Project support to civil society organisations

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs grants discretionary government transfers to Finnish civil society organisations (CSOs) and municipalities for their development cooperation projects. Calls for proposals are opened every two years. Next call of proposal is open from the 15th of March to 14th of May 2018.

Principles of support

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs grants discretionary government support in the form of project support for development cooperation projects implemented by Finnish civil society organisations (CSOs) and municipalities. The grant is intended for time and location-bound projects that must have clear goals and specified beneficiaries, which have been jointly defined with implementation partners.  The projects must aim at sustainable changes. Project support is not a form of permanent funding but a fixed-term additional contribution for the strengthening of the civil society and/or local administration in developing countries. Project support may be granted for both new and continuing development projects.

Conditions and guidelines of project support

General conditions:

• General conditions

Complementary guidelines to general conditions:

• Complementary conditions

Forms for e-Service

Ministry for Foreign Affairs uses an e-Service and its electronic forms for the administration of project support. Find out about the e-Service.

To download the forms you will need to have the latest version of the free Adobe Reader software.

Save the forms on your own work station before opening them (Save target as). You can edit, save or forward forms to others before you submit the application.

Basic information form

Grant recipients will need to submit the basic information form annually together with the following appendices: action plan, budget proposal, annual report, financial statement, audit report and other possible documents, such as revised rules and extract from the register of associations.

The basic information form will be submitted only once also in cases where the actor is applying for several discretionary government transfers in the same year.

Applicants for grants must use the code given in the acknowledgement of receipt to be able to submit new applications for project support in application cycles. It is requested that applicants will submit their basic information forms by the end of April.

After submitting the basic information form, you will receive a notification on your electronic user account, which includes the case ID code (which is in the form of UHA20XX-000XXX). Write this ID code under section 2.1 of the project support application or continuation project application.

• Basic information form (UML2017-0012.1.11)

Application forms for project support

• New project (UML2016-0013.2.0)
• Continuation project (UML2016-0014.1.0)

Mandatory appendices:

• Project document
• Mandatory assurance (in Finnish)
• Letter of intent (see complementary guidelines to general conditions)

Please note that when you name the appendices, special characters (such as , . - / ä ö) must not be used. When you save appendices, make sure that the file format is also saved (for example action_plan_2013.pdf). The total size of the appendices may not exceed 10 MB.

Additional instructions:

• DAC Purpose Codes
• DAC Goals
• Guidance note for statistics
• SMART indicators

Disbursement commitment and request

Commitment form, to be submitted before the receipt of government support:

• Commitment in Finnish (UML2016-0017.2.3)

Disbursement request form. In connection with the application for payment, organisations must withhold 10% of the funding granted for the previous year. The remaining amount will be paid on the basis of a payment application, submitted separately after the final report has been adopted.

• Payment request of discretionary government transfer (UML2015-0018.1.2)

Account of the project status form, to be used when the first instalment is requested to be paid before the annual report is submitted (by 30 April):

• Account of the project  in Finnish

Commitments and disbursement requests are attached to the data concerning the grant recipient and the project using the case ID in the e-Service. The ID is in the form of year-month-day-0000XXXX.

Change of use application and complementary information

Prepare the applications concerning change of use of appropriated funds and carry-over to the next year using the form below.

• Change of use application  (UML2017-0016.2.2)

Additional information to the basic information form, project application and annual report is given using the form below.

• Complementary information form  (UML2017-0024.1.1)

Reporting

Organisations report on their use of the granted discretionary government transfers via the Foreign Ministry's e-Service. The reports must be submitted by 30 April.

The appendices to the annual reports are also sent electronically only. Appendices that must be signed are scanned and appended to the electronic reporting form.

• Form for annual reporting of project support (UML2018-0019.1.6)
• Filling instructions concerning the form for annual reporting of project support

The ID data required for filling in the reporting form can be retrieved from the organisation's electronic user account, project support applications and the decision on discretionary government support as well as from the changes of use if any.