Combating and preventing violence against women and girls through education projects

1. General policy context

The conceptual framework of this call for proposals entitled ‘Combating and preventing violence against women and girls through education projects’ is described as follows:

1. Call for proposals launched by the Belgian Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (hereafter referred to as ‘DGD’) to support projects in the cross-cutting area of gender and education;

2. The funding of projects on gender and education is a priority of the Belgian Minister of Development Cooperation.

2. Objectives

Education is important to prevent and intervene at an early  stage to stop violence against women and girls. Children and young people (both boys and girls), educational staff, parents and community members are key players who can stop violence.

Education can play a key role in preventing violence against women and girls (VAWG) by challenging current social norms that support male authority and control over women as well as transforming knowledge, attitudes and behavior related to gender and VAWG. At the same time, it is essential for education projects to ensure the safety of women and girls within and around educational institutions, and thus include measures for preventing and dealing with VAWG – particularly sexual harassment and violence.

Boys and young men should be encouraged to adopt positive forms of masculinity, and girls and women should be supported to develop their abilities to express themselves and act as leaders. The project should also support local authorities and communities as well as local civil society to take action for social change, to support shifts in community attitudes and behaviors in order to value and treat women and girls as equals.

Potential entry points:

• Develop school policies of zero tolerance for VAWG, codes of conduct for school staff and students, and procedures to address VAWG like for reporting and referral of cases.
• Review textbooks and curriculums to remove gender norms and stereotypes, in particular to change content and/or images that encourage or support VAWG, and ensure that materials used in classrooms promote positive relationships between women and men.
• Integrate in the school curriculum (not limited to one module and/or one grade) education on human rights, including gender equality and women’s rights; respectful relationships between women and men; and VAWG issues including laws and available assistance for survivors of SGBV.
• Train female and male students on how to protect themselves against digital violence.
• Use social media and blogs to raise awareness among the youth.
• Encourage students to become peer educators and peer counselors, and find innovative ways to value their contribution.
• Consider adequate settings of educational institutions, as well as design and location of the facilities such as toilets, dormitories/hostels, shower blocks, staff quarters; provide separate facilities for female students/staff and male students/staff; and ensure they are well lit.

3. Submission of project proposals and other documents

3. All project proposals must be submitted using the concept note format attached to this call;
4. The call for proposals is launched on June 22, 2018. Project proposals can be submitted until July 7, 2018. Projects submitted at a later date will not be considered as admissible;
5. Each project proposal will only be submitted by e-mail, under the form of a conceptual note (see template – concept note here below in annex) under electronic format, at the following email address: [email protected]. Emails should be sent indicating as object: “Call for proposals – Gender and Education – Concept Note.”

4. Admissibility of the requests

6. A project proposal may only be introduced by:

• International organizations;
• International NGO’s;
• Bilateral donors and bilateral agencies (including ENABEL);
• The partner organizations of the Belgian Non-Governmental Cooperation.

7. The "concept note" or project proposal must contain all the elements that appear on the attached format and respect the instructions regarding the form (number of pages, language, etc.).

8. The maximum duration of a project is 24 months maximum.

9. The subsidy granted per project will be between 200.000 EUR and 550.000 EUR, according the operational capacity of each applicant.

10. Project proposals obviously not matching with the thematic priorities of the Belgian foreign policy as expressed above will be considered not admissible. As a project proposal is not admissible, the applicant will receive a formal communication.

5. Assessment with respect to the content of requests

11. Once the first phase has been closed, the proposals deemed to be admissible will be analyzed by the DGD and the relevant Belgian representations on the basis of relevance and effectiveness criteria in order to establish a pre-selection.

12. In addition to assessing the relevance and effectiveness criteria, the following dimensions will also be assessed:

• Use of new technologies and digital technologies
• Involvement of local communities at all levels: from needs analysis to evaluation and implementation of the project
• Partnership with local organizations

13. The funding application will not be considered further if the total score for these criteria is insufficient. A limited number of "concept notes" with the highest score will be selected based on the total available budget envelope.

14. In a second phase, candidates whose "concept note" has been selected will be invited to submit a complete file within 3 weeks containing a detailed proposal accompanied by a specific budget breakdown by cost category. Complete files must meet a number of substantive and administrative requirements. Then, the files deemed admissible will be analyzed by the selection committee, which prepares a preliminary evaluation based on a comparative analysis.

15. The DGD will forward the selected project file to the Minister of Cooperation for final evaluation.

16. In case of rejection of the project proposal, the DGD will send a response to the organization that has introduced it.

6. Formalization of the grant

17. The positive decisions will be formalized in the following way: internal financial control, signature of the partnership agreement by the beneficiary organization, signature of a royal decree, commitment on the state budget, agreement of the controller of the commitments and official notification to the beneficiary.

18. The legal link with the Belgian State will be effective starting from the official notification. Any prior communication cannot be considered as having a formal character.

19. The formal notification includes the details of the financing granted and a copy of the royal decree. It takes the form of an official notification from the DGD accompanied by the formal agreement signed by both parties. The agreement includes, among other things, the destination of the grant, the budgetary aspects, the payment deadlines and the reporting procedures.

20. As an indication, this entire phase will last about two months.

7. Payment

21. The grant is paid in several annual instalments, except in special circumstances.
22. For each instalment, the beneficiary shall submit an official request for payment (statement of money owed – see template in Annex 2). The above-mentioned bank account details (see point 11) have also to be included in this document. This official request will be submitted to the following address: [email protected] in an e-mail with object: “Project Human Rights and Digitalization – Request for payment.”
23. At the time of the first payment request, the beneficiary will send an adapted budget covering the entire subsidy, if requested.
24. Payment of the second and subsequent installments is related to the reporting requirement (see below). Please note that the last installment is only paid after receipt and acceptance of the final narrative and financial report, which implies that the recipient organization must be able to advance the expenses related to the last installment.
25. All payments are made within an indicative time of 8 weeks.

8. Reporting and evaluation

26. The recipient organization commits itself to submit intermediate narrative and financial reports and a full end report. The report shall cover both the execution of the project (narrative part) and the use of the grant (financial part).

27. The reports are submitted by e-mail (object: “Call for proposals – Education and gender - Reports”) at the following address: [email protected].

28. The reporting scheme is communicated with the official notification. The calendar for the submission of the narrative and financial reports may vary.

29. The payment of the different installments is conditional on the reporting obligation

1. Follow-up by the donor

30. The competent Belgian representation on site will be able to carry out one or more on-site monitoring missions, and will report to the Director General of the DGD.

31. In addition, various projects receiving support in a given region may be the subject of follow-up missions organized by the DGD in collaboration with the diplomatic post.

32. All these missions will be carried out in close consultation with the organization (s) concerned.

10. Use of the grant / repayment

33. The recipient organization will ensure compliance with the laws and regulations of the country where the project will be implemented.

34. Transfer of claims can be allowed under no circumstance.

35. In cases where the subsidy is not fully used, the beneficiary organization must notify the DGD no later than 30 days after the end of the operation of the amount actually used. Regarding the part of the subsidy that has not been used or has not been sufficiently motivated, there are two possibilities:

• An established entitlement will then be defined for the recovery by the Belgian State of the unspent balance;
• For multilateral organizations with which Belgium has concluded a framework agreement, the procedures of this agreement will be followed.