BACKGROUND

The present Call for Proposals (CfP) is administered under the "Accelerating Recovery for Human Security in Ukraine with Urgent Response to Intensified Attacks through Co-Creation Cooperation" project, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine with financial support from the Government of Japan.

The project aims to catalyse urgent recovery and strengthen resilience in response to the increased destruction, displacement, and human suffering caused by Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine. It promotes the Human Security approach by supporting coordinated and people-centred responses to the interconnected challenges facing affected communities, while drawing on Japan's expertise, technologies, and experience in post-crisis recovery.

This Call for Proposals contributes to Output 6: "Access to justice and human rights protection ensured for victims of war crimes."

The full-scale war has generated an unprecedented number of alleged war crimes and gross human rights violations, placing significant pressure on Ukraine's justice institutions and increasing the need for survivor-centred, gender-responsive, and trauma-informed approaches to accountability and protection. While Ukraine has made important progress in investigating and documenting international crimes, further efforts are required to strengthen institutional capacities, improve the quality of investigations, ensure effective referral mechanisms, and provide accessible and safe support services for survivors.

Within this framework, UNDP seeks to strengthen institutional capacities of justice and law enforcement actors, improve survivor-centred investigation of war crimes, enhance professional capacities through sustainable training systems, and expand access to safe, inclusive, and accountable justice mechanisms for victims and survivors.

Through this Call for Proposals, UNDP intends to partner with qualified civil society organizations that possess relevant expertise in supporting victims and survivors of war crimes, promoting access to justice, providing legal, psychological and other specialized services, strengthening referral pathways, delivering professional capacity-building initiatives, and advancing survivor-centred and gender-sensitive approaches in line with international human rights and humanitarian law standards.

The selected project(s) are expected to complement the efforts of national authorities, including the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Police of Ukraine, the Office of the Ombudsperson, the Free Legal Aid System, and other relevant institutions, while contributing to sustainable improvements in Ukraine's justice and human rights protection system for victims of war crimes.

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE COMPETITION: 

The overall objective of this Call for Proposals is to strengthen access to justice and human rights protection for victims and survivors of war crimes in Ukraine by supporting civil society organizations in complementing national efforts to develop survivor-centred, gender-responsive, and trauma-informed justice mechanisms.

Specifically, the competition aims to support initiatives that contribute to one or more of the following objectives:

• Strengthen the technical and operational capacities of justice institutions to investigate, document, and respond to war crimes. This objective seeks to strengthen the institutional capacities of national justice actors through the development of practical methodologies, survivor-centred operational standards, technical guidance, digital documentation solutions, and other tools that improve the quality, efficiency, and consistency of war crimes investigations. Particular attention should be given to approaches that strengthen institutional systems and are aligned with international human rights and international humanitarian law standards.
• Strengthen sustainable institutional learning systems for war crimes investigations through survivor-centred and trauma-informed capacity development. This objective aims to support the development and institutionalization of sustainable learning systems by creating training packages, curricula, methodological materials, and Training-of-Trainers programmes. Priority will be given to initiatives that build the long-term capacity of academic institutions, professional training centres, and justice sector institutions to independently deliver high-quality survivor-centred, gender-responsive, and trauma-informed training programmes.
• Strengthen survivor referral pathways and safe reporting mechanisms for victims and survivors of war crimes. This objective focuses on improving access to safe, inclusive, and trauma-informed justice mechanisms by strengthening referral pathways, outreach services, confidential reporting mechanisms, and survivor-friendly spaces. Initiatives may include development of practical tools, strengthening institutional cooperation, provision of specialized psychological expertise, awareness-raising activities, and other measures that facilitate safe and informed engagement of survivors with justice institutions.

3. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

The grant proposals coming in for the Project’s consideration will be measured, first and foremost, against the admission criteria. To be considered for funding, the proposal must be submitted by an organisation that:

• has a status of a non-governmental, public or charitable organization or an association of CSOs officially registered in Ukraine;
• has a track record of active operation of at least one year;
• has a proven track record of cooperation with the international donor community, proper project implementation and reporting will be considering as advantage.

The CfP will not accept proposals from for-profit entities, political parties, state authorities, local governments, faith-based organisations, or religious communities, as well as from private individuals and entrepreneurs.

The parameters that will determine whether an NGO is eligible to be considered for funding by UNDP will be based on the Capacity Assessment Checklist CACHE (Annex 6). 

4. BUDGET AND ALLOWED EXPENSES:

Eligible costs must:

• be necessary for carrying out the project activities;
• have been incurred by the applicant during the implementation period;
• comply with the principles of sound financial management, in particular, value for money and cost-effectiveness;
• be adequately recorded, identifiable and verifiable, and be backed by original supporting documents.

UNDP Low-Value Grants (LVG) costs may only be used to cover the following costs:

• staff salaries and expert fees;
• communication and information services;
• purchase of consultative services and contracts provided that these are essential to project goals and objectives;
• procurement of equipment for emergency medical assistance, healthcare services, telemedicine, rehabilitation, psychological support, social services provision, prosthetics workshops, inclusive education institutions, accessible sports, leisure, and culture; 
• procurement of vehicles for emergency medical assistance, mobile rehabilitation, and social services provision; 
• procurement of equipment and small-scale repairs for ensuring accessibility and barrier-free public places, administrative buildings, and services; 
• procurement of assistive devices and prosthetics items;
• renting, catering, and other services envisaged by the project activities;
• printing and copying;
• audio, video production costs: 
• placement and promotion in a media:
• utility services;
• consumables and supplies;
• travel costs (provided that travel complies with internal UNDP regulations).

Not more than 80% of the grant funds may be spent of equipment, provided a clear justification is

offered as to its need to achieve project goals.

The following costs are ineligible:

• costs of project proposal preparation;
• academic research;
• debts;
• currency exchange losses.

The grant tranches are paid by UNDP in advance, except for the last tranche. The last tranche, with a minimum amount of at least 10% of the total grant budget amount, should be covered by the CSOs' own funds. After successfully processing the final financial report, UNDP will compensate the eligible expenses incurred under the third tranche.

The maximum funding available from UNDP is USD 60,000 per grant.

5. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Applications (project proposals) must be prepared in English or Ukrainian using templates that will be part of the CfP.

The application package shall consist of:

1. The filled-out Application form (done on a computer as a Microsoft Word file and a XL file);
2. Copy of the Charter of the applicant organisation (PDF);
3. Copy of State registration certificate (PDF);
4. Banking details (PDF);
5. Resumes of proposed specialists for project implementation (Microsoft Word or PDF)
6. Capacity Assessment Checklist CACHE (Annex 6), PDF
7. Other relevant supporting documentation, including supporting letters from appropriate beneficiaries, reference letters, report samples, or others (Microsoft Word or PDF).

The application package shall be archived as a .zip or .rar file, without password protection, and shall not exceed 35 MB in total. The package shall be submitted to the designated email address with the subject line containing the name of the competition as stated in this CfP. In addition, applicants shall upload the complete application package to Google Drive (or another cloud storage service) and include an active access link in the submission email as a backup in case of technical issues with the attached archive. Applications submitted through means other than those described above will not be considered

Project proposals are submitted in Ukrainian and sent by e-mail to:grants.ua@undp.org and olena.kryvko@undp.org, specifying in the subject line the title of the competition “Accelerating Recovery for Human Security through Enhanced Access to Justice and Human Rights Protection for Victims of War Crimes”. 

Contact person: Olena Kryvko  olena.kryvko@undp.org

The deadline for submitting grant proposals is 31 July 2026

6. SELECTION PROCESS

6.1. Assessment procedures

To ensure full transparency and fairness, UNDP establishes a Grant Selection Committee (GSC) to evaluate proposals that pass the initial screening. The GSC is a temporary, authorized body tasked with reviewing, assessing, and recommending proposals for funding. As part of the selection process, the GSC may also request input from independent experts to support its decision-making.

The LVG proposal assessment process will follow this sequence:

• The Project team screens LVG project proposals against the eligibility criteria and CfP relevance;
• The Grant Selection Committee convenes and reviews all eligible LVG full project proposals based on evaluation criteria and recommends those that have gained the highest number of points for concluding the agreements. In addition, the Partner Capacity Assessment Tool (PCAT) will be utilized to assess the capacity of the applicants and their potential to implement the grants proposed, including screening on anti-money laundering issues and PSEA capacity. Pre-selected applicants will also be obliged to provide the project team with certificates confirming PSEA Training completion (UNDP will provide the link) for all applicants’ staff);
• Based on the capacity assessment results of the short-listed CSOs, the Project team submits the Grant Selection Committee minutes (list of CSOs recommended for funding) for approval;
• UNDP concludes grant agreements with the CSOs.

6.2. Criteria for the assessment of proposals 

The proposals shall be assessed by the GSC in accordance with the following criteria:

7. REPORTING, MONITORING AND EVALUATION

7.1. Monitoring and evaluation, frameworks for project implementation

The Grantee is responsible for monitoring project implementation and evaluating its results. UNDP will monitor the project through Grantee reports, online consultations, site visits, meetings with project personnel and stakeholders, and participation in project events.

7.2. Reporting

The Grantee shall submit the following reports according to UNDP format:

• Brief reports on demand occasionally requested by UNDP HR4U II in cases when information on Programme implementation is required in between reporting periods;
• A Completion report, including a summary of activities and results as well as financial report for total duration of an agreement (templates will be provided by UNDP).

ANNEXES: 

Annex 1 

Annex 2

Annex 3