exclusion. The KYP project aims at supporting different activities leading to higher employment of young people in the project target areas.

1. GENERAL CONDITIONS of the Call for Applications

This call for applications is specifically designed for youth-led initiatives engaging young adults and aims to support and increase youth employability skills and offer employment opportunities for young people.

It is expected that project proposals supported through this call will intensify youth economic engagement and significantly contribute to their immediate employment.

Youth NGO’s interested in applying will, in addition to other planned activities, mandatorily incorporate in the proposal three-month paid internship in locally operating firms, for a minimum of five young individuals.

Sub granted project proposals are expected to achieve the following results:

• Create direct opportunities for youth employment;
• Incorporate mandatory internship programs in local firms with on-the-job training for the interns, to increase the working skills of the involved youth;
• Ensure the sustainability and longevity of the supported entities (registered youth NGO’s) throughout the implementation of the planned project proposals.
  
  
  1. Number of sub-grants

The project will support 4 non-governmental youth organizations with a grant amount of 8,000 EUR.

1. Geographical Coverage

The grants will be provided strictly for formal entities: registered NGO’s who work with youth and operating in the following municipalities: Deçan/Dečani, Fushë Kosova/Kosovo Polje, Junik/Junik, Gjakova/Đakovica, Peja/Peć, Rahovec/Orahovac, Obiliq/Obilić, and Suharekë/Suva Reka.

The KYP project will strive to achieve a proportional allocation of sub-grants to each target municipality; however, the distribution of financial support will depend upon the quality of the received applications.

2. ELIGIBILITY

2.1 Eligible Applicants

• Officially registered NGO’s with youth programming, working in the fields of advancing the role of civil society for social justice, democratic processes, youth participation, human rights, culture, environment and media, with demonstrated record of previous projects with youth in local communities and experience in cooperation with local institutions (Employment Offices and other local actors), applying with a project proposal which directly and clearly increases youth capacities and youth employment.

2.2 Ineligible Applicants

• Individuals
• Informal entities
  
  3. TYPES OF ACTIVITIES TO BE SUPPORTED

The call will support project activities, which focus on one or more of the following areas:

• Internship programs for youth (mandatory activity)
• Capacity building training for youth (soft skills, digital marketing, other skills in demand from the labour market)
• Youth Employment.

Apart from the feasibility of the supported activities, the project proposal needs to describe the following:

• How will the proposed project practically link youth with the labour market?
• How will the proposed project contribute to the development of the professional capacities of the applicant NGO and youth included in the proposed activities?

Cross-cutting Issues

Gender equality mainstreaming should be a crosscutting issue throughout the proposed project. As a general rule, all candidates are required to plan their interventions equally, being mindful of the effects of the intervention for men and women, boys and girls, and avoid contributing to harmful stereotypes, if possible, challenge them. The project will particularly foster participation of young women in the proposed activities.

4. COST ELIGIBILITY

4.1 Eligible costs

Eligible costs are those costs that are:

• Indicated in the proposed budget as identifiable and verifiable costs;
• Planned to incur during the implementation of the proposed project/grant;
• Necessary for the successful implementation and achievement of the project activities (such as human resources, monthly reimbursement for interns, administrative costs, and other costs which affect the implementation of the project activities such as workshops, trainings, conferences etc.);
• The calculation of costs in the application has to comply with the requirements of applicable tax legislation in Kosovo.
  

4.2 Ineligible costs

• Debt and provisions or payments for losses;
• Value Added Tax – VAT;
• Loan and interest repayments;
• Currency exchange fees;
• Equipment depreciation expenditures;
• Purchase of land or immovable property;
• Purchase of vehicle or generator;
• Purchase of second-hand goods;
• Payment of expenses covered by other donors;
• Credit to third parties;
• Costs of capital expenditure, such as infrastructure and land.
  

4.3 The following interventions/activities will not be supported:

• Interventions that are directly affiliated with or are supportive of political parties;
• Capital Investments;
• Grants composed entirely or mostly of preparatory work and/or studies;
• Cross border business ideas and activities to be implemented outside Kosovo;
• Service type activities such as Technical Assistance;
• Promotional political campaigns;
• Interventions which are subject to multilevel dependency and approval, thus posing high risk for achieving results;
• Sub granting to third parties;
• Printed materials;
• Scholarships; Research and feasibility studies, Study trips.
  
  5. CONDITIONS OF THE GRANT CYCLE
  

Upon receiving the applications, the KYP project will short-list a wider number of applicants, who will be invited to attend a mandatory 3 days project proposal developing training, for fine-tuning of the proposed applications into feasible project proposal, which will then enter into final selection for funding. The participation to the project proposal training is not a guarantee for funding.

Size and Duration of Grants

The project reserves the right to short-list any or none of the applications submitted, as well as to request additional information from the applicants in case any clarifications are needed for the selection process.

6. APPLICATION SUBMISSION PROCEDURES

Applications will be submitted through the project developed Application Form, in any of the following languages: Albanian, Serbian and English. The applicant cannot be a part of more than one application. The full application must be submitted electronically to the following email: [email protected] no later than 3 January 2024. All applicants must submit the following documents:

1. Application form (Annex 1)
2. Budget (form included as Annex 2)
3. NGO’s registration certificate, issued by the Department for NGO; and UNI/Fiscal Number Certificate.
4. Certificate proving that the NGO has no debt to TAK (not older than 3 months).

Incomplete applications and applications submitted after the deadline will not be taken into consideration. The information presented by applicants will be used strictly for the purpose of this call and will not be shared with other persons or institutions, except when either required by Kosovo law or requested by donors. Upon the submission of their application, the applicants will receive a Confirmation of Receipt with an application number.

Request for Clarifications/Further Information: Applicants may submit their requests for clarifications by 26 December 2023 at 16:00, via email to: [email protected]

7. CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING PROJECT PROPOSALS

STEP 1: ADMINISTRATIVE CHECK

The application will be rejected if the examination of the application reveals administrative errors, as following;

• The application has not arrived in a timely manner;
• The application package is not completed; The required supporting documents are not provided;
• The application form is not signed by the authorized person;
• The applicant/NGO is recently established (less than one year ago).
  

STEP 2: QUALITY EVALUATION OF APPLICATIONS

The quality of the applications will be evaluated using the evaluation criteria below.

8. EVALUATION, SHORT-LISTING OF APPLICATIONS AND FURTHER STEPS

The selection process will be done in two stages: shortlisting and final selection.

STEP 1

Short-listing: Administrative evaluation of the proposed initiative – applications and the pre-selection of applications will be undertaken by the Project Selection Committee. The selection will be made based on the Administrative Check criteria.

Results of the pre-selection process will be announced by email to the applicant’s mail addresses. All rejected applicants will be sent an electronic feedback by e-mail no later than 7 days after the final decisions about the short-listed applications have been made. Unsuccessful applicants may complain within two working days from the day when the rejection email has been sent. The pre-selected applicants will be invited to attend mandatory training in project proposal development, upon which the final application will be solicited and final selection of grantees undertaken.

STEP 2

Final selection: will be conducted by the Project Selection Committee. The selection of the proposed initiatives for funding will be made based on the Quality Evaluation criteria. The results of the final selection process will be announced by email to the applicant’s mail addresses. All rejected applicants will be sent electronic feedback by e-mail within 7 days after the final decisions about the final selection applications have been made. Unsuccessful applicants may complain within two working days from the day when the rejection email has been sent.

Anticipated timeline for the award process

9. REALISATION OF THE GRANT SCHEME

a. Contracting and ownership

CARE Deutschland e.V. Office in Kosovo will sign contracts with final grant recipients, regulating their relations, ownership etc.

The project grant will be realized through the transaction of funds, in installments, from CARE to the selected grantees. All payments for the approved project activities will then be made to the selected beneficiaries, strictly according to the approved expenses from their final project proposal.

CARE Deutschland e.V. Office in Kosovo will then have the ownership over the purchased equipment and materials until the end of the KYP project, when it becomes the property of beneficiaries.

CARE will monitor the use of grant funds throughout the process, through the revision of regular reporting, regular communication with sub-grantees and periodic field visits. Apart from regular reporting to CARE, sub-grantees (NGOs) are obliged to provide CARE staff with unrestricted access to the information on project progress), status of young people engaged and on the achieved economic results.

b. Use of Equipment and Visibility Requirement

The grantees are obliged to use the project grant solely for the purpose of their youth led activity as described in their approved project proposals. In order to monitor the expenses, the grant will be given in installments linked to milestones. In case of the proved misuse of the funds, the grantees will be required to compensate the damage and repay the grant amount to CARE.

The granted equipment must be marked according to the visibility requirements, which will be provided by CARE.

c. Publicity

Beneficiaries must recognize the contribution of CARE Deutschland e.V. Office in Kosovo and European Union (EU) funds in all publications, audio-visual materials, online presence and social media, or other activities promoting the entrepreneurial activity developed through the project grant. In this regard, the logos of CARE and the European Union (EU) as well as the disclaimer which will be used, will be provided to successful applicants by CARE project team.