Deadline: November 7th 2023 | Component 2 of the Green Economy Promotion and Diversification Project (Zambia)
To encourage green and sustainable growth as well as an environmentally sound, gender and youth-sensitive, and commercially successful diversification of the economy, the European Commission (EC) has issued a call for suggestions.
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Component 2: A grant to support the establishment and growth of MSMEs and start-up businesses, particularly those founded and run by young male and female entrepreneurs that invest in environmentally friendly, climate-smart, and digital business prospects that lead to the creation of respectable jobs.
Priority Problems
- Improving formalisation, skills, management of MSME with development potential, particularly those run by women and young entrepreneurs, and expanding access to capital to increase product quality, product diversity, and green and circular economy are the priorities of this request for proposals.
- The aforementioned is anticipated to result in MSMEs consolidating, diversifying into high growth industries, green and circular economy value chains, increasing their competitiveness and market penetration, and creating respectable numbers of jobs. This will be accomplished through technical assistance (TA), which includes mentorship and training, and financial support to third parties (FSTP).
- Growing and enhancing the business and financial service providers in Zambia’s MSME support service offering. This will be accomplished through FSTP and TA to local impact and venture capital institutions as well as through Business Development Services (BDSP), which includes incubators and innovation hubs.
- Encouraging the development and commercialisation of new technologies, especially those that promote business models that are more diversified, environmentally friendly, and circular. This will be done by purchasing equipment for at least one new fabrication laboratory (“FabLab”), using TA to set up innovation finance structures, and by providing FSTP to innovation projects.
- Contributing to the EU Zambia Strategic Partnership on Critical Raw Material should receive special consideration.
Financial Details
- This request for proposals has a total indicative value of EUR 22 700 000.
- Any grant sought in response to this request for proposals must fall within the range of the following minimum and maximum sums:
- Minimum: 22 700 000 Euros
- Maximum: 22 700 000 Euros
Duration
- An action’s initial planned length cannot be less than 42 months or longer than 48 months.
Activities That Qualify
- In regard to the major areas of the Action, particularly: capacity and institutional building, and support to enable the successful implementation of granted grant contracts, if applicable; technical assistance to MSME and to the aforementioned MSME development service ecosystem actors;
- Support from advisors to MSME for adoption of circular, green, and digital business models;
- Assistance from advisors to MSME in identifying suitable financing options, including supporting the use of the EFSD+’s guarantee programmes, negotiating with financial institutions, and, if necessary, monitoring the investment’s progress;
- Examination of value chains and market opportunities for the green, circular, and digital economies;
- Design, launch, and management of various request for proposals, including financial assistance to the above-mentioned eligible third parties. All actions necessary to award funding to third parties will be taken by the applicant. This includes, but is not limited to, creating the guidelines for the various calls (to be approved by the Programme Steering Committee); developing the eligibility and evaluation standards for the various calls to provide grants to third parties; organising awareness-raising and information campaigns on the calls for proposals to third parties; and locating and hiring experts (without the EU’s objection) that the Applicant will involve in the evaluation of proposals.
Zambia is the only site where the action may happen.
eligibility requirements
Applicant(s) in charge
- The main applicant must meet the following requirements in order to be considered for a grant: be a legal person, be for-profit or nonprofit, and belong to one of the following specified types of organisations:
- According to the basic act/NDICI-GE, non-governmental organisations, public sector organisations, private sector organisations, civil society organisations, and international (inter-governmental) organisations must be based in a member state of the European Union, Zambia, or another eligible country.
- International organisations are not subject to this responsibility.
- be willing to sign a confidentiality agreement and avoid conflicts of interest with financial institutions directly or indirectly involved in complementary funding to this call for proposals. be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the Action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.
- Co-applicant(s)
- Co-applicants take part in the planning and execution of the Action, and their expenses are just like the lead applicant’s expenses in this regard.
- Co-applicants must meet the same eligibility requirements as the primary applicant.
- The mandate form must be signed by co-applicants.
- The co-applicant(s), if any, will become the beneficiary(ies) in the Action (together with the coordinator), if the grant contract is approved.
Associated Parties
- The lead applicant, along with any of its co-applicants, may work with related parties.
- The lead applicant and/or co-applicant(s) may only be deemed to be linked with the following organisations:
- Only organisations have a structural connection to the applicants (the lead applicant or a co-applicant), particularly a financial or legal connection.
- Essentially, this structural relationship comprises two ideas:
- Control over certain categories of undertakings’ annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements, and related reports:
- Therefore, entities connected to an applicant could be: Daughter firms or first-tier subsidiaries that the applicant controls directly or indirectly. They could also be entities under the management of an applicant-controlled entity (granddaughter businesses or second-tier subsidiaries), and this also holds true for additional levels of control;
- Entities (parent corporations) that directly or indirectly control the applicant. They may also have the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister corporations), or they may control another company that controls the applicant.
- Membership, or the applicant’s participation in the same body (such as a network, federation, or association) as the proposed linked entities, is what is meant by membership in a legal sense.
For more information, visit European Commission (EC).
