Call for Proposals to Support Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (Albania)

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the framework of the UN Joint Programme “Leave No-One Behind” (LNB) is launching a Call for Proposals for Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs).

The programme emphases the community empowerment as a key driver of development. This Call aims to support OPDs in developing and implementing tailored advocacy and policy monitoring actions that reflect their priorities and contexts.

Purpose

The LNB programme places emphasis on promoting community level citizen empowerment as the key driver of development. An informed population, informed of and aware of their rights and entitlements, and able to vocalize their needs and societal expectations, via participatory decision-making consultation processes, is a key necessity to driving change. Empowered citizens will advocate for improved provision and access to local quality social services, as their right and entitlement, requiring an adequate response by state/ public authorities and social service providers at the local level, and by the state authorities at the central level. An empowered and engaged citizenry, articulating its needs, is central in building demand for increased funding allocation in Albania in the field of social protection and inclusion. An engaged citizenry feeds into the local and national policy framework, as one of the key influences on government (local and national) policy formulation and planning, and in holding decision-makers and duty-bearers accountable for public policy delivery.

In this respect, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) including Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) are crucial partners for the programme. They are important in their role as representatives of the target beneficiaries, advocating their interests and promoting their awareness of their rights. They are interlocutors of authorities at central and at local level for policy dialogue on social services.

Aims

In this context, UNDP/ LNB programme is issuing this call for proposals to strengthen the Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) in developing and implementing tailored advocacy and policy monitoring actions that reflect their priorities and contexts, allow them to outreach the membership and enable them to play their role as interlocutors of authorities at central and at local level fostering policy dialogue on inclusion. The call encourages initiatives that are guided by the values and provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

UNDP/LNB accepts proposals that aim at enabling organizations of persons with disabilities to:

• Strengthen their members’ capacities through training, information and awareness-raising activities

• Network, advocate, undertake initiatives for the respect, protection and promotion of disability rights, targeting their own members as well as parents, families, government employees at central or local levels, public and non- public service providers, civil society organizations and the large public

• Participate in planning and budgeting of inclusive services, including social care services, for persons with disabilities at local, regional and central levels

• Monitor or participate in the monitoring of the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), National Action Plan on Persons with Disabilities (NAPPD) 2021-2025, Local Social Plans and other policies and measures relevant for the social inclusion of persons with disabilities

• Hold decision-makers and duty-bearers accountable for public policy delivery through effectively addressing with them disability-related issues raised in various monitoring reports

• Strengthen their own organisational, institutional and strategic development capacities.

Funding Information

• The project proposal should include a budget proposal where the request for grant shall not exceed the amount of 1,500,000ALL (one million five hundred thousand Albanian LEK). Any grant requests over ALL1,500,000 for the total project period will not be considered. Proposals will be considered “one-time grants,” with no expectations for follow-on funding.

• The project duration is max. 18 months and should be completed no later than September 30th, 2024.