Applications Invited for Local Authorities: Partnerships for sustainable cities 2020

About the Organization:

European Commission (EC) is the executive branch of the European Union, responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the EU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the EU. The Commission's work is steered by a College of Commissioners, and led by its President. The Commissioners work on specific policy priorities that are set out by the Commission President.

Local Authorities: Partnerships for sustainable cities 2020

In November 2018, a first call for proposals for a total amount of 53 million euro was launched. The objective of the first call for Proposals was to promote integrated urban development through partnerships built among Local Authorities of the EU Member States and of partner countries in accordance with the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development.

In order to coordinate the projects financed under the two Partnership for sustainable cities calls for proposals (the one published in 2018 and the one described in the present guidelines) two support programmes will be launched during the 1st half of 2020:

• A Coordination Support programme aiming at promoting knowledge sharing and capitalization of best practices, fostering synergies between the different components of the partnerships, as well as supporting DEVCO services to build in house knowledge about the partnership. The support contract will also be in charge of organizing the annual Coordination Committee meeting in Brussels.
• A Communication and audio-visual support contract aiming at creating a visual identity of the programme as well as producing videos promoting the objectives of the programme.     

The global objective of this Call for Proposals is to promote integrated urban development through partnerships built among Local Authorities of the EU Member States and of partner countries in accordance with the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development.

Partnerships will support Local Authorities from partner countries to address sustainable urban development through capacity building and service-delivery. Peer to peer exchanges of Local Authorities are at the heart of this approach. Actions could support the building of new partnerships or contribute to upscale long-lasting partnerships and cooperation relations.

The new political priorities of the EU, and notably the “New Green Deal”, will be taken into account by raising the importance of sustainability enhancement in the different specific objectives.

The specific objectives of this Call for Proposals are:

1) Strengthen urban governance: Continued promotion of good urban governance and the necessary policy and legal frameworks at national-government level (e.g. national urban policy) is essential to allow local authorities in the developing world to effectively implement national urban policies. In order to foster a system of multi-level governance (governance at national, regional and urban/local levels), local authorities’ role as autonomous policy makers, in line with the principle of subsidiarity should be promoted.

2) Ensure social inclusiveness of cities: Cities represent the closest tier of government to citizens and can help ensure humanitarian and development actions adapted to them and to local specificities. Urban poverty and exclusion should be addressed through appropriate policies.  These policies should contribute to prevent both the causes and effects of inequality, marginalisation and segregation, including tackling the needs of women, children and youth, as well as the needs of marginalised and vulnerable groups such as disabled people, displaced people and migrants. Their needs should also be included in urban planning processes, and translated into concrete actions on the ground. 

3) Improve resilience and greening of cities: Promotion of a shift towards sustainable and green urban development. The trend towards an urban circular economy in developing-world cities should continue. This could increase the quality of life, foster urban green growth and make cities more resource-efficient through sustainable modes of production and consumption. Sustainable energy solutions are also a priority for many cities in developing countries, which have a major impact on surrounding ecosystems due to their firewood and charcoal consumption, also affecting overall urban air quality. It also contributes to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from the use of fossil energy sources or low-efficiency technologies including for transport, decreasing pollution levels, reducing waste and making cities more resilient to climate change.

4) Improve prosperity and innovation in cities: The EU supports cities as actors of open innovation. This means enabling interactions between people and organisations involved in the creation, design and implementation of integrated and innovative policy actions for urban and peri-urban areas. EU development cooperation aims to make cities more innovative to foster sustainable local economies and create employment. In this context, different urban realities offer opportunities for innovative and competitive solutions to societal and environmental problems: while the metropolitan areas and the big or mega-cities are the engines of the global economy, primary and secondary cities are hubs that drive regional or local growth.

5) Strengthen institutional resilience in context of fragility: addressing fragility require tailoring differentiated approaches to fragile contexts and working across the full spectrum of issues, some of which are inherently difficult and sensitive. In this call for proposals, “fragility” is considered from a governance perspective for instance on cases where the central state is weak or ineffective, failing to exercise its prerogative or to provide basic services to the population on its territory or a part of the territory.

Priorities of this call for proposals:

For all lots, proposals must address the four priorities (all of them) of this call.

Applicants must clearly indicate and explain how they address the following four priorities. This will be assessed under point 1.1 of the Concept Note evaluation grid. A proposal which does not clearly address all the priorities may be rejected on this sole basis.

• Clearly demonstrate their contribution to the achievement of SDG 11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”
• Integrate in the activities the promotion of peer-to-peer learning and/or exchanges and/or short-term deployment of public officials at subnational level towards- twinning activities.
• Promote multi-stakeholders and multi-sectors approaches.
• Promote the EU development cooperation Rights-Based Approach, encompassing all human rights, including participation and access to the decision-making process, non-discrimination (including Gender Equality) and equal access, accountability and access to the rule of law and transparency and access to information.

Rules for this Call for Proposals:

These guidelines set out the rules for the submission, selection and implementation of the actions financed under this call, in conformity with the practical guide, which is applicable to the present call (available on the internet at this address http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/prag/document.do?locale=en).

Eligibility Criteria

There are three sets of eligibility criteria, relating to:

(1) the actors:

• The ‘lead applicant’, i.e. the entity submitting the application form (2.1.1),
• its co-applicant(s) (where it is not specified otherwise the lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) are hereinafter jointly referred as ‘applicant(s)’) (2.1.1),
• and, if any, affiliated entity(ies) to the lead applicant and/or to a co-applicant(s). (2.1.2);

(2) the actions:

• Actions for which a grant may be awarded (2.1.4);

(3) the costs:

• types of cost that may be taken into account in setting the amount of the grant (2.1.5).

Partnerships for sustainable cities in Asia and the Pacific

• Total available: EUR 20,000,000

The deadline for the submission of concept notes is 27/03/2020 at 12:00 (Brussels date and time).

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