Today July 1st 2021, The Programme Operator of Programme “Local development, poverty reduction and enhanced inclusion of vulnerable groups”, funded by the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021, has announced a call for project proposals "Integrated measures for Roma inclusion and empowerment"
The context of the call is to enhance Roma inclusion and empowerment in Bulgaria. The general objective of the call is to create sustainable mechanisms to improve the status and opportunities of people living in marginalized Roma communities through effective integrated approaches. More specifically, this call aims to support projects that link multiple and complementary interventions to improve access to social services, education, employment, health, and non-discrimination. The projects should be based on active Roma community participation and on inter-sectoral cooperation between local service institutions (local authorities, civil society and other service providers).
Eligible applicants/Project promoter/s
Eligible applicants: Municipalities where Roma communities account for at least 5% of the total number of inhabitants and where the Roma communities live in clusters numbering at least 2,000 inhabitants. In order to achieve the specified number of people living in marginalised and/or poor and/or remote disadvantaged areas, the PO strongly recommends the formation of partnerships between individual municipalities. Project proposals elaborated and implemented in partnership with another municipality/ies will receive more points in the evaluation of project proposals. The planned activities shall be targeted at representatives of the target groups from all project partner municipalities simultaneously. Each municipality may take part (as an applicant or a partner) in only one project proposal.
Eligible partners from Bulgaria: Any public authorities and non-governmental organisations.
NOTE! The project shall be implemented in partnership with one or more non-governmental organisations (NGO) established in Bulgaria, with at least 3 years of successful experience of work in the field of Roma inclusion and empowerment, preferably including experience in integrated approach to service provision, as well as effective forms of mobilizing Roma community participation and self-organizing. It is recommendable that at least one of the NGO partners is a Roma organization that has experience of working with the target community (and/or similar communities).
The project shall be jointly developed with the partner NGO organisation, following extensive consultations with the representatives of the vulnerable community (communities) where the project will be implemented. Joint development of the project shall be evidenced by supporting documents, proving the consultation process and described in detail in the needs analysis. The management team shall include at least one representative of the partner non-governmental organisation.
One non-governmental organization may participate as project partner in not more than three project proposals. In case the non-governmental organisation is a partner in more than one project proposal the partner(s) should have operational capacity (e.g. offices, local employees, partnerships with local organisations, etc.) to implement activities at local level.
Eligible foreign partners: Any public or private entities, commercial or non commercial, non-governmental organisations established as a legal person either in the Donor States, Beneficiary States or a country outside the European Economic Area that has a common border with the respective Beneficiary State, or any international organisation or body or agency thereof, actively involved in, and effectively contributing to, the implementation of a project pursuant to Article 7.2.2 of the Regulation on the implementation of the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.
Involvement of and cooperation with a partner from a Donor State (Icelend, Liechtenstein and Norway) in the project is supported and encouraged in relation to the main objective of the EEA FM to improve the bilateral relations between the Donor States and Bulgaria.
In order to assist potential applicants seeking project partners from the Donor States, a Bilateral Fund (BF) to support travel and project development is available at Programme level. The rules for requesting funding under this fund are published on the Programme Operator website:
In order to assist in the search of partners from Donor States during the Covid-19 State of Emergency, the PO and the Programme partners – KS and the Council of Europe will organize an online matchmaking event for which more detailed information will be provided on the official Programme’s website.
Budget for the call, amount of funding and project grant rate:
Total budget: 8 000 000 Euro
Minimum grant applied for: 500 000 (five hundred thousand) Euro
Depending on the number of people with current address registration in the marginalised, poor, underprivileged communities with mostly Roma origin, the maximum grant applied for shall be:
- Number of representatives from 2 000 to 5 000 people, maximum amount: 750 000 Euro
- Number of representatives from 5 001 to 10 000 people, maximum amount: 1 000 000 Euro
- Number of representatives over 10 001 people, maximum amount: 1 200 000 Euro.
Grants may be up to 100% of total eligible expenditure of the project.
Project activities should cover integrated measures in the fields of education, social and integrated services, health, employment, vocational training and other specifically needed areas of intervention; activities for Roma empowerment and participation in the development and implementation of policies and services that affect the development of the community; activities to increase the access and quality of sectoral or integrated services for Roma; activities to increase the level of acceptance between the Roma and the main population and to counteract discrimination and negative attitudes against the Roma population;
The deadline for application is September 30th, 2021 until 18:00 h.
The Application Guidelines and the related documents are published in UMIS 2020:
https://eumis2020.government.bg/en/s/Procedure/Info/57f93f9d-a30f-450b-aecf-46ff193e5f4f
The Programme Operator of “Local development, poverty reduction and enhanced inclusion of vulnerable groups” Programme funded by the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021, will hold an Information Day for which more detailed information will be provided on the official website and Facebook page of the Programme. The event will explain to potential applicants the technical details of the application guidelines.