The European Commission’s first-ever call for proposals for deployment of humanitarian volunteers under its EU Aid Volunteers initiative. Through the new call, around 350 junior and senior professionals are expected to be deployed to disaster-affected countries in support of needs-based humanitarian action. The volunteers will work in the areas of resilience-building and disaster management in vulnerable, fragile or disaster-affected countries and forgotten crises. Also, it is expected that over 300 local organisations and communities will benefit from capacity building activities. deadline 30 september 2015 Read more ›

The African Women’s Development Fund supports organizations working towards the empowerment of African women and the achievement of gender equality on the continent. To increase income opportunities for women, projects to be supported should seek to work with smallholder women farmers, and address issues of climate change and food security. Applicant organizations must have at least three years of experience, be led by a woman, and have a focus on women’s rights. Applications from the following countries are specifically encouraged: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Grants will range from US$5 thousand to US$30 thousand for one year. The application deadline is 11 September 2015 Read more ›

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) — FLEGT in Countries with Partnership Agreements
FAO administers the EU’s program of Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT). The program is open to government institutions, civil society, and private-sector organizations in timber-producing countries engaged in FLEGT’s Voluntary Partnership Agreements (Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Congo, Dem Rep Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Indonesia, Laos, Liberia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam). Grants are up to €100 thousand for a maximum period of 15 months. The deadline for concept notes is 30 September 2015 Read more ›

This report aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the instruments and programmes (both thematic and geographic) used by the European Union (EU) in its development cooperation. It highlights the roles played by civil society in policy dialogue on these instruments and programmes, and in their implementation. CONCORD has been actively engaged with both the EU’s institutions and its member states, monitoring and influencing the negotiations on the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 Read more ›

The Global Innovation Fund invests in social innovations that aim to improve the lives and opportunities of millions of people in the developing world. Through our grants and risk capital, we support breakthrough solutions to global development challenges from social enterprises, for-profit firms, non-profit organisations, researchers, and government agencies. GIF is supported by the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom, the United States Agency for International Development, the Omidyar Network, the Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia. To date, these partners have pledged to invest £ 125 million over the next five years.
GIF can support a wide range of organizations and innovative projects in various stages of development, ranging from the early stages of start-up for implementation at a larger scale. GIF uses a funding model on several levels and offers three stages of financing. Applicants may apply for any stage depending on their level of development. Read more ›

The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently published a public notice for the selection of candidates to be submitted to the Minister for the appointment of the Director of the Italian Development Cooperation Agency. Till September the 14th the Ministry is accepting applications to identify who will lead the Italian Cooperation in the next four years. Requirements: Bachelor’s degree, professional qualification and proven experience in the field of development cooperation, advanced level of proficiency in English, at least 10 years of postgraduate work experience, of which at least 3 in development cooperation and at least 5 years in executive or managerial functions. Read more ›

On August the 28th the new Italian bill on Development Cooperation entered into force upon the publication in the national Official Journal, the new law is numbered 125/2014. While the debate and the reform process lasted over 20 years, the law should lead to concrete results in the next three/six months. So far the only visible sign is the change of the name of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs into Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Another major change has occurred from the date of publication of the law. Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini has been appointed to succeed Catherine Ashton as high representative and head of the EU External Action Service. It means that the Renzi’s government will soon appoint a new Foreign Minister Read more ›

According to the German media, the Merkel Government is rethinking the conditions for the signature of the agreement with Canada. The fear is that the warranty clauses for the investors result in the possibility for foreign multinational companies to override states. The clauses that pose a risk to the conclusion of the agreement are the same that are contained in the top secret free trade agreement between USA and EU, the TTIP. The free trade agreement between EU and Canada, known as CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement), is considered by the heads of state themselves as a decisive test bench for the succeeding of the other, and much better known, commercial agreement between USA and EU, the Trans-atlantic Trade and Investiment Partnership Read more ›

Last week the UN Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals (OWG) adopted their final report to standing ovations after 13 formal sessions and a final marathon meeting. From a European perspective, the outcome is considered a satisfactory result overall, with many of the priorities identified by EU Member States being included one-way or another. But there is still much work ahead. Read more ›

Italy may well now sport a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation; in fact, the good news is that the Italian Parliament gave its final clearance to the legislation to reform the Italian development cooperation system last week, on 1st August. Domestically, the final go ahead was welcomed by many decision makers and interested observers even if the general political context was not helpful as the final vote took place amidst fierce divisions around other legislation the Houses were discussing in parallel, including a substantive institutional reform. Despite divisions across the political spectrum, the aid bill got only two nays in the plenary voting sessions at the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. This is the final chapter in a story of attempted reforms that has spanned about twenty years. There is also an ironic side to this story: not many seemed to care about Italian cooperation, but, when it came to fixing it, all different sorts of interests coalesced to stop the reformers. Kudos to the current political leadership, in the Government and in the Parliament, that has pushed this reform through at last. Read more ›