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Azerbaijan's Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and Agency for State Support to NGOs announce a joint grant competition

15 July 2024 12:18 (UTC +04:00)

The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan together with the Agency for State Support to Non-governmental Organizations announces the Competition “International Initiatives related to COP29” for NGOs, APA reports.

Submission of documents for the competition will start from July 16, 2024. The deadline for applications is August 16, 2024. After that, documents collected from NGOs will be examined and projects will be analyzed, in order to identify the winners.

The projects presented should be relevant to the topic of global climate change.

Upper limit of grant amount on Medium Grant Competition (MGC) will be 30000 AZN (implementation period up to 6 months), upper limit of grant amount for Large Grant Competition (LGC) will be 50000 AZN (implementation period up to 6 months.

NGOs can only participate in the grant competition in the form of a coalition. The procedures are carried out in accordance with the decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated September 14, 2023, No. 327 and 328 (in relation to local NGOs).

The coalition must comply with the format “minimum 1 local NGO (having state registration in the Republic of Azerbaijan) + 1 foreign NGO”; Only a local NGO should be the main implementing party in the coalition; The protocol on the establishment of the coalition, approved by all member-local and foreign NGOs, must be submitted (in Azerbaijani and English). Detailed information about the foreign organizations represented in the coalition should be provided (which country represents, field of activity, experience, website, etc. and other sources of information); NGOs that have won large, medium and small grant competitions of the Agency for State Support to Non-Governmental Organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2024 and whose commitment is not completed by August 16, 2024, cannot be the main implementing party in the coalitions. 1 NGO can only be represented in 1 coalition. The coalition can submit projects for both competitions (MGC and LGC), in which case only 1 of the projects that meet the competition requirements will be funded.

Which criteria will be preferred in the competition:

- That the NGO which is the main implementing party itself or the organization participating as a foreign partner in the coalition has had an observer status at the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as have international experience related to previous COPs or climate change issues;

- That an organization with UNFCCC observer status participating as a foreign partner represents developing countries (DCs), especially least developed countries, small island developing states;

- Having a letter of support related to the submitted project from a foreign partner represented in the coalition.

Projects whose content contradicts with the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, laws and other normative legal acts of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 327 and 328 dated September 14, 2023; projects with the same content that had been financed from the state budget of the Republic of Azerbaijan as a result of previously held competitions; projects of NGOs that have been deprived of the right to participate in the competition by the Agency for State Support to Non-Governmental Organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan for violating their obligations under the Grant Agreement, as well as those that have debts to the Agency are not admitted to the competition.

The main implementing NGO submits the project electronically through a special section on the website of the Agency for State Support to Non-Governmental Organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan (https://ngoagency.gov.az/az) (the corresponding section will be active on the website of the Agency on July 16-August 16, 2024). Project proposal documents submitted in person, by mail or by e-mail are not accepted.