1. BACKGROUND

The present Call for Proposals (CfP) is administered by UNDP Ukraine project Human Rights for Ukraine, Phase II (HR4U II). On January 1, 2023, the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine (UNDP) under the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark launched the “Democratization and Human Rights 2023-2026 Project”, under which the sub-project Human Rights for Ukraine, Phase II is being implemented until 2026.

The HR4U II is a Danish-funded initiative that intends to further foster inclusive and sustainable human development in Ukraine, focusing on human rights and access to justice for all with a strong focus on new challenges to empower duty bearers for effective implementation of a human rights-based approach (НRBA) principles in all spheres of social life. The initiative is also a response to the new challenges raised by the war, the necessity to restore and sustain human rights machinery and ensure resilience and just recovery.

The HR4U II comprises three components: 

 Component One, #Partners4Monitoring, focuses on fostering Ombudsperson Plus Model integration and anchoring at the local (hromada) level by strengthening National Human Rights Institution’s partnerships with local civic monitors and strengthening knowledge and skills to address war-related human rights challenges.

Component Two, #Partners4BetterServices, supports enhancing NHRI’s and CSOs’ capacity in promotion of better, more effective, easily accessible services for right holders. This will be achieved through awareness-raising activities targeting duty bearers (to enhance their capacities in addressing human rights related issues and implementation of HRBA approaches in their work, as well as representatives of the most vulnerable social groups and war-affected men and women to increase  their awareness about their rights and ways to protect them.

Component Three, #Partners4Advocacy, focuses on advocacy of the human rights and recovery agenda at the national and international levels and on enhancing expertise of NHRI, CSOs, and other stakeholders on human rights, HRBA, gender mainstreaming, and data analytics.

To achieve project’s goals, the project works in the following directions:

• enhancing implementation of the human rights agenda at the local level, especially in addressing war-related human rights challenges through monitoring, and strengthening the OmbudsPlus Model; 
• awareness-raising and promotion of better, more effective, and accessible services for rights holders by improving relevant knowledge and skills of NHRI and civil society activists; 
• scaling-up advocacy activities within human rights and recovery agenda at national and international levels supported by improved human rights expertise and data analytics; 
• integration of HRBA principles into policies and strategic documents at the national level. 

The Ombudsperson’s Office and the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service are HR4U II Project’s beneficiaries. The Project actively involves them and other duty-bearers at the national level (Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Social Policies, Ministry of Interior, and others) to strengthen their capacities in the area of human rights. Also, civil society organisations, particularly the ones with a human rights focus, remain among the key stakeholders of the project. The project actively engages and empowers CSOs and human rights activists in various human rights-related activities, in particular, conducting thematic human rights monitoring companies and researchers, and cooperating with CSOs to promote and raise public awareness of human rights through joint educational and communication activities.

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE COMPETITION: 

The grants to be issued under the present call for proposals will be issued for the following purposes:

• Strengthening the institutional capacity of CSOs and NHRI to conduct outreach, communication, monitoring, data collection, training, and awareness-raising initiatives related to human rights, and in particular aimed at addressing war-related human rights challenges;
• Promoting HRBA advocacy activities and networking between CSOs, NHRI, and other project partners.

Therefore, this CfP supports the activities of civil society organisations aimed at contributing to

1. Strengthening the capacity of the Office of the Ombudsperson to conduct human rights monitoring on various topics related to the Ombudsperson's mandate at the national and local levels through targeted CSO project support;
2. Integrating HRBA into state policy and practices through cooperation with the Office of the Ombudsperson and the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service.
3. Increasing human rights awareness by conducting outreach, communication, training, educational, and awareness-raising initiatives related to human rights, and in particular aimed at addressing war-related human rights challenges.

The proposals shall include/respond to the following considerations:

• The proposed projects should cover all of Ukraine or selected regions that are under governmental control;
• The process should be generally in line with the Human Rights Based Approach (principles of “accountability”, “participation and inclusion”, “equality and non-discrimination”) and be mindful and inclusive of gender equality and equity;
• The project should apply principles of gender mainstreaming which includes gender-sensitive communication, gender-disaggregated data collection and reporting, equal access for women and men to decision-making, participation, and utilization of services;
• the proposed initiative should be in line with needs and goals and be supported by the relevant beneficiary of the project (appropriate support letters should be provided with the grant application).

All relevant events and activities will need to be completed by 20 November 2026, and the maximum funding from UNDP shall not exceed 60,000.00 USD per grant. It’s possible to submit several applications from one organisation. 

3. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

The grant proposals coming in for the Project’s consideration will be measured, first and foremost, against the admission criteria. To be considered for funding, the proposal must be submitted by an organisation that:

• has a status of a non-governmental public or charitable organisation or an association of CSOs officially registered in Ukraine;
• has a track record of active operation of at least five years;
• has a proven track record of cooperation with the international donor community, proper project implementation and reporting.

The CfP will not accept proposals from for-profit entities, political parties, state authorities, local governments, faith-based organisations, or religious communities, as well as from private individuals and entrepreneurs.

The parameters that will determine whether an NGO is eligible to be considered for funding by UNDP will be based on the Capacity Assessment Checklist CACHE (Annex 5). 

4. BUDGET AND ALLOWED EXPENSES:

Eligible costs must:

• be necessary for carrying out the project activities;
• have been incurred by the applicant during the implementation period;
• comply with the principles of sound financial management, in particular, value for money and cost-effectiveness;
• be adequately recorded, identifiable and verifiable, and be backed by original supporting documents.

Grant costs may only be used to cover the following costs:

• staff salaries and expert fees;
• communication and information services;
• purchase of consultative services and contracts provided that these are essential to project goals and objectives;
• renting, catering, and other services envisaged by the project activities;
• printing and copying;
• utility services;
• consumables and supplies;
• travel costs (provided that travel complies with internal UNDP regulations);

Not more than 10% of the grant funds may be spent for purchasing equipment, provided a clear justification is offered as to its need to achieve project goals. 

The following costs are ineligible:

• costs of project proposal preparation;
• academic research;
• debts;
• currency exchange losses.

5. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

All applications and supporting materials should be sent to grants.ua@undp.org, specifying in the subject line “Human Rights for Ukraine project CfP”.

Comments on the quality of the proposal are not provided. By submitting materials to UNDP for the competition, the applicant permits UNDP to process personal data contained in resumes/CVs or other parts of the application form for the grant competition and potential reference checks.

Please, do not send attachments exceeding 10 Mb. If the application attachments exceed this size, break the archive up into several parts of under 10 Mb each and indicate accordingly in the e-mail subject (e.g. “Application part 1 of X”).

Please note that UNDP does not send automated replies to your submission (including automated “read receipts” or “delivery receipts”) and does not control what e-mail server responses are sent to the applicants, should they request such automated receipts.

Please expect to receive a human-generated written confirmation from the Human Rights for Ukraine Project.

Contact persons for questions:

• Olena Kryvko, Human Rights Specialist, olena.kryvko@undp.org 

6. SELECTION PROCESS

6.1. Assessment procedures

UNDP specialists will check the proposals submitted by the CSOs for each competition stage against the criteria. The Programme can request additional information from the applicants at its discretion.

To ensure full transparency and equity in the process, UNDP forms a Grant Selection Committee (GSC) that will appraise the proposals that have made it through the first stage. GSC is a temporary authorized body that is responsible for considering, selecting and recommending proposals for funding. The Grant Selection Committee may decide to request additional independent expert opinion during the selection process.

6.2. Criteria for the assessment of proposals 

The proposals shall be assessed by the GSC in accordance with the following criteria:

7. REPORTING, MONITORING AND EVALUATION

7.1. Monitoring and evaluation, frameworks for project implementation

The Grantee is responsible for monitoring project implementation and evaluating its results. UNDP will monitor the project through Grantee reports, online consultations, site visits, meetings with project personnel and stakeholders, and participation in project events.

7.2. Reporting

The Grantee shall submit the following reports according to UNDP format:

• Brief reports on demand occasionally requested by UNDP HR4U II in cases when information on Programme implementation is required in between reporting periods;
• A Completion report, including a summary of activities and results as well as financial report for total duration of an agreement (templates will be provided by UNDP).

Annexes 1,5, application form

Annexes 2,3,4,6