The Small Grants Program Guidelines for Civil Society Organizations

About the Program

The Small Grants Program was created in 1983 to provide a way for the World Bank to promote dialogue and disseminate information about development in forums outside its own operations. Grants are provided to civil society organizations through participating World Bank Country Offices.

To reinforce the empowerment dimension of poverty reduction, the Small Grants Program has developed a new focus on civic engagement for the empowerment of marginalized and vulnerable groups. The new purpose of the Small Grants program is to support the empowerment of citizens to have greater ownership of development processes, thereby making these processes more inclusive and equitable.

Crucial ingredients for empowerment of vulnerable groups include: access to information, access to organizational links outside the local domain, capacity to influence the public arena and to negotiate with local and national authorities, the existence of trustful national and local institutions, and the presence of enabling policy and legal frameworks for civic engagement. Civil society organizations perform a valuable role in engaging their fellow citizens in the fight against poverty and exclusion. Thus, the intended beneficiaries of the Small Grants Program are civil society organizations engaged in initiatives aiming at empowering groups and individuals that have been marginalized and excluded from the public realm.

The World Bank Small Grants Program is able to fund only a very small percentage of the requests it receives. Many requests are declined, not because they lack merit, but because they do not match either the current objectives, or the criteria of the Small Grants Program. Your activity may fall within the objectives and criteria, but the demand far surpasses the availability of funds. Before applying, take time to read the Guidelines to determine if there is a match.

· Civil society organizations based in a developing country and working on issues of development can apply for a grant.
· Civil society organizations must be in good standing and have a record of achievement in the community and record of financial probity;
· Priority will be given to organizations not supported by the Program in previous years (organizations are not eligible for more than three grants from the Small Grants Program within a five-year period).

From "Working Together: The World Bank's Partnership with Civil Society"

International development today is moving increasingly toward partnerships among government, donors, private sector, and civil society as the most effective way to achieve sustainable economic and social benefits. In these multi-sector partnerships, civil society organizations (CSOs) play an especially critical role in helping to amplify the voices of the poor in the decisions that affect their lives.

The World Bank defines civil society as the space among family, market and state; it consists of not-for-profit organizations and special interest groups, either formal or informal, working to improve the lives of their constituents. In this sense, the Bank considers research and policy design organizations, labor unions, the media, NGOs, grassroots associations, community-based organizations, religious groups, and many others typical examples of the actors that comprise the dynamic web known as civil society.

The Small Grants Program supports activities related to civic engagement for the empowerment of marginalized and vulnerable groups. Civic Engagementis the process through which civil society organizations actively engage in relationships and actions with the state and other development actors to address issues of public concern.
Activities should:
· Promote dialogue and dissemination of information; and
· Enhance partnerships with key players in support of the development process. Key players could include government agencies, civil society organizations, multilateral and bilateral agencies, foundation, and private sector.
Activities may include, but are not limited to, workshops and seminars, costs for publications or audio-visual materials, or other innovative networking efforts that small organizations generally find difficult to fund through their regular program budgets. The activity should be completed within one year of the date the grant is awarded.

Small Grants can notfund: Research programs, formal academic training programs, operational projects, ongoing institutional core support (such as equipment), scholarships, fellowships, study programs, individuals applying on their own behalf, or nonlegal entities. Proposed activities should not compete with or substitute for regular World Bank instruments; the activity should be clearly distinguishable from the Bank's regular programs.

Most grants are in the range of $3,000 to $7,000. The Small Grants Program rarely funds more than half of the proposed budget for an activity, and therefore prefers that its grants help leverage additional contributions from other sources. Applicant organizations are asked to describe how a grant from the World Bank might help them to raise matching funds from other donors.

Administration of the Small Grants Program has been decentralized to participating World Bank Country Offices. Requests and proposals should not be sent to the World Bank Headquarters, as decisions are not made at the Headquarters.

Guidelines and application forms are available from the participating World Bank Country Office in February. The Small Grants Program makes decisions only once a year. Applicants are advised to read the criteria and the application form carefully before submitting an application to the participating Country Office.

Grants are awarded by a Small Grants Committee, convened in the World Bank Country Office. Applications are screened and reviewed to ensure that the criteria is met. The Small Grants Program gives prompt consideration to all proposals. The review may take up to four months to complete. Given the very large number of requests, personal visits and phone calls to the World Bank Office by the grantees are not encouraged.

Additional resources for CSOs are available from the World Bank website, www.worldbank.org.


Examples of Activities Supported by the Small Grants Program

Workshop on Good Governance, Democracy and Participatory Development: This activity includes organization of 16 local level workshops with grassroots women, men, local government, civil administrators, members of civil society and NGOs for fostering democracy and enhancing good governance. Key themes of dialogues included, reducing gender gaps, participatory development, ensuring accountability, informing the rules, guidelines and responsibilities of the local government, people's participation in empowerment of women and poor, defining the role and responsibilities of different groups of people for ensuring a combined initiative in establishing democracy, transparency, accountability, information disclosure and good governance.

Regional Workshop for the Settlement of the Urban Poor: This international workshop was organized to facilitate appropriate policy regimes in favor of the urban poor, especially, resettlement of the urban poor, pro-poor urban housing and land use policy, planned urban development, rural-urban migration, urban social/cultural/environmental consequences and the GO/NGO responses, legal arrangement for tenure security and squatter rights - role of the municipal authorities, government and NGOs, and slum resettlement. Follow-up activities includes opinion-sharing and coordination meeting with the members of city corporations, NGO leaders, staff, seminar, workshop, press conference and rally for raising awareness, and enrolling slum dwellers in Voter List.

Improving Community Relations: This project aimed to improve social and legal protections at the community level and to develop community solidarity through improved interpersonal and intergenerational connections and new ways of interacting with municipal authorities. The organization conducted five seminars for local governments, municipalities, and communities, and published a brochure on community relations.

Mobilizing Communities: This activity hoped to mobilize people to take action to help themselves. This marginalized community faced several disadvantages, including living in small settlements in rural areas, low levels of education, high employment rate, social exclusion and discrimination, and lack of information. Through a video film that introduced several successful income generating projects by this population to encourage others from the community. This project was co-financed by a local foundation and the film was distributed through the local minority governments.