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Small Grants Program
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Guidelines For Civil Society Organizations
FY 2003 Request for Proposals
World Bank Office in Prishtina,Kosovo
About the Program
The Small Grants Program provides grants to civil society organizations through participating World Bank Country Offices. To reinforce the empowerment dimension of poverty reduction, the Small Grants Program focuses on civic engagement for the empowerment of marginalized and vulnerable groups. The 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.
Civic Engagement can…
Promote public consensus and local ownership for reforms and for national poverty reduction and development strategies by creating knowledge-sharing networks, building common ground for understanding, encouraging public-private cooperation, and sometimes even diffusing tensions;
Give voice to the concerns of primary and secondary stakeholders, particularly poor and marginalized populations, and help ensure that their views are factored into policy and program decisions;
Strengthen and leverage impact of development programs by providing local knowledge, identifying potential risks, targeting assistance, and expanding reach, particularly at the community level;
Bring innovative ideas and solutions to development challenges at both the local and global levels;
Provide professional expertise and increase capacity for effective service delivery, especially in environments with weak public sector capacity or in post-conflict situations; and
Improve public transparency and accountability of development activities, contributing to the enabling environment for good governance.
Before You Apply
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. Please also determine (by calling the World Bank Country Office or checking the World Bank website) whether the country in which your program operates has a Small Grants Program.
Who Can Apply?
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).
What Kind of Activities are Supported?
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.
What Kind of Activities are not Supported?
Small Grants can not fund: 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.
What Size of Grants are Awarded?
Most grants are in the range of $3,000 to $7,000 with a maximum of $15,000. 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.
How to Apply for a Grant?
Administration of the Small Grants Program has been decentralized to participating World Bank Country Offices. Not all Country Offices administer the Small Grants Program. 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 about January. The Small Grants Program makes decisions only once a year. Applicant organizations should apply at least four to six months in advance of the date of the grant activity. Applicants are advised to read the criteria and the application form carefully before submitting an application to the participating Country Office.
Grants are usually awarded by a Small Grants Committee, convened in the World Bank Country Office. Applications are screened and reviewed to ensure that the criteria are 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
Please click here to download Small Grants Program Application form |
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