- The process for applications and awards, including proposed schedule
- Eligibility criteria for beneficiaries
- Eligible activities
- Assessment criteria
- Requirements in terms of branding and visibility of the UNDEF sponsorship
- Different types of geographical coverage (global, regional and country projects)
- Management arrangements available (CSOP and CSOP+EA)
- Monitoring, reporting and evaluation requirements; and
- The commitment to transparency and assistance of the UNDEF Office to applicants
in this process
1. Background of UNDEF
At the 2005 World Summit held at the United Nations in New York, Heads of State and Government reaffirmed their commitment to promote democracy and human rights, by welcoming “the establishment of a Democracy Fund at the United Nations1” (herein referred to as ‘UNDEF’).
UNDEF’s primary purpose is to strengthen the voice of civil society and ensure the participation of all groups in democratic practices. The Fund complements current UN efforts to strengthen and expand democracy worldwide and funds projects that enhance democratic dialogue and support for constitutional processes, civil society empowerment, including the empowerment of women, civic education and voter registration, citizen’s access to information, participation rights and the rule of law in support of civil society and transparency and integrity. UNDEF is a Trust Fund established through voluntary contributions from Member States, under the authority of the Secretary-General.
UNDEF is guided by its Advisory Board, which includes representatives of Member States, eminent academics and global civil society leaders. Thus, participation in the activities of UNDEF bestows prestige to all its stakeholders and signifies for its beneficiaries a high level of political commitment to democratic values.
2. Mandate of UNDEF
UNDEF finances projects primarily carried out by civil society organizations as well as independent constitutional bodies, regional and international organizations. UNDEF aims to support action-oriented projects to bring about measurable and tangible improvements in democracy and human rights on the ground, thereby translating the concept of “democracy” into practical solutions for people to have their voices and choices heard.
UNDEF-financed projects will be implemented over a period of two years, principally at country level and in least developed, low or middle income countries. UNDEF also provides discrete funding to a number of regional and global projects promoting democracy (see § 5.1). Eligibility criteria are elaborated further in Section 5.
3. Scope of the Guidelines
These guidelines describe the application procedure for UNDEF grants. The basic principle behind the two-stage approach of the UNDEF application procedure, and in particular of the first stage (call for applications), is to allow interested parties to have their projects short-listed by providing the basic information needed by UNDEF to reach a decision in principle. UNDEF only needs the applicants to invest the time and resources to produce a full project document when a proposal has been short-listed (the second stage).
The Project Proposal Guidelines may be periodically revised in subsequent rounds of UNDEF funding cycles to take account of best practices and lessons learned. For further information, please visit the UNDEF website at http://www.un.org/democracyfund.
4. Application Procedure
4.1 Schedule
- 10 November 2008
Call for Applications Online application software opened - 31 December 2008
Deadline for application submission Online application software closed - Mid-February 2009
Deadline for UNDEF Office to arrive at “long short-list” - Mid-March 2009
Deadline for PCG & UN Resident Coordinators (RCs) to provide comments - Early April 2009
Deadline for Advisory Board to adopt short-list - Mid-April
Deadline for Permanent Missions to be informed of projects short-listed in their countries - Late May 2009
Deadline for Advisory Board recommendation to Secretary-General - Early June 2009
Request to short-listed applicants to draft detailed project documents - Mid-July 2009
Deadline for submission of detailed project documents - August 2009
Clearance of projects by UNDEF Office and commencement of disbursement to beneficiaries 2 - End September 2010
Deadline for submission of biennial project substantive mid-term reports - End September 2011
Deadline for submission of biennial project substantive final reports - End November 2011
Deadline for submission of biennial project certified financial statements
4.2 Call for Applications
The Third Round of UNDEF Funding will begin when the call for applications is launched on 10 November 2008. The deadline for submissions will be 31 December 2008. Organizations wishing to apply for UNDEF funding should visit the UNDEF website where they will be prompted to complete an online application process. An outline of the requirements of the Online Project Proposal System (OPPS) is provided in Annex 1 to this document.
Applications will be accepted by the OPPS only during the application period i.e. 10 November – 31 December 2008. Applications must be received online by 31 December 2008. The Fund will not accept proposals submitted via e-mail, regular post, facsimile, diplomatic or UN pouch, hand or courier delivery or any other channel. Applications can only be submitted in English or French, the two working languages of the United Nations. A confirmation email will be generated by the OPPS confirming receipt of the online application. The UNDEF Office will communicate directly with the applicant should additional information be required.
4.3 Award Decisions
Proposed projects will be assessed by the UNDEF Office, short-listed by the Fund’s Programme Consultative Group (PCG), in consultation with United Nations Resident Coordinators, and reviewed by UNDEF’s Advisory Board. The Advisory Board will submit a recommendation of awards to the Secretary-General, who holds the ultimate authority for the funding decision.
Decisions on the selection of projects to be funded will be considered “approvals in principle”. Final approval will depend upon successful finalisation of a full project document. The project document should be completed within 6 weeks of the notification of the “approval in principle”. Failure of the applicant to comply with this deadline may result in UNDEF not going ahead with the grant. Extended deadlines may be granted on an exceptional basis to especially complex projects by UNDEF Office.
By early June 2009, all successful short-listed applicants will be notified at the electronic address indicated in their application, unless otherwise advised on the UNDEF website. UNDEF does not have the resources to individually advise unsuccessful applicants.
4.4 Successful Proposals and Detailed Project Documents
Proposals approved in principle for funding by UNDEF will have to be elaborated into detailed (full) project documents and meet the usual standards of international good practice, prior to receiving final approval for disbursement. Project documents should follow the UNDEF format as will be further explained in the “Third Round Project Document Guidelines” which will be available on the UNDEF website prior to notification of short-listing.
A detailed project document will include at least the following information:
- a cover page with an executive summary of the project expressing the total budget, the amounts and sources of funding (template to be provided by UNDEF);
- a situation analysis, including lessons learned in earlier or concurrent efforts in the same field and country/region, that will develop the “problem being addressed” section of the original proposal;
- the objectives of the project and a description of the planned activities;
- a risk assessment which will express the level of engagement of national authorities and other stakeholders;
- information on the methodology with which the project was developed and the consultation process for its finalization;
- a logical framework with results-based performance indicators, a biennial work plan with activity implementation deadlines and costs for those activities (i.e. activities budget);
- a detailed annual budget by input for the full period with indication of other sources of funding and an indication of other funding organizations to which the proposal has been or will be submitted
- a communications strategy that takes into due account the commitments on visibility of UNDEF (see § 4.5)
- legal, managerial and implementation arrangements including names and details of the key individuals in charge of the proposed project, the Financial Management, the Reporting and Monitoring arrangements and a proposed evaluation strategy. Detailed project documents will be submitted to UNDEF by email (Democracyfund@un.org) by the cut-off date indicated in the schedule (see § 4.1). Inability to complete the detailed project document requirements by the established deadline may result in cancellation of the grant allocation.
4.5 Branding and Visibility
Successful beneficiaries will be expected to comply with the “UNDEF Branding and Visibility Rules” posted on the UNDEF website. These rules ensure that projects totally or partially funded by UNDEF visibly acknowledge the United Nations’ support. They cover the written and visual identity of UNDEF and apply to print, electronic and any other material, presentation, banner, invitation, sign, plaque, other hardware and items purchased with UNDEF funding or produced within a UNDEF-funded project.
4.6 Declined Proposals
Organizations whose applications were not approved for funding will not be notified individually. Such organizations may wish to revisit the UNDEF website periodically to be aware of future calls for applications. Applicants who have not received a positive response by the end of June should consider this silence as decisive, unless otherwise advised on the UNDEF website.
5. Eligibility Criteria
5.1 Country and Global/Regional Projects
UNDEF will invite proposals for projects that either take place in one country only, or occur in several specified states of a region or sub-region or intend to operate at the global level. UNDEF will reserve at least 70% of its programmable resources in each funding round for projects taking place in one country and will allocate no more than 30% to global/regional projects.
5.2 Duration of Projects and Amounts Awarded
In principle, UNDEF grants will be allocated for projects with a default duration of two years. However, it is fully acceptable to UNDEF if a successful applicant completes a project in less than 2 years. Grants will not necessarily match the full amounts applied for. Grant allocations will in principle not exceed US$500,000 for any given project, and will be of a minimum of US$50,000. Once the implementation period has elapsed, beneficiaries will be required to revert unspent funding to the UNDEF.
5.3 Eligible Beneficiaries
The following institutions are eligible for UNDEF grant funding:
- Civil Society Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations3, engaged in promoting democracy4 which are anticipated to receive the bulk of the funding
- Independent and Constitutional Bodies, including Election Commissions, Ombudsman Institutions, National Human Rights Institutions and other independent governance bodies, for project proposals facilitating the inclusion of the voice of civil society.
- Global and Regional inter-government bodies, organizations and associations other than the United Nations, for project proposals which strengthen the voice of civil society.
5.4 Priority Countries and Regional Balance
While applications from all countries will be considered, strong preference will be given to applicants from countries and regions where the challenges of democracy are more critical, such as countries emerging from conflict, new and restored democracies, the Least Developed Countries (as per the official classification of the UN-OHRLLS), Low Income Countries (“Low Income Economies” as per the World Bank’s official classification based on Gross National Income per capita) and Middle Income Countries (“Lower and Upper Middle-income Economies”, idem). UNDEF aspires to a satisfactory regional balance in the awarding of grants, and will consider each individual proposal on its own merits. UNDEF encourages local CSO’s to submit high quality applications.
5.5 Appropriate Activities
The following activities are appropriate for funding:
- (a) Democratic dialogue and support for constitutional processes: This includes activities that enhance the interaction of people (and especially marginalized groups) with their government; that foster national dialogue, democracy and reconciliation amongst diverse communities and actors.
- (b) Civil society empowerment, including the empowerment of women: This includes activities that strengthen civil society capacities to participate in democratic processes, including umbrella organizations and institutional interfaces between civil society and the State.
- (c) Civic education and voter registration: This includes activities to enhance people’s participation in democratic processes, especially elections at the national and local levels, with particular emphasis on the involvement of marginalized groups.
- (d) Citizen’s access to information: This includes activities such as strengthening the legal framework for access to information; enhancing the availability of information provided by government institutions to the public; bolstering the ability of the media to act as a medium of democratic information; and increasing the level of pluralism in the sources of public and private information.
- (e) Participation rights and the rule of law in support of civil society: This includes support for activities that enhance participation rights as well as activities to promote access to justice by marginalised groups.
- (f) Transparency and integrity: This includes support for watchdog groups and institutions both public and private including civil society organizations and NGOs, and the media, aiming at increasing transparency and integrity in public policy delivery.
5.6 Assessment Criteria
During the assessment process, project proposals will be assessed based on the following ten assessment criteria:
- The project promotes the objectives of UNDEF
- The project draws on the United Nations comparative advantage
- The project will have a significant impact
- The project will encourage inclusiveness
- The project will enhance gender equality
- The project has strong prospects for successful implementation
- The applicant organization has a strong track record
- The project is technically sound in conception and presentation
- The project represents good value for money
- The project has strong prospects of sustainability beyond the project duration.
5.7 Additional Considerations
- (a) Relations between Civil Society and Governmental Bodies: The Fund’s special interest is in fostering more open exchanges and thereby better relations between civil society and the institutions of governance, including independent constitutional bodies. UNDEF will look for projects that lead to this outcome.
- (b) Gender/women: All successful proposals must ensure that projects are sensitive to gender issues and that greater participation of women in democratization is a likely outcome of the project.
- (c) Inclusion and participation of marginalized segments of society and vulnerable groups, beyond gender: Proposals should clearly indicate how these groups will be involved in and/or benefit from the project.
- (d) Professional affiliations and/or cooperation with regional or global networks, organizations or associations: Applications should indicate any affiliations and/or cooperation relationships that may be of relevance for the assessment of project proposals. UNDEF is interested in working with both experienced organizations and agencies that have a long-standing commitment to democratic values and a proven track record in successful project management, as well as more recently formed organizations that have developed robust management systems and strong working relationships with other organizations. UNDEF reserves the right to request additional background information on organizations that do not have previous experience administering grant awards and/or partnering with the United Nations or other grant-making organizations.
- (e) South-South Cooperation: UNDEF welcomes projects that make maximum use of local and regional resources and which transfer know-how and solutions between countries with similar or relevant experience.
- (f) Low-priority types of expenditures and activities: UNDEF will not give priority to project proposals which focus on the following:
- Initiatives which do not promote democracy
- Initiatives filling a funding gap for ongoing activities
- Activities that can more appropriately be funded by other funding sources (e.g. Thematic Trust Funds or the Peacebuilding Commission’s Fund)
- Activities where a substantial part of the budget covers institutional recurrent costs and/or personnel costs, travel and/or conference services
- Projects focused primarily on research
- Activities where the proportion of hardware purchases is too significant in the context of total project costs.
5.8 Management Arrangements and Executing Agencies
Applicants can choose between different types of management arrangements for delivery of UNDEF projects:
- CSO-Implemented projects without Executing Agency (CSOP) Projects where the CSO or other applicant does not partner with an Executing Agency. The CSO is responsible for the overall management of the project and bears all substantive, financial, monitoring, reporting and evaluation responsibilities. In the Second Round, the vast majority of applications adopted this format.
- CSO-Implemented projects with Executing Agency (CSOP + EA) Projects where the applicant partners with an Executing Agency who will oversee and monitor the project and act as UNDEF’s agent for project oversight. The CSO or other applicant will bear substantive responsibility for achieving results in the project. The Executing Agency will be responsible for the oversight of the project and will bear all financial, monitoring, reporting and evaluation responsibilities.
UNDEF does not prefer one implementation modality over another. It is the applicant’s decision whether or not to work with an Executing Agency. Executing Agencies can be UN Agencies, intergovernmental or regional institutions or larger, more-established international NGOs/CSOs. Should an applicant decide to work with an Executing Agency the applicant must seek the consent of the Executing Agency prior to submitting their application, and must indicate in the application the contact details of the person who has given this consent
The Executing Agency will normally be entitled to charge 5% of the project’s budget for its overhead cost in overseeing the project, unless otherwise advised by UNDEF. This fee must cover all financial, contractual, reporting, evaluation and other agreed services to the project. The CSO or other applicant in both modalities of the project will be allowed to charge the project budget with its direct Programme Support Costs (e.g. salaries, travel, rent, office supplies), as per local conditions and best international practice. UNDEF expects these costs to be modest and they will impact on the assessment of the project proposal under the “Value for Money” assessment criterion (see 5.8).
5.9 Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation
Monitoring
Monitoring of project activities will be done in several ways. All project applicants must monitor their own activities. In addition, if the project is CSOP + EA, all executing agencies will be also responsible for project monitoring and submission of reports. If the project is CSOP, UNDEF will appoint monitors to observe project milestones. Further information on milestones will be available at the project document drafting stage. Finally, UNDEF will monitor projects by way of review of mid-term and progress reports and will on occasion perform monitoring visits as well.
Reporting
All projects will be required to submit mid-term and final narrative and financial reports. These reports will be considered public information. UNDEF mid-term and final progress report templates and corresponding guidelines will be made available on the UNDEF website. All financial reports must include an audited or certified financial statement, reflect interest earned on funds received from UNDEF, show any parallel funds received by the recipient for complementary activities and align expenses with activities and milestones. Further details will be provided to successful applicants through the “Third Round Project Document Guidelines”.
Evaluation
All projects must have a proposed evaluation strategy that will be further detailed in the project document.
For CSOP projects, UNDEF reserves the right to appoint monitors and evaluators and will pay for those services out of the funds that have been retained from each project. UNDEF has the discretion to use these funds for related or similar purposes as well. The applicant will cooperate with UNDEF-appointed monitors, will be responsible for collecting baseline information and feedback forms throughout the project lifecycle and if requested, will arrange for an independent evaluation with funds covered by UNDEF.
For CSOP + EA projects, the Executing Agency will arrange for the evaluation and should discuss its scope with UNDEF prior to undertaking the evaluation.
10% of the project budget (up to a maximum of $25,000 for most projects) will be kept aside for monitoring and evaluation purposes. For CSOP +EA projects, the 10% will be used to pay the administrative overhead fee (which includes monitoring, reporting, and evaluation) and the balance will be used by UNDEF for third-party evaluation that may be needed for comparative or thematic evaluation.
6. Transparency and Assistance to Applicants
The UNDEF Office is committed to providing punctual, accurate and user-friendly guidelines. While it cannot provide direct support to the preparation of applications, projects or reports, it will nonetheless try to respond promptly to queries received.
UNDEF will ensure that all guidelines, procedures and other policy documents are made available on its website on a timely basis and in a user friendly format. UNDEF will, in any event, provide all relevant information on its website on the appraisal cycle and process. UNDEF will also apply a policy of transparency with regard to the approved projects.
During the assessment process, application information will be shared with the UNDEF Office, the UN Programme Consultative Group, the UN Resident Coordinators and the UNDEF Advisory Board. Once short-listed by the Advisory Board, basic information about the proposal will be provided, as a matter of courtesy, to the Permanent Missions to the UN of the country in which the project is to take place. Once the project document has been approved, information on projects receiving UNDEF grants will be posted on the UNDEF web site.
Annex 1: Outline of Online Project Proposal System (OPPS)
The Online Project Proposal System (OPPS) is an on-line system that allows prospective grantees to submit their applications to UNDEF electronically. The OPPS can be accessed at the UNDEF website at www.un.org/democracyfund. The present outline describes the application procedure for the third round of UNDEF grants that any applicant will have to complete online. All applications must be completed in English or French. Applications can be submitted only through our OPPS. Applications submitted by e-mail, regular post, facsimile, diplomatic or UN pouch, hand or courier delivery or any other channel will NOT be considered.
Please note:
The fields can accommodate a limited number of characters. You need to present your project information in a concise and clear manner. For example, the project summary or the project activities have to be outlined in a succinct and coherent way. When filling in the form please ensure that you do not go over the characters allowed or your text will be truncated. This affects greatly the quality of your proposal.
All the fields with the symbol (*) are compulsory.
The OPPS has a saving function which allows you to begin drafting and then save an application to continue it at a later point. Once your application is saved, you will receive an email with all the necessary information to log into the system and continue working on your application prior to submission..
Saving your application does not submit your application to UNDEF. Your application is submitted to UNDEF once you click the “preview and submit” buttons at the end of the form. You will receive a confirmation email soon after submitting your application. This email will contain your application receipt number. Should you not receive this email within 48 hours of submission, contact us at democracyfund@un.org.
• You cannot edit an application once it has been submitted. You will be able to view your submitted application only while the application period is open (10 November – 31 December 2008).
For this reason, UNDEF recommends you keep a copy of your project application. UNDEF will not send submitted applications back to applicants.
Contents of Application Form
1. Applicant Information
- Name of organization or entity applying
- Type of institution
- Name, title and contact information of head of entity
- Name, title and contact information of designated contact
- Relevant prior experience
- Affiliations or cooperation with national or international associations/organizations (both formal and informal)
- First time or prior applicant/ obtained funding in earlier UNDEF rounds
2. Project Information
- Project title
- Project location
- Project summary
- Duration
- Requested amount
- Applicant’s contribution (cash or in-kind)
- Activity line
- Gender considerations
- Marginalized or vulnerable groups
3. Project Description
- Problem being addressed
- Objectives/Purpose of the project
- Key activities
- Outputs/deliverable products
- Results/outcomes
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Innovative aspects
- Sustainability of the initiative/project
- Why UNDEF?
4. Partner Information (if applicable)
1. Is there an Executing Agency for this project?
If so: 1.1 Name of the Executing Agency
1.2 Name of the contact person
1.3 Position
1.4 Email
1.5 Phone number
1 Is there an Implementing Partner(s) of this project? If so, please provide details.
2 Other Donors/Sponsors and amounts of their contribution
5. Budget
All budgets should be expressed in US dollars and should contain rounded figures only. UNDEF requires two different budget types:
- A) An indicative budget by activities, (see 1st budget sample table) with broad cost estimates for each major activity funded by UNDEF. A maximum of 15 activities can be submitted;
- B) An additional budget by inputs to be funded by UNDEF (see 2nd budget sample table)
Both budgets should have a budget line where 10% of the total estimated project costs which will be set aside by UNDEF to cover Monitoring and Evaluation. For proposals over US$250,000, a maximum of US$25,000 will be set aside. For CSOP +EA projects, the 10% will cover the administrative overhead fee of the Executing Agency (usually 5% of the total estimated project costs). This fee must cover all financial, contractual, reporting and other agreed services to the project. The balance will be used by UNDEF for additional third-party evaluation that may also be needed for comparative or thematic evaluation.
For CSOP and CSOP + EA projects, the Implementing Agency is allowed to charge the project budget directly with reasonable and modest Programme Support Costs (costs which are necessary to carry out the project such as staff, travel, rent, office supplies, etc) that are anticipated to remain a modest proportion of the budget.
The budgets are part of the application and take the following form:
Sample UNDEF Budget by Activity
Activity description Amount in
Activity 1 e.g. training course for women local councillors 0
Activity 2 e.g.voter education campaign targeted at youth 0
Activity 3 e.g. development of advocay/outreach materials (DVDs, brochures
etc.) 0
Activity 4 e.g. meeting of stakeholders to provide recommendations on
measures to empower youth 0
Activity 5 e.g. production of radio/TV programme 0
Activity 6 e.g. study tour to country X 0
Activity 7 (… up to activity 15) 0
Monitoring and Evaluation,
Executing Agency fee (up
to 10% of the TPIC) 1
Please refer to the Project Proposal Guidelines for additional details
on how to calculate this amount
Total Estimated Project Implementation Costs (TPIC)
Total Requested Grant Amount 3
Annex II
Commitments
Applicants will be requested to tick four boxes committing to:
- Develop a project by the established deadline following the “UNDEF Third Round Project Document Guidelines”
- Abide by the “UNDEF Branding and Visibility Rules” in all activities and products of the project if it were to be awarded a grant
- Provide narrative mid-term and final substantive progress reports (that will include a participatory feedback process involving all key programme stakeholders), annual audited or certified financial statements and ensure or participate in appropriate project evaluation as per the established Monitoring & Evaluation norms contained in the project proposal guidelines and UNDEF Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation Guidelines
- Take all necessary measures to facilitate evaluations or audits as and when required by UNDEF or a third party on its behalf
In the case of CSOs, the following additional commitments will be requested by the same procedure: - The Applicant CSO/NGO does not intend to provide any type of support for any member, affiliate or representative of an organization that recommends or is apologetic of the use of violent means in political action in general and of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations in particular, as stated in the 2005 World Summit Outcome document (§81).
- As per ECOSOC Resolution 1996/31 on consultative relationship, as well as the UNDPI criteria for associated NGOs, the Applicant CSO/NGO’s aims and purposes are in conformity with the spirit, purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
- The CSO/NGO is duly constituted nationally or internationally. 9 The CSO/NGO has statutes/by-laws providing for a transparent process of decision making, elections of officers and members of the Board; the CSO has authority to speak for its members through its authorized representatives identified above.
Applicants are therefore advised to read very carefully the the Project Proposal Guidelines on the UNDEF website.