EU Aid Volunteers Deployment 2019

Deadline: Jun 13, 2019  
CALL EXPIRED

Deployment of EU Aid Volunteers including optional apprenticeship placements, and management of online volunteering opportunities

The Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council establishing the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps – EU Aid Volunteers (hereinafter referred to as 'the EU Aid Volunteers' initiative)1 and related legislation2 establish a framework for joint contributions from European volunteers to support and complement humanitarian aid in third countries.

The present call for proposals will provide funding to deploy EU Aid volunteers in support of actions that support and complement the provision of humanitarian aid in third countries, that improve the resilience of vulnerable and disaster affected communities, or in support of actions that aim at linking relief rehabilitation and development.

Selection, preparation and deployment of junior and senior EU Aid Volunteers to contribute to strengthening the Union's capacity to provide needs-based humanitarian aid aimed at strengthening the capacity and resilience of vulnerable and disaster-affected communities in third countries by means of disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction and by enhancing the link between relief, rehabilitation and development.

1. OBJECTIVES

The deployment, apprenticeships and online volunteering opportunities for senior and junior professionals shall contribute to:

•   Capacity building of vulnerable or disaster-affected communities in third countries;

•   Resilience building and disaster risk management in vulnerable, fragile or disaster-affected countries and forgotten crises;

•   Disaster prevention, preparedness, disaster risk reduction and recovery from natural and man-made disasters;

•   Enhancing the link between relief, rehabilitation and development;

•   Support to emergency response operations.

  The activities funded under this call for proposals are expected to achieve the following results:

Selection, recruitment and deployment of 450 junior/senior professionals to communities in third countries in vulnerable and disaster-affected countries;

For 100 junior professionals: possibility to take part in apprenticeship placements in Europe before deployment;

To achieve synergies and complementarity with EU-funded operations in humanitarian aid, civil protection, resilience-building and linking relief, rehabilitation and development in the respective countries / region where EU Aid Volunteers are deployed;

To communicate the Union’s humanitarian aid principles and the EU Aid Volunteers initiative in line with the Communication Plan of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.

To provide opportunities for online volunteering to support or complement project activities.

2. ELIGIBLE BODIES

Before submitting an electronic application, all consortium members acting as sending or hosting organisation for volunteers, including affiliated entities having legal or capital link with certified sending organisations, must be certified or must have applied for certification under the EU Aid Volunteers initiative no later than on 13 May 2019.

More details about the certification mechanism and the application procedure can be found at:

https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/eu-aid-volunteers/funding/certification-mechanism-for-sending- and-hosting-organisations_en

Projects are designed and implemented by transnational partnerships involving at least two certified sending organisations from two different countries and two certified hosting organisations.

3. ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES

Activities supported under this call must include:

•   Selection, preparation and deployment of junior and senior EU Aid Volunteers to humanitarian aid projects in the area of disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction and LRRD in vulnerable and disaster-affected communities in third countries.

•   Communication activities in compliance with the Communication Plan of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.

Activities to support the implementation of the main action may include:

•   Apprenticeship placements for junior volunteers in EU sending organisations;

•   Online volunteering opportunities, via the EU Aid Volunteers Platform managed by the Commission, to support the actions of the EU Aid Volunteers;

•   Support for emergency response operations;

•   Capacity building of vulnerable, disaster affected communities and local organisations;

•   Capacity building of hosting organisations.

Project activities may include:

information, communication and public awareness;
hazard, risk analysis and early warning;
contingency planning and preparedness for response;
protection of livelihoods, assets and small scale mitigation works. ELIGIBLE IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD

Projects start at the earliest when the last party signs the grant agreement and can last for a maximum duration of 24 months. Within the project duration:

Deployment placements of EU Aid Volunteers can range between 1 month as a minimum and 18 months as a maximum.

In the case of support to emergency operations, deployment of EU Aid Volunteers can range between 2 weeks as a minimum and 3 months as a maximum.

Apprenticeship placements prior to the deployment of junior volunteers can take up to 6 months in one of the participating EU member states.

5 ELIGIBLE VENUE OF ACTIVITIES

EU Aid Volunteers shall not be deployed in the theatre of international and non-international armed conflicts.

An indicative list of third countries for deployments 2019 has been defined prior to the call according to a needs assessment methodology similar to that for humanitarian aid actions but excluding areas with on-going armed conflict. The list is also valid for deployments within emergency response operations. This list plus details of the methodology can be found under the following link: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/eu-aid-volunteers/funding_en

The list can be modified at any moment due to the events that could endanger the security and safety of volunteers. EU Aid Volunteers can only be sent to countries indicated on the list at the time of deployment.

Apprenticeship placements for junior volunteers prior to deployment must take place in one of the sending organisations’ offices participating in the project, where possible in a country other than the country of origin of the EU Aid Volunteer.

6. ELIGIBLE CANDIDATE VOLUNTEERS

Sending and hosting organisations shall adhere to the standards and procedures regarding candidate volunteers and EU Aid Volunteers as provided by Regulation (EU) No 375/2014, Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1398/2014 and Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1244/2014.

The following persons having a minimum age of 18 years shall be eligible to apply as candidate volunteers:

•   citizens of the European Union; and

•   third country nationals who are long-term residents in a Member State Justification for both statuses will be required

Candidate volunteers can be:

•   junior professionals, in particular recent graduates, with less than five years professional experience and less than five years experience in humanitarian action;
  or

•   senior professionals with five years professional experience in positions of responsibility or expert positions.

Volunteer profiles must be clearly linked to the objectives and the scope of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.

7. AWARD CRITERIA

Eligible applications will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria:

•   Relevance of the project, including the number of volunteers (maximum 30 points)

•   Quality of the project design and implementation (maximum 30 points)

•   Quality and relevance of the partnership and cooperation arrangements (maximum 20 points)

•   Impact and dissemination (maximum 20 points)

PROJECTS SCORING LESS THAN 60 OVERALL POINTS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR FUNDING.

8. BUDGET AVAILABLE

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects is estimated at EUR 10 000 000.

The maximum grant will be EUR 1 400 000. Grant requests below EUR 100 000 will not be considered for funding.

9. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS
Proposals duly completed must be submitted by 12:00 (mid-day, Brussels time) on 13 June

2019.
Applications sent by post, fax or e-mail will not be accepted. 10. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Applications must comply with the provisions contained in the application guidelines – Call for proposals EACEA/10/2019, be submitted on the e-Form provided for this purpose and contain the relevant annexes (official templates to be used).

The said documents can be found at the following address: