Frequently Asked Questions
Please find below a series of frequently asked questions (FAQs) regarding the Call for Proposals. Kindly search below for the answer to your question. If you cannot find it, you may send other enquiries to this e-mail address (click to open): jmdi-techsupport.
FAQs on Eligibility
1. Q. Is it compulsory for the consortium to have at least two partners, one in the EU and one in one of the 16 target countries?
A. Yes, the consortium should be composed of at least one organization or local authority from an EU member state and one organization based in one of the 16 target countries of the Joint Initiative.
2. Q. Can an organization/local authority which has already received financial support/a grant from the EC be considered as eligible under this call?
A. Yes, an organization which has already received financial support from the EC or other donor is eligible under this call. The JM&DI intends to finance both ongoing projects (wishing to scale-up) and new project proposals.
3. Q. Can an organization/local authority from a country not included in one of the 16 target countries submit a proposal? If so, under what conditions?
A. Yes, it is possible. However, that organization/local authority must partner with a consortium composed of at least one partner from an EU member state and one from one of the 16 target countries. It should be remembered that that the JMDI is concerned with securing developmental impact in the 16 target countries, not in the EU or elsewhere
Projects are not discriminated against by the presence of non-target countries. However, it is imperative that there is a logical reason for their inclusion. Usually, this is likely to be required in order to share experience/expertise necessary to replicate possible solutions to development problems.
4. Q. Should all the applicant organizations in a consortium have approved financial statements and be legally registered?
A. No. Only the main recipients of grant funds in the consortium, (at least one based in the EU and one based in one of the 16 target countries), must have certified accounts and be legally registered.
However, other partners can be subcontracted to carryout activities by the partners receiving funds. In this case, the 2 main partners will be accountable for the funds received.
5. Q. What are the required qualifications for the auditor of the financial accounts? Can the auditor be internal to the organization?
A. The financial audits must be undertaken by an external auditor registered within the national audit office (or equivalent), according to the national regulations of each country.
6. Q. What is the criterion used by the JM&DI for defining the nationality of an organization?
A. An organization will be considered as national of a given country, in the respective country in which its statute has been legally registered, through an instrument governed by the internal law of the country concerned.
The only accepted document to certify the legal registration of an organization is its statute, registered in the competent office of the country where this organization operates. In the absence of this document, no other instruments may replace it for this call.
7. Q. One of the requirements to apply to the Joint Initiative is that at least one of the partners has relevant experience in one or more of the 4 priorities (thematic windows) of the programme. Must the statutes of the organization mention that it is an organization working on migrant’s related issues or is it sufficient to prove relevant practical experience in one of the thematic areas?
A. It is not required that the statutes of the applicant organizations specify one of the 4 focus areas. However, it is important to convince the Evaluation Committee that partners have relevant practical experience in implementation. Experience may not necessarily be in migration and development specifically, as we understand that this is a relatively new programming area.
8. Q. Is it possible to partner with religious/partisan organizations? If so, under what conditions?
A. Yes. As long as the religious/partisan organization fulfills the normal eligibility criteria: is legally registered as a ‘non-profit’; directly responsible for the project, has relevant experience in one of the thematic areas, and provides audited financial statements, it is possible to do so.
9. Q. Co-operation with ‘for-profit’ firms. Is it possible to partner with banks, telecommunication companies, IT/financial consultants, etc.? Are the expenses paid to these partners for services/logistics/travel eligible under this call?
A. Yes, it is possible to partner with ‘for-profit’ organisations/institutions. However, ‘for-profit’ partners cannot receive grant funds under the call, and therefore cannot comprise either of the two main partners (1 in the EU, 1 target country) required for eligibility. ‘For-profit’ subcontractors can receive funds for legitimate services and goods provided to the main partners in the course of the project.
The main recipients of grant funds may use their resources to pay for private sector consultants and their expenses. These expenses will be treated as any other expenditure envisaged to fulfill the project activities and achieve the proposed results.
In the project proposal, the role of any ‘for-profit’ partners should be clearly described.
10. Q. My organisation is only in possession of the audits of the year 2007. The audits for the year 2008 will be ready later this year. May I still apply to this call?
A. If the 2008 audited statements are not yet ready, you may submit the audited financial statements for 2007 with your proposal, stating that you will provide the Programme Management Unit with the 2008 audits, once you have them.
11. Q. Subcontracts. Our project requires hiring expertise/services from consultants/experts. What are the rules for subcontracting?
A. The JM&DI does not require specific contracting or procurement rules to be followed. However, all subcontractor fees for goods and services (e.g. consultants) should be reasonable and fully justified in and by the project proposal. Organisations are expected to follow broadly accepted international standards and principles for undertaking procurement, in line with national frameworks in the countries in which they operate.
What is imperative is that all applicant organisations are transparent and accountable in regard to selection, and payment processes, and apply competitive tender bidding for contracts of substantial size.
FAQs on General Matters
1. Q. Which are the member states of the European Union?
A. The 27 member states of the European Union are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
2. Q. Where must the activities of the project take place?
A. The action of the project should aim at the development of one of the 16 countries. Therefore, most of the activities of the project should be implemented in one of these countries. Activities based elsewhere are likely to be more limited, although we recognize this will depend on the nature of the project proposal.
3. Q. Does the JM&DI require co-financing?
A. No. There is no need of co-financing from civil society organizations and local authorities to submit a project proposal and get funds from the Joint initiative. Hence, the grants provided by the JM&DI can finance 100% of projects.
4. Q. We would like to present a project proposal whose content falls under more than one of the thematic windows of the Joint Initiative. Does the project need to fall under only 1 window?
A. No. The content of a given project proposal may address objectives across different thematic windows.
5. Q. Is it possible to have the project documents translated into Spanish, Arabic or Russian?
A. Official documents of JM&DI can be produced only in French and English. However, project proposals may be submitted in any of the six official UN languages (English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese. You may ask your UN country office Focal Point whether they can provide you with the documents in the local language.
6. Q. I have wrongly completed (and sent) my project proposal. Can I submit a new one?
A. Yes, you may send again your project proposal, as long as you do it before the deadline of Friday 27th March, 12.00 noon Brussels time/CET.
After the deadline (and if your project has been selected), the PMU staff will work with you during the inception phase to strengthen its technical and substantive features.
7. Q. We encountered problems when trying to submit the proposal by e-mail. What shall we do?
A. If you encounter problems when submitting your proposal, you may send a hard copy to the JM&DI Focal Point in your country or to the Programme Management Unit (PMU).
Should you do this by regular mail, the stamp/seal must be prior to Friday 27th March, MIDNIGHT Brussels time/CET.
8. Q. When and how will I know if my project has been selected? How will I be contacted?
A. The evaluation process will take approximately six weeks. If your project is selected, you will be contacted via e-mail in early June. Feedback Notes will be prepared on each successful project, comprising two sections. Substantive feedback will be provided by the UN Evaluation Committee and communicated by the PMU; technical feedback will be provided by ICMPD. Feedback Notes will be sent to successful applicants with a covering letter awarding grant funds requested, conditional upon willingness to integrate Feedback Note comments into revision of project proposals during the Inception Phase.
9. Q. Should the proposal be submitted jointly or separately by each partner organization from a given consortium? If a proposal is to be presented jointly, what are the procedures to follow in this case?
A. Each consortium must submit only one joint, integrated project proposal. The procedures to follow are those included in the online formats, templates and guidance available on this website. http://www.migration4development.org/call-for-proposals/
However, an organisation/ local authority can be part of more than one consortium.
10. Q. What is the schedule for dispersal of payments?
A. If chosen, 5.000 euro will be allotted to each partner at the beginning of the inception phase in order to incorporate necessary changes. Once the Inception Report is approved, a second payment will be made for start-up activities. The rest of the payments for project activities will be made against milestones to be agreed upon by the PMU and the consortium throughout the duration of the project.
11. Q. Do I need to translate the proof of legal registration document? And the audits?
A. No, there is no need to do so. Offical documents may be presented in the original language in which they have been issued.
12. Q. Are there a limited number of partners which can receive funds under the call?
A. Yes. The minimum number of grant recipients in 2. (One based in the EU and one based in one of the 16 target countries) There is no maximum limit of partners (grant recipients,) and this should be dictated by the nature of the project itself. In most cases referred to us, the simplest solution to multi-stakeholder projects is to have 2 ‘main partners’ responsible for the grant awards willing to subcontract other organisations in the project, to implement proposed activites.
FAQs on Technical Support
1. Q. Can I submit a draft of my project proposal for revision?
A. No. In order to avoid unfair competition between applicants, neither the Programme Management Unit nor the technical support team from ICMPD will give feedback on drafts of project proposals before the deadline for submission. However, in order to ensure your project is not disqualified for missing required documents, the PMU will receive applications to ensure all annexes are satisfactorily completed prior to the deadline.
2. Q. What is the level of detail required concerning the budgeting of the equipments needed for the project (annex 3)?
A. It is not necessary to detail all the equipment that is to be purchased for the implementation of the project. Only the total amount needs to be stated in the proposal. However, a detailed budget breakdown will need to be provided once the project has been approved.
3. Q. Where should the project manager be based? Can a project be managed by a person based in the EU?
A. The project manager can be based in any of the countries involved in a consortium. Whether the person is based in the EU or in one of the 16 target countries, will depend on the nature and activities of each project.
4. Q. Who are considered ‘partners’, under this call? Does this term refer only to the grant recipients or to all the organisations involved in a project?
A. Under this call, ‘partners’ are those organizations who will be receiving a grant from UNDP. They will sign a ‘memorandum of understanding’ and hence will be directly responsible for the funds. Other organizations involved in a project are ‘subcontractors’, hence not formally part of the consortium.
5. Q. Is it required for a project to have a ‘leading partner’?
A. No. There is no ‘leading partner’ in this call for proposals. Each of the organizations receiving grant funds will be responsible for the amount received and the activities that they implement.
6. Q. Do all the organizations involved in a project (partners and subcontractors) need to sign annex D (Capacity assessment and partnership statement)?
A. No. Not all the organizations need to sign this document. Only the main ‘partners’ (grant recipients) should sign it. Other organizations involved in the project as ‘sub-contractors’ should be determined as far as possible in the Grant Application Form (point VI, Institutional Arrangement and Management Plan).
7. Q. Does the grant provided to a given project have to be divided equally between the partners?
A. No. According to the activities undertaken, each project may have its own particular division of funds between the partners.
Should you have any specific technical questions concerning the formulation of your project proposal, we advice you to read carefully the ‘online tools‘ that our technical support team has developed to help you at this stage. The ‘tools’ are located in the Technical Support section, located on the bottom-left part of the webpage.
If after reading this material you still have questions or enquiries, you may contact the team at jmdi-techsupport@icmpd.org.
