The European Commission is pleased to announce a new Call for Proposals aimed at supporting civil society organisations. The overall goal is to strengthen civil society as an actor for gender equality and climate justice, including access to water and clean energy with financial assistance from the Cooperation Facility and Support Measures for Civil Society in Lesotho with an overall budget of EUR 2,300,000.

The specific objectives of this call are:

1. Strengthen civil society action for the promotion of gender equality, women’s economic empowerment and ensuring freedom from all forms of gender-based violence within the LGBTIQ+ community.
2. Strengthen civil society action and citizen’s engagement to advocate for, define, and monitor policies and programmes relating to access to safe water and clean energy, especially people living in vulnerable situations, in order top contribute to fight against climate change.

The call is divided in two Lots:

Lot I: Promotion of gender equality, women’s economic empowerment and ensuring freedom from all forms of gender-based violence, including within the LGBTIQ+ community

Lot II: Governance, advocacy, monitoring & participation for safe water, sanitation & clean energy access, especially for the most vulnerable populations, to contribute to the fight against climate change.

The Outputs to be delivered by this action are:

1.  Gender transformative policies, strategies and legislation are developed with the participation of civil society in an inclusive manner;
2. The enabling environment for civil society in Lesotho is strengthened and a strategic framework or civil society engagement at national level is in place;
3. The participation of CSOs, including youth and women’s organisations and independent media, in the domestic policies of Lesotho in the domain of gender, water, energy and climate change and in international processes is reinforced;
4. CSOs active in the field of gender, water, energy and climate change are equipped with increased project management knowledge, human rights-based approach, gender mainstreaming (including disaggregated indicators) skills and technical capacities for improved and consistent engagement.

Kindly take note of the following information:

1. The guidelines for grant applicants can be accessed https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/online-services/#/ The deadline for submission of proposals is the 30^th August, 2024 at 14:00hrs.
    
2. An online information session on this call for proposals will be held on the 18^th July, 2024 at 10:00hrs. Interested individuals may send an email to confirm their participation by the 15^th July 2024 to DELEGATION LESOTHO CALL FOR PROPOSALS – delegation-lesotho-call-for-proposals@eeas.europa.eu