WHY IS SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY IMPORTANT?
Traditional accountability systems include political checks and balances, such as national and local elections, administrative rules, and legal procedures. Social accountability activities aim to complement and reinforce these existing systems, by creating continuous, structured and increased dialogue between citizens, CSOs and public officials. Social accountability activities create new ways for citizens to voice their opinions on the governance of public institutions, and allow them to participate more regularly in decision-making. As a result, the performance of public institutions in fulfilling their mandate to the public can be improved.
OBJECTIVE OF GRANT COMPETITION:
To promote CSOs to use social accountability measures in order to 1) facilitate constructive CSO engagement with governments and other stakeholders, 2) improve transparency, accountability and participation in priority sectors and services.
PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES:
Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, South Sudan, Zambia.
SELECTION CRITERIA:
All eligible proposals will be assessed based on the following criteria: (1) Relevance and justification, (2) activities and implementation strategy, (3) results and outcomes, (4) challenges, (5) growth potential, (6) partnership and consultations, and (7) organizational capacity.
AWARD SIZE:
The CSF will allocate up to USD 1,000,000 to support between 10 and 20 CSOs, depending on the quality of proposals and feasibility of proposed activities.
IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD:
The projects must be completed within 18 to 24 months, starting from July 2012.
HOW TO APPLY?
Please download the application format here
Please download the full call for proposal here
For more details, click here
Managed by the World Bank, the Social Development Civil Society Fund (CSF) has directly funded civil society organizations (CSO) since 1983 by awarding grants to projects encouraging the civic engagement of marginalized and vulnerable groups. This year, the CSF is focusing on the theme of Social Accountability. Social accountability refers to the engagement of citizens and civil society organizations (CSOs) with policy makers and service providers to ensure that public officials account or take responsibility for their actions and public institutions are more responsive to citizens’ needs. The CSF will award 10 to 20 grants to CSOs in participating countries for projects working on such social accountability initiatives.
