1. BACKGROUND

This Call for Proposals (CfP) is administered by the UNDP Digital, Inclusive, Accessible: Support to Digitalisation of Public Services in Ukraine (DIA Support Project), which is part of the UNDP Ukraine Democratic Governance Portfolio.

DIA Support Project is implemented with funding provided by the Government of Sweden and in close cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine (MDT). The three-year intervention builds on many years of UNDP Ukraine’s experience in two tracks: administrative service reform and re-engineering and digitalisation of processes in public administration – including through participatory methods of citizen and expert engagement.

Ukraine has entered 2020 with what the Government hails as a new era for digitalised experiences of interacting with the state – the “Diia” complex of digital solutions under the auspices of “Your State in Your Smartphone” vision. Within the DIA Support Project, UNDP assists its government counterparts, first and foremost MDT, to select wrap-around services that representatives of vulnerable groups face in life situations to enable the delivery of digitalised or digitally-enhanced, mobile-based solutions.

Throughout the three years of cooperation, MDT, its system of Chief Digital Transformation Officers and sister agencies in the Government and Parliament is gaining an in-depth understanding of approaches to Human Rights Based Approach in crafting public services for citizen-clients. The Project also works proactively with citizen-clients to enhance their digital skills and buy-in for solutions offered through new technology.

The DIA Support Project aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Government institutions have the knowledge and skills to design and implement policies to digitalise citizen-oriented services in line with principles of the Human Rights Based Approach and gender mainstreaming;
• Client-centred digital service packages are built around life situations in a participatory and gender-responsive manner;

Ukrainian women and men know more about the digital and mobile-based services available to them and use these services more to meet their needs.​​​​​​​

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE COMPETITION

The DIA Support Project does not concentrate exclusively on the development of new, more convenient and citizen-centric electronic services, but also seeks to increase the availability of these services, both by developing technically accessible services and by expanding the circle of people who have sufficient digital skills to use electronic services.

In 2020, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine (MDT) has launched a new era in the country's digital transformation by developing and operationalizing numerous online services. However, despite the roaring success of the first steps, research suggests (https://bit.ly/33qyw1c) that Ukrainians still face barriers on their way to enjoy the simplicity and comfort of digitally transformed solutions. Among the 39% of Ukrainians who – for some reason – did not use any electronic service recently, 22% reported poor digital literacy skills. Another research (https://bit.ly/36exGFT) has demonstrated, that 47.8% Ukrainians have digital skills below basic level.

Insufficient digital literacy skills become an additional barrier for Ukrainians during the full-scale war in Ukraine, that unfolded in 2022. With millions of people displaced, messengers and social media became the primary way of receiving urgent information and staying in touch with relatives. MDT has also launched several new electronic services in Diia, focused on humanitarian response: registering as IDPs, informing about the damaged or destroyed property, application for the assistance to the entrepreneurs from the war-affected territories. Thus, digital literacy education is a matter of enhancing state humanitarian response on a level of accessibility of digital services.

MDT within efforts to close the digital gap has previously set the ambitious goal of helping 6 million Ukrainians develop good digital competence by 2023 and has deployed several instruments for various groups of citizens. In particular, the platform Diia.Digital education was launched in 2019. It serves as the main portal where all educational materials are collected to increase digital literacy. As of today, it has over 1.2 million registered users, more than 70 educational courses on various aspects of digital competencies, designed for different age groups and categories of citizens, and 6 tests on digital literacy.

In 2021, the national concept for the development of digital literacy (https://cutt.ly/mRKnh9m) was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and almost half of the regions have already created appropriate concepts with specific action plans. MDT has also adapted the Digi Comp 2.1 digital competency framework for citizens (https://bit.ly/3hf7CMY).

Importantly, MDT ensures offline access to the online courses on Diia.Digital Education. People without digital skills or devices with internet access can study at the Hubs of Digital Education. Digital Education Hubs (DEHs/Hubs) are public and community places (libraries, schools, centres of state administrative services, IT-companies, CSO’s offices, even shops) that have registered themselves as Hubs (https://cutt.ly/NRKnJdx) and are willing to assist people in obtaining digital skills. To be verified they must have at least one device with access to the internet and at least one person who has completed the online course “Training for trainers” at Diia.Digital Education platform. Currently there are over 6,000 operating DEHs in the country.

Most of the DEHs currently are libraries. There is a great potential for the further development of libraries as Hubs of Digital education. MDT in cooperation with business is transferring 5,000 computers to the village libraries (https://bit.ly/3GwcSH6 and https://bit.ly/3tsyjFA). This is a crucial step to give access to vulnerable audiences in distant locations who can thus receive online education with help of assistants.

However, despite the importance of the existing network of DEHs and steps to grow it through the digitalisation of libraries, there are significant perspectives to expand the user audience of the deployed solutions thereby increasing citizens’ digital literacy level and bridging the digital divide in the country.   UNDP supports these efforts and assists the Government of Ukraine in fostering digital transformation based on principles of leaving no one behind and a Human Rights Based Approach.

In the end of 2021, DIA Support Project facilitated the strategic session of the representatives of the champions among libraries-DEHs. The cooperative work of the libraries’ leaders demonstrated the problems libraries face on their way to becoming effective centres of digital skills development. Namely, some village libraries that receive computers might not be able to utilize them properly since some librarians lack digital skills themselves as well as a vision for the effective transformation of the libraries. Secondly, often there is a need to develop certain documents and procedures that fit into the local bureaucratic processes. Thirdly, communication with various audiences about digital skills requires some preparation. Overall, all these communicational, organisational and educational barriers become obstacles on the way of libraries’ transformation. Thus, there is a need to ensure sustainability of the digital literacy education opportunities in the libraries.

Hence, the grant competition is aimed at conducting a regional educational tour in support of the existing network of libraries-Digital Education Hubs, in order to increase offline access to digital skills acquisition by vulnerable groups, including the elderly, and people without their own devices with Internet access. Tasks of this initiative include:

1. Training and enhancing the skills of librarians in digital literacy and the ability to teach library users digital skills.
2. Increasing the sustainability of Digital Education Hubs through the development and dissemination of the methodological manual/guidelines for the effective bureaucratic documentation of such library activities and enhancing the ability of librarians to transform libraries into Digital Education Hubs.
3. Direct training of the representatives of vulnerable groups in digital skills, particularly in order to increase the ability to use electronic state services.
4. Establishing a channel of communication between the MDT and the target groups to test communication materials, service reengineering hypotheses, and receive feedback from digital skills receivers.

The proposals shall include/respond to the following considerations:

• The proposed approach should cover all Ukraine’s territories which are under governmental control;
• The process should offer comprehensive solution and be generally in line with the Human Rights Based Approach (principles of “accountability”, “participation and inclusion”, “equality and non-discrimination”) and be mindful and inclusive of gender equality and equity;
  Considering the above objectives, the project should include the following elements:

• creation of a comprehensive methodological manual for the transformation of a typical public library into a Digital education hub, which would be based on the results of the strategic session supported by the DIA Support Project in December 2021 (structure is in attached files), expected number of pages – at least 50;

• conduction of the online training for trainers for representatives of regional training centres for librarians (RTC) (2 from each of the 24 oblasts);
• provision of expert and organizational support to training for librarians - coordinators of Digital Education Hubs (at least 120 people all over Ukraine, with their further commitment to conduct at least one digital literacy education event). Chosen civil society partner will be responsible for the organization of methodological, educational, informational content of this stage of the grant, while DIA Support Project takes the obligation to organize logistics of the training of the Hubs’ coordinators;
• Provide support to educational activities by the trained librarians in their Hubs (each Hub should conduct at least one event);
• Create and maintain a feedback loop with the Hub coordinators and those receiving the digital skills training.

As the results of the proposed initiative, Hubs will increase their capacity for educational activities in the field of digital literacy and creation of opportunities in the sphere of participatory and inclusive digital transformation.

All relevant events and activities will need to be completed by 15 October 2023, and the maximum co-funding from UNDP shall not exceed 48’000 USD.

3. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

The proposals coming in for the Project’s consideration will be initially measured 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 organisation or an association of CSOs officially registered in Ukraine;
• has a track record of active operation of at least five years;
• has a proven track record of cooperation with the international donor community, proper project implementation and reporting.

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 a CSO is eligible to be considered for UNDP funding will be assessed on the Capacity Assessment Checklist (CACHE) presented in Annex 5. In case of a coalition-based application, only the core applicant will be verified against CACHE.

4. BUDGET AND ELIGIBLE COSTS

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.

Grant costs may only be used to cover the following expenses:

• staff salaries and expert fees;
• communication and information services;
• purchase of consultative services and contracts if these are essential to project goals and objectives;
• renting, catering, and other services envisaged by the project activities;
• printing and copying;
• utility services;
• consumables and supplies;
• travel costs (if travel complies with internal UNDP regulations);

Not more than 10% of the grant funds may be spent for purchasing 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. 

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​5. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

All applications must be received by UNDP no later than 11 July 2022 by 23:59. Applications arriving after the indicated deadline shall not be considered. Please, do not send attachments exceeding 10 Mb. If the application attachments exceed this size, break the archive up into several parts of under 10 Mb each and indicate accordingly in the e-mail subject (e.g. “Application part 1 of X”).

Please note that UNDP does not send automated replies to your submission (including automated “read receipts” or “delivery receipts”) and does not control what e-mail server responses are sent to the applicants, should they request such automated receipts.

Please expect to receive a human-generated written confirmation from the DIA Support Project. If you receive no such confirmation by 15 July 2022, please contact Iryna Kupchynska, DIA Support Community Liaison and Outreach Associate, at Iryna.Kupchynska@undp.org.

All applications and supporting materials should be sent to grants.ua@undp.org, specifying in the subject line “DIA Support Project: Digital Education Hubs Development CfP”.

Comments on the quality of the proposal are not provided. By submitting materials to UNDP for the competition, the applicant grants UNDP the permission to process personal data contained in resumes/CVs or other parts of the application form for the purposes of the grant competition and potential reference checks.

6. SELECTION PROCESS

Upon completing the pre-screening process (done by the DIA Support Project team), the Selection Committee shall convene and assess those applications that meet the minimum criteria against the following evaluation matrix (Grant Selection Criteria):

7. MONITORING, EVALUATION AND REPORTING

The Grantee will be responsible for monitoring the project’s activities and evaluating their outcomes. UNDP will monitor the project through Grantee reports, online consultations, site visits, meetings with project personnel and stakeholders and participation in the project events.

The Grantee shall submit the following reports according to the UNDP format (to be provided):

• Brief interim reports, including description of activities, results, and agreed monitoring indicators, as well as financial reports – depending on the length of the project proposed (to be specified in the relevant Low Value Grant Agreement);
•  Brief reports on demand occasionally requested by UNDP DIA Support in cases when information on progress is required in-between reporting periods;
• The Final (Completion) report, including a summary of activities and results as well as the financial report for the total duration of the agreement.

Annex 1

To be filled out in Microsoft Word

“Strengthening the institutional capacity of libraries-Digital Education Hubs to increase the digital literacy of people, especially from vulnerable groups and remote areas, to ensure access to public electronic services”

APPLICATION FORM

APPLICANT BACKGROUND

BRIEF INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT MANAGER

PROPOSED PROJECT IN BRIEF

PROJECT PROPOSAL

Annex 2

To be filled out in Microsoft Excel

Detailed budget

* The type, number and sequence of activities/ expenditure categories may vary

** Aligned with the proposed Work Plan

Annex 3

To be filled out in Microsoft Excel

Work plan

1. State what activities will be completed with the grant Funds. Use as many activity lines as necessary.

2. Define the time periods relevant for the grant and indicate when specific activities are expected to be completed. Typically, time periods relate to when the tranches of Funds are released (i.e., quarterly, six months, annually) Use as many time periods as necessary.

3. Indicate the budget amounts.

Annex 4

To be filled out in Microsoft Excel

Performance targets

Please, state the indicators for measuring the results that will be achieved through the grant. At least three indicators are required. Please make sure to think about gathering gender-disaggregated data (separately on men and women). Multiple indicators allow you to capture the results of your project better.

Annex 5

To be filled out in Microsoft Word

Capacity Assessment Checklist (CACHE) for CSOs