Support to Inclusive Governance in Ukraine

The total amount of funding available under the Support to Inclusive Governance in Ukraine call for concept notes is up to $30 million over 5 years. Global Affairs Canada may fund up to 3 proposals.

You must submit your application through the Partners@International portal before the deadline. Read all instructions on the portal carefully. If you are applying on behalf of a group of organizations, please ensure that each organization that will sign the funding agreement with Global Affairs Canada is registered in the Partners@International portal and has uploaded all required documents.

We will not accept any late submissions. To ensure that technical difficulties do not prevent you from submitting your concept note on time, we strongly suggest that you submit your application at least 3 working days before the deadline of Thursday, November 18, at 12 pm ET. Please read all portal instructions carefully.

The submission of a concept note is the first stage of a 2-stage application process. Funding will not be provided on the basis of the concept note alone. At the second stage, we will invite a limited number of proponents whose proposals best align with the objectives of the call to submit full proposals. Be sure to review the instructions contained in the How to apply for funding through a call web page before beginning your application.

Objectives

This call will support projects in Ukraine that are consistent with the Inclusive Governance Action Area Policy of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. It will support projects that strengthen the capacity of local and national government and non-government actors to respond in a more inclusive, transparent and accountable manner to the needs of all citizens, including women and girls and other vulnerable or marginalized groups, while also supporting their empowerment to claim their rights.

Specifically, the call will fund proposals that are aligned with Canada’s Inclusive Governance Policy priorities of enhancing participation in public life and ensuring that public services work for everyone.

To help meet these priorities in Ukraine, Global Affairs Canada will only consider concept notes that propose to work in at least one of the following three inclusive governance areas:

1. support to civil society organizations and citizen engagement, including civic education;
2. support to local governance and local, district, and regional governments, in the context of decentralization and regional development reforms in Ukraine, with a particular focus on sectoral decentralization (such as, but not limited to, delivery of social services and domestic resource mobilization at the local level); and,
3. support to public administration reform, including local, district and regional level public administrations, inclusive policy making and local public finance management.

Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy states that: “No less than 95 percent of Canada’s bilateral international development assistance initiatives will target or integrate gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.” Priority will be given to proposals that meet the requirement of targeting (GE-3) or fully integrating (GE-2) gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment in their design. Applicants must include gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) that identifies gender equality gaps and ensures that proposed solutions directly respond to the GBA+ analysis, across activities, outputs and outcomes.

Ultimate Outcome

Under this call, your proposed project must contribute to the achievement of enhancing democratic, inclusive and gender equal governance in Ukraine that is effective in meeting the needs of all Ukrainians. 

Note: You may refine the call’s ultimate outcome statement to ensure it is grounded in the reality of your project design, making them more specific in terms of your project’s who, what and where. Refer to Results-based management for international assistance programming: A how-to guide to ensure that your outcome statements respect Global Affairs Canada’s definition of intermediate and ultimate outcomes.

In support of the theory of change in the concept note application form, please include a separate Logic Model  (PDF version - 91 KB) that visually depicts the outcome statements down to the immediate results level and reflects the series of changes that are critical to achieving project success.

Additional Information

The following definitions should help applicants understand the Ultimate Outcome:

• Enhanced includes both “improved” and “increased” change.
• Democratic means that institutions function according to democratic processes and norms, both internally and in their interaction with other institutions (ODHIR)
• Inclusive means that choices and decisions incorporate the voices, interests, and rights of all stakeholders and marginalised groups regardless of specific characteristics such as gender, religion, age, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or physical/mental disability.
• Gender equal means that all individuals and groups (diverse groups of women, men and non-binary people) hold the same status and rights de jure and de facto, and that they are able to participate fully in all spheres of life, contributing to an inclusive and democratic society.
• Effective means that individuals and governing bodies are fulfilling their roles, responsibilities and functions towards the achievement of expected results.

Organization eligibility

Carefully review the following requirements that we will use to determine the eligibility of application packages submitted for this particular call. We will not pre-assess or comment on the eligibility of specific potential applicants or application packages. To be eligible, you must meet each requirement and, where stipulated, provide supporting documentation:

• Your organization is a legally incorporated non-governmental organization (NGO) or private sector organization from Canada, Ukraine or any other country, and you have provided proof of legal status for your registration in the Partners@International portal (if your original documentation is in a language other than French or English, provide a scan of the original, as well as a translation).
• If your organization is Canadian, you must also provide a Canada Revenue Agency business number
• You are not a sovereign entity (a government of a country) or multilateral institution, international member-based organization, or international financial institution (IFI).
• You must provide 2 separate financial statements for the most recent fiscal years for each organization that will sign the funding agreement with Global Affairs Canada (audited statements are preferred; if these are not available, the statements must be signed by a member of the board of directors of the organization, by the board’s delegate or by the owner(s). Note: since financial statements usually provide comparative information from the previous year, these statements will be used to do a 3-year trend analysis.)
• You must be registered in the Partners@International portal.
• You must submit only 1 concept note as the lead applicant under this call. Note: If your organization submits more than 1 application as a signatory on an application under this call, we will only consider the application with the earliest submission time stamp.
• You must provide an Organization Attestation (PDF version - 105 KB) signed by the organization’s chief financial officer or a duly authorized board member

If you are unable to meet all of the above requirements, your organization is not eligible to apply under this call.

Project parameters

Carefully review the parameters of this call and judge whether your project idea will fit. We will not respond to questions about the eligibility of your project idea. You must be able to answer “yes” to all of the following statements in order for your application to be considered for funding under this call:

• Value: You are requesting Global Affairs Canada funding of at least $10 million and no more than $15 million.
• Duration: Your proposed project will last 5 years.
• Geographic focus: The geographic focus of your project is in Ukraine
• Language: Your application package documents are complete and presented in either English or French or a combination of these 2 languages.
• Non-profit project: The proposed project would not generate a profit for the applicant or any partner organizations (please see section 15 of the Terms and Conditions of the International Development Assistance Program).
• Locally driven concept note: Your organization identifies local partner(s) involved in the design of the project, and those that will be involved in its implementation  and has included information about them in the Local Partners – Information form (PDF, 133 KB). It is understood that the extent of details to be provided at the concept stage may be limited.
• Cost sharing: Your organization and your co-signatory(ies) will provide at least 5% of the total eligible direct project costs over the life of the project in cash and/or in-kind in accordance with Global Affairs Canada’s Policy on Cost-Sharing for Grant and Non-Repayable Contribution Agreements.

If your proposed project does not conform to the above statements, it will not be assessed because it cannot be considered for funding under this call.

Required project experience

Your concept note must demonstrate the required experience as described below to be considered under this call.

The 2 examples must demonstrate the following:

• At least one project example must demonstrate experience managing a development project worth at least 75% of the total value of the project proposed in your application
• At least one project example must demonstrate a minimum of three (3) years of experience managing a development project in Ukraine or an ODA-eligible middle income country, working in inclusive governance areas targeted by this call.  

If the applicant (the lead applicant or another signatory to the funding agreement with Global Affairs Canada, should funding be offered) is not able to provide two examples of their own which demonstrate all elements of the above requirements, the application will not be assessed because it cannot be considered for funding under this call. Experience examples from implementing organizations working with the applicant but which will not be signatories on a funding agreement (should funding be offered), cannot be considered to meet this experience requirement.

Additional guidance

Preference will be given to concept notes that incorporate one or more of the following:

• Demonstrate collaboration, in the form of partnerships with civil society organizations, local government and other partners, research institutes, community and professional organizations, and the private sector that help to enable the scaling up and sustainability of innovative and evidence-based approaches to address persistent challenges.
• Seek to promote inclusiveness and a culture of integrity, and strengthen the participation of all stakeholders, regardless of age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ethnicity, race, religion, disability, migrant or refugee status.
• Leverage additional funding sources to contribute to the proposed initiative, including through increased cost sharing beyond the minimum requirement of 5%
• Include a component that targets youth (young women and men, as well as youth from vulnerable and disadvantaged groups);
• Incorporate considerations about environmental impacts and promote practices and policies that are environmentally sustainable, reduce the effects of climate change and foster biodiversity (whenever possible);
• Seek to implement corruption prevention practices;
• Put forward a systems-thinking approach to tackle the root cause(s) of the inclusive governance challenges identified in the analysis of each respective concept note;
• Seek to reduce and addresses the unequal distribution of paid and unpaid care work, and that supports and protects the rights of paid and unpaid care workers;
• Incorporate a conflict-sensitive approach which takes into account the impact of the proposed intervention on conflict and peace dynamics, and the impact of these dynamics on the proposed intervention.

How we assess your concept note

Concept notes submitted under this call will first undergo an eligibility check to verify that they meet all organization eligibility requirements, required project parameters and experience requirements identified on this call page.

Any application that does not meet all of these requirements will not be further assessed. You will be notified if your application is found to be ineligible.

Concept notes that meet these requirements will proceed to merit assessment based on the following assessment criteria:

Rationale for the initiative

• The development challenges and human rights issues that the project is planning to address are clearly described, along with the expected impact on poverty reduction
• Gender equality is placed at the centre of poverty reduction efforts
• The project is aligned with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy
• The project is aligned with the priorities (including Sustainable Development Goals), strategies and plans of Global Affairs Canada and regional, institutional or local countries

Gender equality

• The design responds to the preliminary gender equality analysis
• The project design is based on an assessment of significant gender equality impacts
• The theory of change, including risks and response strategies, addresses gender equality barriers and inequalities
• Gender equality best practices are applied in the project design
• The gender equality gaps, inequalities and barriers relevant to this project are identified
• The concept note demonstrates an understanding of power dynamics at the local or sub-national level and how best to close the identified gender gaps, and considers the intersectional dimensions of inequality and discrimination

Human rights

• It is clear which human rights are being advanced by the project
• There is evidence of a preliminary human rights analysis reflected in the project design and theory of change
• The project will strengthen the capacity of actors to fulfill, promote and claim rights

Environmental sustainability

• Appropriate environmental measures have been incorporated into the project’s design and planning to mitigate negative environmental effects and promote positive environmental effects

Managing for results

• The theory of change guiding the project design from ultimate outcome to activities, (including associated assumptions, risks and contributing factors) is clear, realistic and logical
• There is evidence that the applicant has incorporated lessons learned and best practices into the project design
• There is a description of how the intermediaries, beneficiaries (rights-holders) and other stakeholders (e.g. local authorities and institutions) will be meaningfully engaged in the design, development and implementation of the project
• The description of strategies and efforts, including flexibility in program design, for ensuring sustainability of results are practical, realistic and comprehensive
• Any innovative elements in the project design are identified, and an explanation is provided regarding what the innovation is, how it differs from existing approaches and why the innovative element should lead to better results or effectiveness than an existing approach

Responding to risks

• There is a clear description of the risks that could have the greatest impact on the achievement of the expected results, taking into consideration human rights, safety and security of beneficiaries, environmental sustainability and gender equality (with special attention to the impact of COVID-19, local sensitivities and threats, including the possibility of a backlash against working on the gender equality barriers identified)
• The proposed response measures and mitigations are comprehensive, appropriate and well designed to reduce the impact and/or likelihood of the identified risks

Organizational ability relevant to the initiative

• The past project examples demonstrate significant and relevant technical experience, success in delivering results and ability (expertise and experience) to carry out a project of the proposed size and nature

Available resources

There are a number of resources available online to help you develop your application package. We strongly encourage you to read all of the following tools and guidance before beginning your application process. Failure to meet the mandatory requirements, minimum standards and deadlines detailed therein will result in your application package not being considered for funding.

• Support to Inclusive Governance in Ukraine Questions and answers
• Advancing human rights
• Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy
• Environmental integration process - development programming
• How to apply for funding through a call
• Partners@International FAQs
• Policy on Cost-Sharing for Grant and Non-Repayable Contribution Agreements
• Questions and answers about applying for funding
• Results-based management for international assistance programming: A how-to guide
• Contribution Agreement - General Terms and Conditions: Section 22, Declarations and Guarantees - Sexual Misconduct
• Sustainable Development Goals
• Official Development Assistance Accountability Act
• What is GBA+?
• Feminist international assistance gender equality toolkit for projects
• Funding resources

How to submit your application package?

In order to be considered in this call, you must submit your complete application package to Partners@International by Thursday, November 18, 2021, at 12 pm ET.

Your application package must include all of the following documents:

• call for concept notes form  (PDF version - 346 KB) (completed form, with Validated label showing on first page)
• 2 separate financial statements for the most recent fiscal years from each signatory (audited statements are preferred; if these are not available, the statements must be signed by a member of the board of directors of that organisation, by the board’s delegate, or by the owner(s); note also that since financial statements usually provide comparative information from the previous year, these statements will be used to do a 3-year trend analysis)
• completed Organization Attestation form (PDF version - 105 KB) (separate forms for each organization that would sign the funding agreement with Global Affairs Canada, if applicable)
• completed Local Partner(s) - Information form (PDF version - 133 KB)
• completed Logic Model form (PDF version - 91 KB)

Accessing and using PDF forms

Use only Adobe Reader/Adobe Acrobat to work on the standardized PDFs to be submitted with your application package. If you use other software, the data you enter may not appear once submitted to the department, and the application will be considered ineligible.

If you are having difficulty downloading the preliminary proposal form, it is generally due to the type of software you have (or do not have) on your computer. Please read and follow the help instructions. If you have all the correct software installed, download the form to your desktop and open it directly in Adobe Reader; otherwise, other software installed on your computer may try (and fail) to open the form using your default settings.

Questions on using the Partners@International portal

Please read and follow all the instructions for using the Partners@International portal (linked on the right side menu). Do not open multiple windows within the portal as this may cause technical problems.

Do not try to register or submit at the last minute.

It may take up to 10 business days to register your organization. If you encounter technical difficulties while registering or trying to submit a proposal, send an email to: partners-partenaires@international.gc.ca Please note: during the last two weeks before a call closes, the service standard for replying to your enquiry is three (3) business days. Technical support for the portal is only available 9 am to 4 pm EST, Monday to Friday.

Questions specific to this call

If you still have questions about this call after reading the general Questions and answers about applying for funding, please send them to IGUkraineGI@international.gc.ca by Tuesday, October  5, 2021, at 12 pm ET.  We will not respond to questions received after this deadline, or questions on specific organizational circumstances or specific project proposals. Applicants will not receive emails with responses. Answers only appear on the Support to Inclusive Governance in Ukraine Questions and answers page to ensure that all applicants have access to the same information at the same time.