People in Need: Call for Partnerships to advocate for the improvement of services and policies aimed at mitigating the negative impact of COVID-19 on psychological well-being of people

About the implementer:

People in Need (PIN) is the lead organization of the project titled “Eastern Partnership Covid-19 Solidarity Programme” funded by the European Union. PIN - is a Czech non-governmental organization that provides relief aid and development assistance while working to defend human rights and democratic freedom. Throughout its existence, PIN has become one of the biggest non-profit organizations in Central Europe. By now, it has administered projects in more than 40 countries over the past 25 years. People in Need has been working in Moldova since 2003, implementing projects in the field of economic development, civil society, and youth development, education, organic agriculture, actively involved in the deinstitutionalization process and development of the local social inclusion strategies.

About the project:

As part of the European Union (EU) COVID-19 Solidarity Programme for Eastern Partnership, PIN, NHC, and AFEW joint forces to propose a set of interventions in Armenia, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and contribute towards longer-term socio-economic resilience of vulnerable groups. To achieve this overall goal, the consortium recognizes the critical role local CSOs play in service delivery, community mobilization, awareness raising, policy engagement and advocacy for the protection of human rights and civic freedoms during and in the post-pandemic environment. The action will support these key actors to achieve the overall goal via a set of interrelated activities that both aim to address the short to medium-term needs and longer-term institutional barriers to their development.

The objective of the Call:

The general objective of this Call is to empower local CSOs to influence longer-term policy developments with a focus on inclusive recovery and resilience mechanisms for the targeted vulnerable groups. The inclusive recovery will be facilitated through the involvement of a multi-dimensional approach. The multi-dimensional approach refers to the identification of advocacy needs of the beneficiaries, building capacity to seek and effect systemic change and dedicate time and energy to achieve specific and quantifiable improvements through the advocacy activities.

There are two specific objectives of this Call. First objective is to strengthen the capacities of the CSOs to be able to achieve the envisioned advocacy change. This will be possible through the development/improvement of the advocacy strategy and long-term coaching. CSOs will also benefit from the advocacy skills trainings. Based on identified needs, partner organisations will receive series of tailor-made trainings focused on different advocacy and communication skills from experienced trainers. In addition to the capacity building, there is a financial component. Based on their advocacy strategies, partner organizations will have a chance to receive financial support (in maximum amount of 4000 EUR), to implement advocacy activities planned in their advocacy strategies.

Second objective refers to the creation of a network of partners which will be advocating for the improvement of psychological wellbeing of people. The network will positively influence the policies and services affecting the psychological wellbeing of one or several targeted groups (youth, elderly and people with disabilities).

Thematic area of the intervention:

The COVID-19 pandemic had a detrimental impact on the psycho-emotional wellbeing of young people, people with disabilities and elderly. Emotional difficulties were exacerbated by stress within the family, physical isolation, increased abuses, disrupted education and uncertainty about the future. These constitutes the crucial elements for the emotional balance of young people. According to the analysis, about 20% of young people suffered a worsening of the psycho-emotional wellbeing during the pandemic / COVID-19 and youth: The effects of pandemic on psycho-emotional wellbeing. Source: https://moldova.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/covid_19_impactul_wellbeing_0.pdf /. The impact of the pandemic was felt both at the psycho-emotional level (states of sadness, fear, seizures) as well as at the level of physical wellbeing (insomnia, lack of appetite, headaches).

People with disabilities suffered more from the restrictions imposed during the pandemic. 38% of them reported the stronger states of anxiety compared to the period before the pandemic. Isolation measures determined an even greater distancing of people with disabilities from other members of society, thus being created favourable conditions for their increased marginalization.

Among other problems, the elderly people were digitally isolated, since only 10% of them use information technologies and the internet regularly. Hence, these circumstances perpetuate the vicious circle of marginalization and self-marginalization of the older persons in society accompanied with a feeling of loneliness and anxiety.

The improvement of services and policies aimed at mitigating the negative impact of COVID-19 on the psychological well-being of people refers but is not limited to the activities in the field of domestic violence, psychological recovery of children who were isolated from school and other social activities, elderly people that were limited in their mobility, people with disabilities who have not been able to get assistance due to the pandemic, young people that lost their jobs and are economically unstable, vulnerable people who lost their closed ones due to COVID-19.

The call for partnership therefore seeks to empower organization working in these areas to be able to influence longer-term policy development with focus on inclusive recovery and resilience for target vulnerable groups, through strengthening their advocacy capacities and through financial support (see the sections “Objective of the call” and “Scope of the partnership”).

Scope of the partnership:

This partnership is envisioned for a period of 12 months. Within this partnership, selected CSOs will benefit from:

• Individual strategic advocacy support. Partners will have a chance to work individually with experienced coaches on development of their own advocacy strategy and its implementation. Coaches will not only help organizations with development of the strategy, but will provide even ad hoc support throughout the time period of the partnership.
• Tailor-made advocacy trainings. During the partnership period, a series of practical trainings, with experienced trainers will be organized for participants from partner organizations. The trainings will be organized based on needs identified by partners themselves and can cover different advocacy and communication skills (such as campaigning, lobbying or working with different types of media)
• Partners will have a chance to receive financial support for implementation of advocacy activities planned in their advocacy strategies to the maximum amount of 4000 EUR. Organizations can apply independently or in a consortium. Such activities can entail research activities and preparation of policy documents (such as studies, policy reports or policy briefs), dialogue with decision makers through organization of events (such as conferences, roundtables or workshops) and awareness raising and advocacy campaign activities.

Eligible applicants and partners:

• Legally registered as a CSO in the Republic of Moldova
• Proven experience in implementing community-level initiatives
• Able and willing to dedicate time for advocacy capacity and activities
• Relevant experience with at least one of the following targeted groups:

1. Youth

2. People with disabilities

3. Vulnerable households, including elderly women and men.

Evaluation criteria: 

Selection process:

The selection process will consist of two steps: submission of written application and interviews with pre-selected candidates. Partners will benefit from trainings and guidance during the implementation of the project. The complete application form should be submitted by August 16, 2021 to concurs.moldova@peopleinneed.cz specifying Ref. in the subject line: “Call for Partnerships to advocate for the improvement of services and policies aimed at mitigating the negative impact of COVID-19 on psychological well-being of people”. Applications can be submitted in Romanian, English or Russian.

To submit a complete application, the following documents are required:

• application form (in MS Word and signed PDF),
• certificate of registration,
• financial report for 2019/2020 approved by the leadership of the organization.

Incomplete applications will not be considered for funding.

Questions regarding this call for proposals can be submitted to the email mentioned above till July 27, 2021. An info session will be held on July 28, at 10:00. To have access to this session please send us an email before July 27 and we will provide a link on ZOOM where the session will take place.