Priorities and activities to be co-financed

1. Priorities

1.1 Prevention of gender-based violence (GBV): The focus of this priority is on primary prevention, in particular changing social norms and behaviour, in order to end tolerance of all forms of gender-based violence. This includes concrete and practical activities to tackle prejudices and gender stereotypes, norms, attitudes and behaviours that encourage, condone or minimise violence, as well as to arm women and men with the tools to call out and stand up to violence through empowerment and bystander intervention programmes. Actions could include, but are not limited to education and training. Any form of gender-based violence can be covered under this priority, including specific forms, such as harmful practices. Proposals must explain which social norms, attitudes and behaviours they aim to address, and how, and justify how activities, encouraging or discouraging these attitudes and behaviours, will contribute directly to the prevention of gender-based violence.

1.2 Protection and support for victims and witnesses of domestic violence, including through tackling under-reporting, promoting multi-disciplinary cooperation, and capacity building for relevant professionals. This involves the strengthening of child-centred and/or gender-specific responses to domestic violence (including child victims/witnesses of domestic violence), through capacity-building and multi-disciplinary strengthened cooperation and coordination among relevant actors, such as child protection and law enforcement professionals. Projects involving organisations and authorities working directly with the relevant target groups, with an empowerment/child participation focus, will be welcome. Projects that seek to address known gaps in protection and support for victims and witnesses of domestic violence (e.g. such as where responses/shelters/activities/therapeutic services may not cater to children of all ages, exclude older children, innovative approaches to empower victims, etc.) will be welcome (see example of business start up support for women victims of domestic violence).

This call aims to contribute to the implementation of:

- the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention), particularly Chapters IV and V related to support and protection measures, (including the provisions on child victims/witnesses);

- Directive 2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime.

1.3 The coordination and/or adaptation of support services for sexual and gender-based violence to include refugees and migrants (children, women, LGBTI persons, men and boys), in particular to ensure their recovery from such trauma. The aim is not to create new, separate or parallel services but to adapt existing services in an inclusive manner. This call will not fund operating or running costs, but is intended to build capacity and adapt frameworks to include people in migration, for example where outreach to new facilities and structures are needed or where the involvement of cultural/health mediators/interpreters could help.

1.4 Prevention and responding to cyber sexual- and gender-based violence (targeting children, women, LGBTI persons, men and boys), such as revenge porn, extortion with the use of sexual imagery ("sextortion"), sexual or gendered online harassment/bullying, grooming, etc. This involves capacity-building for relevant professionals, awareness-raising with the general public, education and empowerment for (potential) victims in claiming their rights, as well as tackling prejudices and gender stereotypes and norms that encourage or condone violence.

1.5 Promoting the embedding of child safeguarding policies across different settings and sectors, such as sports clubs and organisations, extra-curricular activities and/or leisure/recreation clubs/organisations for children (including faith/church-led; scouts and girl guides, private schools), both as a means to protect and safeguard children as well as to equip staff with the necessary training and guidance. This covers activities such as the adoption and formalisation of appropriate child safeguarding and child protection policies, protocols and frameworks, capacity-building of professionals on child protection, and awareness-raising of existing standards, in line with the standards of the "Keeping Children Safe - Child Safeguarding Standards and how to implement them" guidance. Activities could also include practical application of Keeping Children Safe standards to specific settings.

2. Description of the activities

Project activities may include, for all priorities:

• mutual learning, exchange of good practices, cooperation
• design and implementation of protocols, development of working methods which may be transferable to other regions or countries
• capacity building and training for professionals
• awareness-raising and education activities

Given the challenges and known gaps in national as well as transnational cooperation and coordination, all proposals submitted under call priorities, 2, 3 and 5, should describe how their project would enhance interagency and multidisciplinary cooperation and collaboration, both at national and at transnational levels (e.g. in planning for dealing with cases with cross-border aspects), including across governmental departments, to ensure the closer involvement of relevant authorities, in cooperation with other actors (e.g. civil society, academia, practitioners, etc.).

-For priority 5, we recommend the Keeping Children Safe standards. There is also a self-audit tool on the Keeping Children Safe website. Bearing in mind that for any allegations of child sexual abuse or exploitation, law enforcement should be involved, we would expect to see a good range of relevant stakeholders involved, including those to whom reporting would take place (e.g. child protection authorities/police/child helplines/implementation of vetting checks prior to recruitment; consultation of the European Criminal Records Information System). The starting point(s) and the rationale for project choices must be clearly described.

-For priorities 1, 2, 3 and 4, projects are welcome to focus on specific forms of violence or particular groups of victims, e.g. child-centred, or services for women or for men. Proposals should include justification for these choices, which will be assessed under the award criterion ‘a) relevance’.

>This call does not aim to fund projects in the areas of:

conformity assessments of the transposition of Directive on the rights of victims of crime (2012/29/EU) into national law;

>The following types of activities will not be funded by the Commission:

• activities supporting individual political parties
• provision of financial support to third parties
• legal actions before national or international courts regardless of their grounds or objectives.

Eligibility criteria

2.1 List of eligible countries:

The Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU), including their overseas departments, and Iceland.

Proposals from applicants in candidate or associated countries may be selected provided that, on the date of award, agreements have entered into force setting out the arrangements for the participation of those countries in the programme.

Should a candidate or associated country join the programme during the call process, a notification will be posted on the Participant Portal.

2.2        Eligibility of the applicant and partners (lead applicant and co-applicant(s))

The applicant and partners must be public entities or private organisations, duly established in one of the countries participating in the programme, or international organisations. Organisations which are profit-oriented must submit applications in partnership with public entities or private non-profit organisations.

Note: Under the REC and Justice programmes, entities affiliated to a beneficiary are not considered as project participants. Their costs are not eligible.

2.3        Eligibility of the application

(a) The project can be either national or transnational;

(b) The application must involve at least two organisations (applicant and partner);

(c) The EU grant requested cannot be lower than EUR 75 000.

3. Duration of the projects

The initial duration of the projects should not exceed 24 months. No grant may be awarded retrospectively for actions already completed. A grant may be awarded for an action which has already begun only where the applicant can demonstrate the need to start the action before the grant agreement is signed. In such cases, costs eligible for financing may not have been incurred prior to the date of submission of the grant application.

For more information:

https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/rec/topics/rec-rdap-gbv-ag-2018.html