Small Grants Program 2008

The World Bank Office in the Kyrgyz Republic and the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia 

are glad to inform about the launch of the joint

 SMALL GRANTS PROGRAM 2008

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The purpose of the Program  is to support civic engagement for the empowerment of marginalized and vulnerable groups. Civic engagement is defined as citizens, either individually or organized as groups, interacting with the public sector to influence policies and processes that affect their lives. Activities funded by the Small Grants Program should facilitate the empowerment of citizens to have greater ownership of development processes, thereby making these processes more inclusive and equitable.

Information on SGP (Russian, DOC, 310 kb)

Application Form (Russian, DOC, 86 kb)

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Every year, Kyrgyz non-governmental organizations benefit from modest but valuable direct financial assistance from the World Bank’s Small Grants Program.

The Small Grants Program (SmGP) is one of several facilities or programs supported by the World Bank that provides grants to NGOs and other organizations of civil society.  The SmGP aims to make development more inclusive and equitable by providing funds for activities that support the civic engagement of marginalized and vulnerable groups.  Accordingly, grants focus on empowering people who have been historically excluded from society's decision-making processes, such as women, youth, people from racial and ethnic groups, people with low-income, and people from rural areas.  They also aim to enhance partnerships with key players in support of the development process. Key players could include government agencies, civil society organizations, multilateral and bilateral agencies, foundations, and the private sector.

The Small Grants Program is administered by the World Bank Country Office in Bishkek.  The call for proposals is usually announced in the beginning of January, proposals are collected in January-February.  Project proposals are reviewed in March - April.  The grants for winning proposals are awarded in May of each year.

The maximum amount of a grant is 5 thousand USD.  The Small Grants Program 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.

During 1996-2007, the World Bank funded more than 112 projects of Kyrgyz NGOs for a total amount of 280 thousand USD.