The Federal Foreign Office s Funding Concept

Transcription

1 June 29th, 2011 The Federal Foreign Office s Funding Concept Federal Foreign Office support for international measures in the fields of crisis prevention, peacekeeping and conflict management (Division VN 02) Step by step before submitting your application Before applying you should clarify whether your project idea is compatible with the funding criteria. What projects does the Federal Foreign Office promote? Support will be granted to projects and measures, from German or international NGOs, aimed at managing current conflicts, preventing potential conflicts or consolidating the situation following a conflict. Contributions by civil society to international peace efforts or peacekeeping missions by international organizations, for example the UN and its regional organizations or specialized agencies, can also be considered for promotion. For the purposes of this Concept, conflict means violent hostilities between states or population groups in a state or a region. Support focuses on generating social consensus regarding solutions to (potentially) violent conflicts. The aim is to develop a low-violence or non-violent culture of conflict, for example through precautionary as well as follow-up measures involving mediation, promotion of dialogue, confidence-building or reconciliation between the conflicting parties. The projects are to be conducive to constructively influencing the circumstances and addressing the causes of a conflict. These include, for example, projects aimed at coming to terms with the past and promoting a multi-ethnic culture of cooperation. One special focus is on measures designed to strengthen and improve the rule of law. Alongside measures to reform state structures, promotion is also given to projects seeking to improve civilian structures and capabilities. The aim is to enable the states or regions involved to resolve conflicts themselves. The projects are to help strengthen local peace capacities, taking gender-specific aspects into particular consideration, launch processes of generating social consensus on possible solutions, visibly contribute towards conflict transformation,

2 make considerable contributions towards a low-violence culture of conflict, encourage people to develop their own commitment and initiatives for peace, have peace consolidation as their long-term objective. Examples of projects already supported: civilian personnel and support for peace missions strengthening worldwide peace missions undertaken by international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) or the African Union (AU) by directly deploying German civilian personnel and by providing direct financial aid for civilian measures and logistical support, including materials, promoting basic and further-training centres for peacekeeping personnel, particularly in Africa, e.g. training courses for rule of law experts, re-integrating ex-combatants into society, e.g. child soldiers in Nepal, fostering traditional forms of conflict mediation, e.g. training justices of the peace in Chad, providing further training for psycho-social experts to enable them to treat victims and perpetrators, e.g. in Iraq and the Palestinian territories, creating dialogue spaces for conflicting parties (round tables, workshops, moderated discussions, etc.), for example in Lebanon, promoting reconstruction and the integration of refugees, also by improving their livelihoods, e.g. in Georgia and Iraq, organizing training measures to promote conflict-sensitive journalism, for example in Iraq and the Sudan. Academic projects (studies, seminars, conferences, etc.) are only supported in exceptional cases and only if they are geared towards a specific requirement for political advice, the development of conflict resolution models or the training of civilian peace personnel, or if they represent per se a dialogue measure between conflict parties. Who is eligible to receive funding? The Federal Foreign Office is cooperating both with international organizations and foreign state bodies and with a broad spectrum of NGOs in the fields of crisis prevention, peacekeeping and conflict resolution. To receive support, these German or international NGOs must be able to prove that their self-defined spectrum of tasks enables the realization of the projects and measures submitted for funding, and they should have experience in the specific project work. Individuals may not apply for funding. NGOs are free to exclusively use their own project personnel. The measures should ideally be implemented in conjunction with local partners. Applicant NGOs must possess legal status under

3 their country s laws and must guarantee sound management. Proof of legal status must be provided. NGOs must also ensure that they are able to constantly oversee their projects and measures using their own personnel (monitoring) and that they have a progressreview concept (evaluation). German political foundations and similar bodies, which already receive institutional funding, are not excluded from promotion under this Funding Concept. Applications should be submitted via their headquarters or branches in Germany. In which regions can projects be supported? Funding is oriented towards international conflict scenarios and the requirements of the conflict country or region. The beneficiaries of project funding should above all be conflict countries and regions to whose stabilization the Federal Foreign Office wants to contribute as part of international efforts. With this in mind, funding is focused on projects and measures in the conflict zones of Africa and the Middle East. Promotion from crisis prevention and conflict resolution funds cannot take place if special funds are available. For that reason, as a matter of principle, projects and measures in or for South- East Europe and Afghanistan are not funded due to the substantial level of contributions already made by Germany as part of the Stability Pacts. Projects allowable as an ODA (Official Development Assistance) contribution by the Federal Republic of Germany are preferred. Can primarily development policy projects be promoted? Development policy measures cannot be financed by the Federal Foreign Office in the fields of crisis prevention, peacekeeping and conflict resolution; in practice, however, there will be borderline cases and overlaps with development assistance projects. Moreover, no projects and measures are financed which already receive funding from other bodies out of Federal budget funds. In individual cases, however, promotion by more than one Federal authority is possible if the same measure serves different promotion policy aims. Can humanitarian or human rights projects be financed? Such projects can in some cases be financed by other Federal Foreign Office divisions; they are not eligible for funding from the crisis prevention budget.

4 How do I apply for funding? Applications for funding from the Federal Foreign Office budget with a scope of over 250,000 Euro must be submitted either directly or via the responsible mission abroad to the following address: Auswärtiges Amt Referat VN Berlin The enclosed application form must be filled in completely and signed by an authorized representative of the applicant NGO. Applications for funding from the Federal Foreign Office budget with a scope of less than 250,000 Euro must be submitted directly to the following address: ifa Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.v. zivik Funding Programme Linienstrasse 139/ Berlin zivik@ifa.de The enclosed application form must be filled in completely and signed by an authorized representative of the applicant NGO. Since 2001 the Federal Foreign Office has, via the ifa zivik project, promoted individual measures by German and international NGOs in the areas of crisis prevention, peacekeeping and conflict resolution. ifa zivik receives Federal Foreign Office project funding to promote German and international NGO measures. ifa zivik oversees the entire project cycle (application, disbursements, auditing of proof of employment of funds etc.), while the Federal Foreign Office retains the political orientation and overall responsibility. The ifa zivik project office, among other things, advises NGOs in Germany and abroad.

5 Do I have a right to funding? There is no legal right to the award of a grant. The Federal Foreign Office decides on submitted applications according to due assessment of the circumstances involved, on the basis of the availability of budget funds, in accordance with this Funding Concept and with the Administrative Regulations on paragraph 44 of the German Federal Budget Code (BHO), the General Auxiliary Provisions on Grants for the Promotion of Projects (ANBest-P) and the Special Auxiliary Provisions of the Federal Foreign Office on the Award of Grants (BNBest-AA) currently in force. Special attention must be paid to the requirements for the award of a grant set out in paragraph 1 of the Administrative Regulations on paragraph 44 of the BHO. These regulations are, where necessary and in harmony with the general principles of German budget law, also used mutatis mutandis when awarding grants to recipients based outside Germany. What kinds of funding are there? Grants are exclusively awarded as project funding. No institutional funding is provided. The following types of funding are possible in awarding a grant: deficit funding, when the recipient is unable to cover the promotable costs using his own resources or third-party funding. The grant must be limited to a specified maximum amount. The recipient s own funds and those provided by third parties must have been utilized prior to claiming the grant and before the repayment rate is set; partial funding of the costs, where the promotable costs are calculated according to a fixed percentage or share; partial funding of the costs, where the promotable costs are covered by a fixed sum. The precondition for this is that the recipient also utilizes his own or third party resources; in individual, exceptional cases full funding may be considered, if the recipient has no funds available for project implementation and if no third-party funding can be arranged, or if the recipient does not wish to use his own funds, but where the project and the aims to be achieved are to an overwhelming extent in the public interest. Further information on types of funding can be found in the General Auxiliary Provisions on Grants for the Promotion of Projects (ANBest-P). Projects are normally funded in the form of a non-repayable grant. In suitable cases a conditionally repayable grant may be selected. No loans are granted.

6 What project costs are eligible for funding? All expenditures necessary, as part of a cost-effective and thrifty budgetary management, for projects and measures aimed at achieving the approved grant purpose are eligible for a grant. The grant must be utilized by the recipient within the scope of the binding financial plan and the specified type of funding. How is project progress monitored? Progress monitoring is regularly carried out after the project is completed, using the indicators to be defined by the applicant when applying for funding. The Federal Foreign Office evaluates promoted projects where necessary, using evaluators from headquarters in Berlin, the relevant mission abroad, or external experts. What is the legal basis for funding? The German Bundestag plenary decision of 15 March 2001 (printed paper no. 14/3862) states that: Given the many trouble spots and the complexity of conflict situations, individual countries or organizations are often overstretched when it comes to resolving the problems. Civilian crisis prevention, civilian conflict management and post-conflict peacebuilding offer a prospect of success in particular if they have a subsidiary, multilateral and multidimensional structure, if different governmental, economic and social players and above all mediating forces from the conflict regions pull together. To increase effectiveness and efficiency, activities and programmes have to be discussed and coordinated at national, regional and international level. The federal budget has funds available annually to fulfil this ongoing mandate. The Federal Foreign Office funds are earmarked as Federal Foreign Office support for international measures in the fields of crisis prevention, peacekeeping and conflict management, and are used to promote crisis prevention measures, bearing in mind that the long-term success of international peace efforts and missions depends on initiatives and projects at different levels involving various approaches.