IPA - Servië: Strengthening Serbia-EU Civil Society Dialogue (1 maart 2010)

The global objective of this Call for Proposals is to develop a sustainable civil society dialogue between Serbia and the EU Member States.
The specific objectives of this Call for Proposals are to:

- Support cooperation between professional organizations in Serbia and the EU in strengthening contacts and mutual exchange of experience between business community, professional organizations and social partners.
- Improve capacity of civil society organizations in formulation public policy, policy analysis and advocacy.
- Enhance new partnerships and networks between civil society organisations in Serbia and EU member states.

Duration: The planned duration of an action may not be less than 6 (six) nor exceed 12 (twelve) months.
Sectors or themes:
• Professional organisations contributing to Serbia’s successful EU accession;
• Mutual knowledge and understanding between EU, Western Balkans and Serbia – a pre-condition for long-term cooperation;
• Civil society dialogue with Serbian public authorities on policy formulation, implementation and monitoring;
• Civil society dialogue with EU institutions and the process of EU enlargement.
Location:
Actions must take place in the Republic of Serbia.
When indispensable to the successful implementation of the project some of the activities may take place in countries outside Serbia. The expenses incurred in this way could not be more than 20% of the total project expenditures.

Types of action

All actions have to be targeted directly at achieving the objectives of the Programme as per section 1.2 above.
The following list is not exhaustive and appropriate innovative actions that are not mentioned below may be considered for support:

• Transfer and practical adaptation of know-how and best practices from EU professional organisations and networks to their natural Serbian partners (associations of lawyers, judges and prosecutors, business associations, research, cultural and educational associations, health organizations, etc);
• CSOs promoting and advocating for respecting professional standards in licensing and accreditation – best EU practices;
• Adaptation of EU models for the protecting the rights of consumers, employees, patients, etc.
• Setting up new and sustaining mechanisms of the dialogue between the civil society and public authorities;
• Joint initiatives of CSOs and public authorities in drafting and implementing strategic documents and public policies;
• Strengthening the CSOs capacity in policy formulation, analysis and monitoring ;
• Promotion of sustainable partnership relations with the public sectors;
• Increasing knowledge of the benefits for the citizens at the different stages of EU integration process and informing the society about reforms to be undertaken related to that process;
• Participation in joint European CSO actions supporting diversity and EU enlargement;
• Raising the awareness of Serbian society of EU enlargement, European institutions and polices;
Types of activities

Types of activities which may be financed under this call for proposals:

• Networking and partnership building;
• Exchange of know-how and experience;
• Gathering, processing and provision of information;
• Organisation of training events and implementation of training programmes;
• Introducing new schemes of upgrading professional skills;
• Launching, dissemination and replication of effective models of EU civil society;
• Increasing volunteers’ participation and promoting public participation in different social activities;
• Drafting strategic policy documents;
• Civil society participation in public monitoring on policy implementation;
• Monitoring and evaluation of services delivered by the public sector;
• Organisation of seminars, conferences, workshops, round tables, etc.
• Translation and publication of conference proceedings, print and electronic publications, brochures, broadcasting programs and other forms of information dissemination etc.
• Organization of public events ( cultural events, public presentations, round tables and debates )
• Other activities in the context of the general purpose of the Programme.

Following the requirements published in the Communication and Visibility Manual for European Union External Actions , all applicants have to plan in their projects special visibility activities for promoting the project results and the EU financial support.
Considering the specifics of each one of the projects, for the promotion of the expected results and the EU support, applicants can plan to implement some of the visibility activities in the following non exhaustive list: publishing and disseminating promotional material, distributing public announcements on project activities and results, organise press conferences and public events, promote concrete project activities in printed and electronic media through interviews/reportages/articles/clips, etc.
The costs for implementing the visibility activities must be in total between 5% and 10% of direct eligible costs for the action.