European Union’s (EU) continuous commitment to culture in the Southern Neighbourhood region is based on the crucial role culture plays as a driver for achieving sustainable human development. The New European Agenda for Culture, launched by the European Commission in 2018, highlights culture and diversity as drivers of social cohesion, innovation, growth and job creation and thus acknowledges the essential role of culture both in the social and economic spheres. The New European Agenda for Culture also comprises an external dimension, which also recognizes the central role of culture as a vector of sustainable social and economic development and as a peace-building factor. This is all the more relevant with regards to the action of the EU in its Southern Neighbourhood. Well-functioning cultural ecosystems in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are paramount for supporting vivid democratic societies. This is even more so in a region faced with various global challenges due to ongoing conflicts, fragile economies, environmental and climate issues highly affected by globalization.

The current call for proposals builds on what has been already done to better tackle cultural industry’s needs in the Southern Neighbourhood and to allow cultural workers to play their crucial role as democracy-builders. It aims to specifically focus on cultural ecosystems’ contribution to build a sense of local and regional community and on cultural workers positive role in upholding global issues such as green and digital transition. It will foster the role of culture in climate action, promoting the change of mindset towards the climate crisis, promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns, circular economy and other topics. Cultural ecosystems will contribute to raising awareness on gender equality and challenge stereotypes and social norms regarding the position of women in the society.

The global objective of this call for proposals is to improve human development and the quality of life in the Southern Neighbourhood region through culture.

The specific objective of this call for proposals is to strengthen cultural ecosystems and enable cultural actors to address global issues such as the green and digital transition with gender-based approach via cross-sectoral cooperation with civil society and other partners

The expected outputs to be delivered by this call for proposals are:

1. Local cultural ecosystems and their community-building role are strengthened including with gender-based approach
2. Public awareness is raised on global issues such as digital and green transition via cross-sectoral cooperation with civil society with gender-based approach.

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

• The description of action should highlight the regional dimension of cultural relations, how the cooperation and transnational coordination among actors will take place and how diaspora communities from Neighbourhood South countries residing in another Neighbourhood South country will be involved in the project
• The methodology should outline how gender equality, and environmental and climate considerations will be ensured throughout the design of the project.