THE HUMANITARIAN AID MODEL GRANT AGREEMENT (HUMA MGA) FOR NGOS

The Data Sheet is composed of 6 points which summarise the specific information related to the Action to be implemented:

• Point 1. General data:  including general information related to the Action such as project number and title, start date, end date and duration (in months).
• Point 2. Participants: A table listing the number, role, name and country of the participants (coordinator and co-beneficiaries if any) taking part in the Action.
• Point 3. Grant: including information on maximum grant amount, total estimated eligible costs and contributions and funding rate; budget categories; cost eligibility options and budget flexibility.
• Point 4. Reporting, Payments and Recoveries: providing information on
  • the schedule of continuous reporting: Interim Reports and quarterly reports (in case of remote management);
  • and Final Report deadline and payment schedule and prefinancing arrangements.
• Point 5. Consequences of non-compliance, applicable law and dispute settlement forum
• Point 6. Other: Specific rules as per Annex V including Communication, dissemination and visibility and Specific rules for carrying out the Action (transfer of assets at the end of the Action, EU restrictive measure for humanitarian aid and financial support to third parties) and standard time-limits after the end of the project (e.g. confidentiality, record-keeping…).

The General Conditions are divided into six Chapters, in which are laid down general rules for implementing the Action.

The Single Form is the format that DG ECHO Partners have to use to request funding for their Actions. The Single Form allows Partners to submit a proposal in response to a crisis or an identified need and allows DG ECHO to take a decision to fund or not to fund an Action.

The Single Form can be created and submitted electronically only, through APPEL. In the system, Partners can also monitor the status of the submitted proposals: submitted, active, favourable, rejected or passive.

As of January 2021, all Single Forms submitted to DG ECHO have to be accompanied by the standard budget of the Action that is an integral part of the Grant Agreement (Annex 2 to the MGA).

This budget model focuses on the main categories of eligible costs as referred to in the Article 6.2 of the Grant Agreement and shows the distribution of costs amongst Partners. The costs of Implementing Partners are regrouped under the category “Financial support to third parties”.

Together with the mandatory Annex 2 Partners have to submit an operational budget focusing on the nature of planned expenditures.  This operational budget has to show specifically:

• split of costs per Partner and per result
• clear distinction between costs incurred by the Partners and their Implementing Partners
• up to 3rd level of details under the main categories
• clear allocation of the direct costs between support and programme costs (examples are provided in a separate document available in the reference documents section)

Within programme costs, further distinction (as presented in the model) between staff costs and costs of goods and services delivered to the final beneficiaries would be necessary, including a separate line for net amount of cash or goods to be distributed.  Within support cost, the minimum level of details should allow for identification of the same or equivalent categories as presented in the model, namely: staff costs, running costs, equipment costs, capacity building of local Implementing Partners related to the project activities, specialised services, EU visibility and communication.

In order to simplify the calculations, the model available in the reference materials includes, whenever possible, links between the operational budget and Annex 2 of the Grant Agreement to ensure coherence between different cost categories, as well as the financial part of the Single Form.  

Annex 3 needs to be signed by Certified ECHO Partners participating in the implementation of the Action, who are not the coordinator of the consortium. The accession form needs to be signed within 30 days after the entry into force of the agreement as per Article 40 of the MGA. To be noted that, new beneficiaries can be added also during the implementation of the Action through a Modification Request (MR). In this case, the Accession Form needs to be downloaded from ECHO Partners’ website (Reference documents section), filled-in signed by the new beneficiary and sent to the coordinator who will send it to DG ECHO without delay.

For DG ECHO Partners the models to be used for the Final Report are included as distinct spreadsheets in the same Excel template for Annex 2.

In the Final financial report, DG ECHO Partners are requested to submit:

• The financial statement, as requested in Chapter 13.5 of the Single Form, in order to report on the total actual incurred costs and
• Annex 4, that it is the updated version of Annex 2.

For the complete overview of all the documents that must be submitted with the Final Report have a look at the dedicated page.

Annex V to the MGA foresees specific rules for humanitarian aid operations, including Communication, dissemination and visibility and Specific rules for carrying out the Action (e.g. transfer of assets at the end of the Action, EU restrictive measure for humanitarian aid and financial support to third parties…).

Additional explanations on the provisions of Annex 5 can be found in the Guidance: Provisional Annotated Annex 5, available in the reference documents section.