Opportunity for civic initiatives

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

If you are:

• a new civil society organization (registered within the past 3 years), or
• an informal initiative group or social movement;

If you are:

• seeking to mobilize people in your community to influence real positive change,
• raising important issues that may not yet be widely understood or discussed in society and proposing solutions,
• ready to invest your time and energy in the development of your initiative, organisation or campaign,

We are looking for you!

Who are we?

Civil Society Actors as Drivers of Change in South Caucasus and Moldova is a regional project implemented by Czech NGO People in Need and funded by the European Union. We aim to support selected participants in developing a vision for change, planning concrete steps for how to achieve it, building capacities and accessing resources needed to go from plan to reality. We will work together with participants to design a tailored program to help their initiatives grow and achieve their goals.

With our program, you will have an opportunity to:

• develop a strategy for your initiative / organisation / campaign,
• take part in trainings, coaching, mentoring, consultations, study visits, fellowships,
• establish or improve connections with your supporters and volunteers,
• get support for research and building thematic expertise,
• get involved in policy dialogue at local, national or international level,
• network with peers and partners in the Republic of Moldova and abroad,
• find out if, why and how to engage with the private sector,
• find effective, transparent and accountable ways to self-organize and manage resources,
• get access to funding opportunities for your internal development and for your campaign (flexible funding ranging from EUR 5000 to 20000 linked to your strategic plan),
• try out other fundraising options that best suit your strategy.

People in Need started out in 1992 as a grassroots initiative by a group of Czech war correspondents who wanted to complement their reporting on conflicts and crises around the world with providing aid to those in need. Our co-founder and current director Simon Panek was a student activist during the Velvet Revolution, and the surge of creative energy, civic mobilization, and social responsibility during that time was the driving force behind who we are today. That’s why we are drawn to like-minded civic actors who are committed to building their communities and changing the world around them for the better.

We recognize the diversity of civil society and do not envision everyone following the same path of becoming NGOs similar to us today. On the other hand, we do believe that we have much to learn from and offer to each other.

More about who we are looking for

We aim to select 7 participants in the Republic of Moldova in the first year of the project.

Participants can be active in areas including but not limited to:

• community participation in decision-making
• quality of public services
• climate change and environment
• gender equality
• public spaces
• labour rights and working conditions
• social inclusion, rights of marginalized groups
• other civic / social / human rights topics or mitigating the impact of COVID-19 in these areas.

We strongly encourage applications from organizations and initiative groups with core activity outside the capital city.

Applications from religious or political organizations, public authorities or related organizations are not eligible under this call, as it is intended for new civil society actors not linked to larger institutions.

Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Primary motivation – systemic change (of policies, attitudes or behaviours) at the local or national level / qualifying criterion - yes/no
• Commitment to values of peace, democracy and human rights / qualifying criterion - yes/no
• Understanding of thematic area and of local social context / 25%
• Examples of previous civic or community actions (can be informal or small-scale – we are looking for groups with practical, proactive attitude and some initial understanding of challenges of working together for change, not a track record of project implementation) / 10%
• Interest in mobilizing others to achieve concrete changes and results. Openness to broadening the range of members, partners and stakeholders engaged / 20%
• Ability to assess own areas of weakness and motivation to improve and to develop their capacities / 20%
• Readiness to commit significant time and energy to the development of initiative/organisation/campaign over the next 12 months / 25%

Basic Timeline

• Application due date: 01.07.2020 until 17:00, at the email address: Moldova-CSA@peopleinneed.cz
  
• Information Session: 19.06.2020, between 10:00 – 11:00 in Romanian and between 11:15 – 12:15 in Russian / everyone interested to participate can register via email at Moldova-CSA@peopleinneed.cz until 18.06.2020, in order to receive the link for the session
  
• Please send your questions about the call to the email address Moldova-CSA@peopleinneed.cz by 26.06.2020
  
• Interviews with preselected candidates: will take place on a rolling basis,
• Publication of results: two weeks after deadline on the platform Civic.md
• Kick-off workshop for selected participants,
• Organizational capacity assessment and strategy development,
• Capacity building and funding opportunities linked to the strategy.

If you want to participate, please download and fill in the application form in Romanian or the application form in Russian, and send it to the email address Moldova-CSA@peopleinneed.cz by 01.07.2020 until 17:00!