The UK Foreign Secretary has announced the launch of the FCO International Programme as one of the elements for the UK’s global response to COVID-19 challenges.

The British Embassy Kyiv administers this support to Ukraine through our International Programme COVID-19 Enabling Fund 2020 to 2021. We invite proposals for project work through civil society organisations as well as government bodies, in all regions of Ukraine, in support of Ukraine’s response to the consequences of COVID-19.

The funding period is 15 July 2020 to 15 March 2021.

The deadline for submitting proposals is 17.00 (Kyiv time) on 15 June 2020.

The programme will focus on the following areas:

Anti-corruption

Intended outcomes:

• positive impact on law enforcement capacity to fight corruption at local level, in particular, related to COVID-19 procurement
• increased information in the public domain on COVID-19 procurement at regional level
• improved local self-government bodies’ service delivery and their response to COVID-19 as a result of reduced corruption, thus contributing to developing sustainable hromadas and successful roll out of decentralisation in Ukraine.

Fighting Disinformation around COVID-19

Intended outcomes:

• improved monitoring and analysis of disinformation around COVID-19 present in the Ukrainian media space and social networks *expose and reduce disinformation around COVID-19 in the Ukrainian media space and social networks, in particular, disinformation originating from temporarily occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea and from Russia.

Local economic impact of COVID-19

Intended outcomes:

• Ukrainian business associations, industry bodies and other civil society organisations are better able to respond to the needs of local businesses, particularly SMEs, in surviving the effects of COVID-19 and recovering after the crisis, including issues like supply chain transformation and/or development of new business models
• completion of regional pilots in one or more strategic regions of Ukraine, which can lead to dissemination of best practice across Ukraine. The project proposal should take account of activities by other donors and international partners and demonstrate how close coordination will be ensured.

Notes

In this call for proposals, we will prioritise bids coming from civil society organisations but bids which involve working with government bodies may also be approved where there is a strong case. We welcome proposals for work in all regions of Ukraine, and regional pilots which could be scaled up later to become nationwide

Successful projects should have sustainable outcomes and should clearly identify the change that will be brought about. They may also build on projects by other organisations, complementing their efforts. All bids should make clear how they complement existing activities supported by other donors and international partners, and how work in the regions complements national level activity.

The maximum indicative funding for projects is £15,000. This may be in addition to co-funding and self-funding contributions; indeed this will be considered a merit. Our funding is for the UK financial year 2020-21 only (projects must be implemented and all payments made by 15 March 2020). Where appropriate, bidders are encouraged to describe how their project could be further scaled-up if additional funding became available.

Administrative costs (office rent, project management and book-keeper rates, utilities, communications, stationery, bank charges etc) must not exceed 8% of the total project budget. We are unable to fund academic courses or research, English language courses, the purchase of IT or other equipment.

The British Embassy Kyiv reserves the right to carry out due diligence of potential grantees, including seeking references, as part of the selection process.

Bidding is competitive and only selected projects will receive funding. The Embassy reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids without incurring any obligation to inform the affected applicant(s) of the grounds of such acceptance or rejection. Due to the volume of bids expected we will not be able to provide feedback on unsuccessful bids.

Bidding process

Bidders should fill in the standard Project Proposal Form above £10k (ODT, 56KB) (MS Word Document, 123KB) and include a breakdown of project costs in the ABB - Activity Based Budget Template (ODS, 10.2KB) (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 20KB). We will not consider proposals submitted in other formats. Budgets must be Activity Based Budgets (ABB), all costs should be indicative, in GBP (not Ukrainian Hryvna).

Successful bids must demonstrate strong strategic relevance to the areas of programme focus and have a clear focus on delivering change and sustainability.

Successful implementers should be able to receive project funding in GBP (UK pound sterling) and open a GBP bank account for the project. 85% of project funds should be spent before end of December 2020.

Proposals should be sent to the British Embassy Kyiv at Kyiv.Projects@fco.gov.uk by 17.00 (Kyiv time) on 15 June 2020. In the subject line, please indicate the area you are bidding for and the name of the bidder. We aim to evaluate proposals by end of June. Approved projects will commence in mid-July.

Evaluation criteria

Proposals will be evaluated against the following criteria:

• fit to programme objectives – the extent to which the proposal addresses the issues
• quality of project – how well defined and relevant the outcome is and how outputs will deliver this change
• value for money – the value of the expected project outcomes, the level of funding requested and institutional contribution
• previous experience – evidence of the project team’s understanding the issue and of its regional activities, ability to manage and deliver a successful project, through work done to date in the area or in related fields
• gender-sensitive approach – partners should identify the gender implications of the theme they are addressing, whether it will impact differently on men and women and how this is taken into account in the proposal. The proposals will be assessed by a mixed gender panel.