Сall for Proposals Under The UK’s Integrated Security Fund (ISF) 2024-2025
The British Embassy Kyiv invites proposals from non-profit organisations for project work under the UK’s Integrated Security Fund (ISF) for the period from 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025.
As part of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) programming, the UK government will provide up to £500,000 to support female veterans and other vulnerable veteran groups including LGBT in Ukraine.
Building on previous work undertaken by the UK National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) 2023 to 2027, the UK is seeking to complement implementation of the Ukraine National Action Plan on WPS 2020-2025 focusing on the following goals:
- Contribute to development of national and regional policies for veterans making it inclusive for men and women, focusing on effective reintegration of female and other vulnerable veterans into their communities, as well as servicewomen transition from military to civilian life, ensuring their safety and security.
- Raise awareness about existing challenges female and other vulnerable veteran groups face and campaign, advocate and lobby for policies, legislative change and programmes that will best address their rights and needs at national and regional levels; supporting key national stakeholders to implement it.
- Foster partnership and communication within and between female veterans’ organisations and other veterans’ organisations to share best practices, resources and support mechanisms to advocate and address veterans’ rights and needs. (i.e. establishment of regional and national platforms that are able to interface in a structured manner with regional authorities and national level stakeholders).
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Only non-profit organisations are invited to bid. This call for bids is open for International Organisations (IOs), International non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and local civil society organisations (CSOs), that can also apply in consortium of few CSOs. Successful projects should have sustainable outcomes and should clearly identify the change that will be brought about. They may also build on projects by other organisations, complementing their efforts. All bids should make clear how they complement existing activities supported by other donors and international partners, and how work in the regions, if suggested, complements national level activity.
The minimum indicative funding for projects is £300,000 and maximum £500,000. This may be in addition to co-funding and self-funding contributions; indeed, co-funding will be considered a merit. Projects must be implemented and all payments made by 31 August 2025. Where appropriate, bidders are encouraged to describe how their project could be further scaled-up if additional funding became available.
All project management, project administration, and overhead costs should be detailed and combined are not expected to exceed 15% of total budget. Budgeting overheads as a flat percentage is not supported, and any such costs should be fully detailed in the budget. We are unable to fund academic courses or English language courses; the purchase of IT and other equipment over £500 per item will require prior approval of the Embassy, but such procurement should not constitute a significant part of the overall project budget.
The British Embassy Kyiv will carry out due diligence of potential grantee/s, including seeking references, as part of the selection process.
Bidding is competitive and only selected project/s will receive funding. The Embassy reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids without incurring any obligation to inform the affected applicant(s) of the grounds of such acceptance or rejection. Due to the volume of bids expected we will not be able to provide feedback on unsuccessful bids.
Bidding process
Bidders should fill in a standard ISF Project Proposal Form and include a breakdown of project costs in the Activity Based Budget (ABB) (see linked files below). Please save these files as MS Word Document and MS Excel Spreadsheet respectively. We will not consider proposals submitted in other formats. Budgets must be Activity Based Budgets (ABB), all costs should be indicative, in GBP (not Ukrainian Hryvnia).
Successful bids must demonstrate Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Category D or E (please see description of all GESI Categories in Annex), i.e. have a clear gender GESI objective explicit in the project documentation and an explanation of a positive impact of the project on advancing gender equality and social inclusion. For more details, please see linked GESI Guidance below.
All projects or activities must align with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and assess climate and environmental impact and risks, taking steps to ensure that no environmental harm is done and, where relevant, support adaptation.
Successful implementers should be able to receive project funding in GBP(£) and open a GBP bank account for the project.
Proposals should be sent to the British Embassy Kyiv at Kyiv.Projects@fcdo.gov.uk by 5pm (Kyiv time) on 4 July 2024. Please indicate the name of the bidder in the subject line. We aim to evaluate proposals by mid-July. Successful shortlisted bidders will be informed by the end of July 2024.
Evaluation criteria
Proposals will be evaluated against the following criteria:
- fit to programme objectives – the extent to which the proposal addresses the issues
- quality of project – how well defined and relevant the outcome is and how outputs will deliver this change; ability to leverage bigger funding would be an advantage
- value for money – the value of the expected project outcomes, the level of funding requested and institutional contribution
- previous experience – evidence of the project team’s understanding the issue and of its regional activities, ability to manage and deliver a successful project, through work done to date in the area or in related fields
- gender-sensitive approach and alignment with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change
- as indicated above; the proposals will be assessed by a mixed gender panel.
Last updated 26 June 2024 + show all updates
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Budget template updated.
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Deadline has been moved from 26 June to 4 July 2024
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First published.