The Swiss Government project ‘For an Active Civil Society Together – ACT’ has launched a Call for Proposals for Network Advocacy Grants.

Network Advocacy Grants (NAG) are aimed at building the capacity of CSO networks for public advocacy at the local and national levels and to increase citizen participation in decision making at the local and national levels.

Under this call for proposals, the following types of association are considered to be CSO networks:

• Formal networks – networks registered with the Serbian Business Registers Agency (SBRA) as associations, in accordance with the provisions of the Associations Act (Article 7);
• Informal networks (coalitions, alliances, platforms, unions, etc.) – networks that do not have legal entity status, i.e. that are nor registered with the SBRA as associations, whose members are the CSOs registered in accordance with the Associations Act or the Endowments and Foundations Act.

Project proposals for NAG should:

• help improve citizen participation in the decision-making processes at the local and/or national levels;
• help increase accountability in local and/or national institutions;
• aim for the improvement of services to citizens (including marginalised groups);
• help strengthen network expertise in its key areas of activity.

The project proposal should put an emphasis on improving citizen mobilisation and participation in all stages of public advocacy, with a view to increasing citizen participation in the decision-making processes at local and/or national levels. An innovative approach to conceiving and implementing advocacy campaigns with active citizen participation and improved communication between the network and the public, better visibility of the advocacy initiative, as well as the publicity of the network’s activities, are particularly encouraged.

The CSO networks whose project proposals are approved for funding will complete a capacity building programme, which will be realised as an auxiliary/parallel programme to the grant implementation and funded by ACT. The programme will cover the following topics: citizen mobilisation, participatory advocacy, communication, network development and management.

Under this call for proposals, ACT plans to support up to 10 formal and informal CSO networks at local and/or national levels. The maximum grant per project proposal is RSD 2,950,000.00.

The application criteria and other information concerning applying for the grant are detailed in the Call for Project Proposals: Network Advocacy Grants – Guidelines for Applicants, included in the attached application package.