Guidance

Syria: accountability, transitional justice and gender equality projects 2024 to 2025, call for proposals

Published 9 May 2024

Background

The UK Government seeks to support greater peace and stability in Syria by helping to create the conditions in which any future peaceful solution can be better implemented within the framework of UNSCR 2254.

We believe the best way to achieve this is by laying the foundations for sustainable peace and addressing the deepening divisions within Syrian communities thereby reducing the reach of extremist groups.

We aim to do this by focusing on an inclusive political process that is Syrian-led and Syrian-focused, which recognises that there is no peace without accountability. The UK is committed to highlighting the appalling violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Syria, and to pursuing accountability for the most serious crimes.

Support to women’s empowerment remains central to our efforts in Syria, with Syria continuing to be a priority country for the UK’s National Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security.

UK Integrated Security Fund (UKISF) Syria aims

The UK Integrated Security Fund is a cross-government fund that takes an integrated, agile, catalytic, and high-risk approach to find solutions to the most complex national security challenges outlined in the Integrated Review Refresh 2023 (IRR).

In Syria, the ISF focuses on civilian protection, documentation of and accountability for human rights violations, transitional justice, and gender equality and social inclusion.

Objectives of proposed projects

This call is for project proposals that support conflict sensitive, innovative, creative and localised approaches to the thematic priorities as set out below. These projects should not focus on humanitarian or development interventions (which are catered for through our humanitarian assistance programme).

The projects should align with the UK’s strategic objectives and policy in Syria ^{[footnote 1]}. The overall objective of the submitted project proposals should fall under one or more of our thematic priorities. Project proposals with gender equality and social inclusion as their main objectives are encouraged (GESI E/ GEM 2):

• local-facing, Syrian-led transitional Justice and accountability and alternative forms of justice focusing on survivors/ victims of human rights violations and their families
• accountability to upholding the rights-based international system, including holding the regime accountable to violations of human rights, including tackling the illegal trade of captagon and its wider impact in Syria
• gender equality, social inclusion, and human rights as standalone interventions, focusing on gender and ethnic minorities, and disability.  This is in line with the strategic objectives in the Women, Peace and Security National Action Plan, the UK’s Shared Approach to Gender in Syria, and the Disability, Inclusion, and Rights Strategy, and the Women and Girls Strategy

We are looking at new, creative, innovative and catalytic ideas to approach and mitigate the challenges faced by Syrians. Interventions must be informed and designed by Syrian experiences and Syrian voices. They can be standalone projects or those that supplement the work of already ongoing work by different actor , including international fora that are already working in the accountability space for Syria.

Scope

Projects can be delivered by a single implementer or a consortium of local and international NGOs or other civil society actors. Potential partners must have demonstrated experience and expertise in working in or on Syria. Projects can cover the Whole of Syria (WoS), or focus on part of parts of Syria, such as Northeast Syria (NES), Northwest Syria (NWS), Regime Controlled Areas (RCA) and the diaspora.

Project activities can be implemented inside and outside Syria depending on the proposed interventions.

In the case of a consortium, one organisation shall serve as the lead project implementer for all of the components, ensuring achievement of project outcomes and serving as a contact point for the ISF Syria team throughout the entire duration of the project.

Downstream partners must have clear division of tasks and lead on individual project components. The lead implementer must ensure downstream partners are able to deliver and have a strong understanding of value for money (VFM), fraud, safeguarding and conflict sensitivity.

Syrian-led organisations are encouraged to apply.

Project proposals must be clear and concise, supported by a clear theory of change (ToC), and achievable and measurable outcomes and outputs summarised in a logframe. In line with adaptive programming, the proposal should remain flexible and open to change, based on needs and developments on the ground.

All projects will have to align with UK financial year timeframe (1 April to 31 March), submitted projects should be designed for an end date of 31 March 2025. Sustainability plan should be clearly highlighted, particularly for interventions that are designed for multi-year implementation.

Budget

The indicative annual budget for this call for project proposals is £400,000 per grant as a minimum yearly budget, and £800,000 as a maximum. These figures include Official Development Assistance (ODA) and non-ODA funding ^{[footnote 2]}.

Budgets must be in the form of an activity based budget (ABB), with specified costs in GBP. A template is attached.

You should budget for an independent external project audit at the end of the financial year.

Administrative costs (project management and finance rates, utilities, internal communications, bank charges) must not exceed 10% of the total project budget. This budget shall not be used to cover research, the purchase of IT or other equipment, unless prior written approval by the ISF team.

By the end of December of each financial year, 80% of the annual budget must be spent. Accordingly, project design and delivery of activities should be aligned with these targets. The budget should be detailed and specified along different expense lines.

The proposals that are selected will receive an accountable grant. This is not a commercial contract. The implementer cannot make or claim a financial profit from this project.

Only selected projects will receive funding, and only after passing a comprehensive due diligence assessment.

As part of due diligence in the selection process, ISF Syria reserves the right to seek references from other partners on potential grantees.

Timeframe

The duration for the implementation of this project is financial year (FY) 2024 to 2025 which starts on 1 April 2024 and ends on 31 March 2025.

While multi-year funding cannot be guaranteed, proposals can provide an indicative plan for up to 3 consecutive years of programming. However, budgets will only be approved on yearly basis, subject to availability of funds and satisfaction of project delivery. ISF cannot guarantee continued funding beyond the initial FY in which a  grant is allocated.

Submitting applications

Applicants for the grant should fill in the project proposal form in English and include a breakdown of project costs in the Activity Based Budget template by 3 June 2024 at 12 noon Beirut time. Proposals submitted in other formats will not be considered.

The proposals should also include:

• logical framework (logframe)
• theory of Change (narrative and in a diagram form)
• 1 page summary (font 12) of the proposed intervention, activities and main results
• list of NGOs/downstream partners in the consortium, indicating the lead NGO

Proposals should be emailed to ISF Syria at: isfsyria@fcdo.gov.uk indicating ‘ISF Syria Call for Proposals 2024 - name of the lead organisation’ in the subject field.

Evaluation criteria

Successful applications must demonstrate strong strategic relevance to the areas of project focus and have a clear focus on delivering change and sustainability.

Gender equality and social inclusion mainstreaming throughout the proposed interventions, gender and conflict sensitivity

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• methodology and approach; a clear, effective, and conflict and gender sensitive methodology to deliver interventions, including ability to produce analytical research on security and conflict dynamics, and horizon scanning for any context change and impact on interventions
• coherent and concise theory of change, supported by a robust monitoring, evaluation, and learning approach, ability to manage risks in a conflict zone
• integration of innovative activities and intervention into the proposal, demonstration of a flexible approach to implementation and ability to respond to a rapidly changing context
• activity based budget and value for money
• staff expertise and experience in the thematic area
• inclusion of a strong Syrian role in the design and implementation of the intervention based on consultations with relevant target audiences. In case of a consortium: demonstration of effective relationships with Syrian civil society organisations
• gender, social inclusion, and disability are mainstreamed clearly throughout the interventions, and align with the OECD and UK’s Gender Equality Marker ^{[footnote 3]}

1. The need for accountability in Syria: Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon’s speech; Thirteenth anniversary of the Syrian Uprising: joint statement; To achieve sustainable peace in Syria, the Assad regime must engage in the political process: UK statement at the UN Security Council; UN Human Rights Council 55: UK Statement on Syria resolution; A record 16.7 million Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance: UK statement at the UN Security Council ↩

2. Official development assistance (ODA) - OECD ↩

3. UNSDG, Gender Equality Marker - Guidance Note ↩