Apply Now: Eastern Partnership Civil Society Fellowship Programme

Objectives

• The main objective of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Fellowships is to support civil society activists or civically minded women and men who demonstrate a deep commitment to leading positive social change in their communities (including IT experts such as software engineers, data scientists, designers who innovate at the intersection of technology and the needs of their communities).

Focus Areas

• Having a resilient, sustainable and integrated economy
• Strengthening accountability, rule of law, and security
• Ensuring environmental and climate resilience
• Contributing to resilient and inclusive digitalization
• Promoting participatory decision-making and social justice

Categories

• Community Engagement Fellowships
  • Community Engagement Fellowships are designed to support Fellows engaging in one or more of the following activities:
    • Collecting local evidence: supporting fellows to collect and analyse evidence on key issues of public service delivery at local and national level.
    • Involvement in policymaking: allowing fellows to gain expertise on specific policy issues, draft policy paper/recommendations and organise advocacy campaigns; helping fellows get access to government channels in order to better get their ideas across.
    • Capacity development: supporting mentoring and job shadowing schemes and involving fellows in training of trainers in order to train other members of their organisations, as well as members of other CSOs from relevant networks. This may also include, although not exclusively, job shadowing or study visits with CSOs in EU Member States.
    • Involvement in monitoring public administration activity and results: supporting fellows in developing a multitude of monitoring activities, including on technical issues such as public financial management, budget transparency and oversight.
    • Improvement of CSO accountability and link to constituencies: supporting fellows in improving the transparency and accountability mechanisms of their organisations and in better linking activities to citizens’ needs.
    • Cooperation between CSOs: allowing fellows to organise activities bringing various CSOs together on issues of common interest.
• Civic Digital Fellowships
  • The Civic Digital Fellowships will facilitate Fellows to use their expertise to contribute to, develop or further promote and raise awareness about technological solutions for community needs. These Fellowships are designed to support Fellows engaging in one or more of the following activities:
    • Advocacy campaigns on issues such as open data, data quality, e-services for citizens, and budgetary transparency.
    • Improving the quality of data (such as making existing public data machine-readable or generating and publishing open and reusable data needed for further development of digital solutions for transparency and accountability in the region).
    • Developing new digital solutions addressing community needs, helping citizens better hold governments to account, contributing to the improvement of public services, and/or improving CSO accountability.
    • Promoting/rolling out and expanding the existing civic tech solutions that address community needs, help citizens better hold governments to account, contribute to the improvement of public services and/or CSO accountability, and building the relevant skills of the potential users.

Benefits

• Coaching on project management, communication skills, and other technical topics
• Opportunities to join international events and advanced learning courses
• Participating in activities of an international alumni of Fellows
• The prestige of being an EU Eastern Partnership Civil Society Fellow

Funding Information

• Fellows will be able to obtain an average of 5,000 euros in financial support for their Fellowship.

Eligible Costs

• Specific activities outlined in the application form submitted by the applicant;
• Travel and accommodation expenses to/from or/and within the host country;
• Communication and visibility costs (including distribution and promotion);
• Costs incurred from services of a mentor (s), if required;
• Overhead expenses, such as accounting services, office or shared space rent, legal services to open accounts, but these cannot exceed 10% of the total budget of the project and cannot include fees or a salary to the Fellow;
• Bank transfer charges;
• Consular fees, if relevant;
• Insurance (if relevant)

Ineligible Costs

• Fees or any payment to Fellows;
• Fees or any payment to a superior of the Fellow at her/his workplace;
• Costs for purchasing equipment (the rental of equipment may be allowed if justified by the action).

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible for a fellowship the applicant must:
  • Be a natural person and not a legal entity;
  • Be a national of one of the Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine);
  • Be above 18 years old;
  • Not previously have benefited from the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Fellowship programme;
• Have a proven track record of:
  • For community engagement fellowships, working (including by volunteering) either in a civil society organisation, including Trade Unions, cooperatives, or professional associations, or with a civic engagement group or initiative group and/or taking a leading role in his/her community by advancing issues related to public service delivery and accountability, and developing local capacities;
  • For civic digital fellowships, professionally contributing to the development of IT solutions and/or voluntarily developing innovative digital products;
  • Have a good working level of English, as well as have appropriate language skills for the chosen location of the proposed action;
  • Assume responsibility for the action proposed and show commitment to the action proposed.

For more information, visit EaP.