The Second Grant Program

 

India

 

Youth For Social Development

Youth for Social Development (YSD) was established in the year 2005 by a group of students of Berhampur University, as a youth movement for development of poor people in the Ganjam district of Orissa. Currently YSD is working as a social research and development organization devoted to protect human rights and promote governance in the district of Orissa. YSD has had considerable success in the areas of public service delivery and governance related issues. For example, water and sanitation facilities were provided in many slums where there was no access to such basic services. YSD has also built an alliance of civil society organizations in Berhampur city to fight against corruption, called the Coalition Against Corruption.

The goal of YSD’s project under this grant is to enhance transparency and accountability in the bidding process of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) rural road projects in Ganjam and Gajapati district of Orissa, through increased community and civil society participation and monitoring to improve the quality of rural roads. The PMGSY is a flagship programme of the Government of India, launched in December 2000, with the objective of providing connectivity through good all-weather roads to all unconnected habitations with a population of more than 500 persons.

This project will mainly focus on constructive engagement with community, civil society and public officials in creating citizens’ awareness on the Right to Information Act. They will identify reform and advocacy agenda for transparent and accountable bidding process to improve the quality of rural roads. In this regard, they will develop and pilot a set of instruments for community monitoring of bidding process and adherence to the quality specifications of PMGSY roads. Transparency, accountability and community participation in monitoring of bidding process of PMGSY roads is expected to improve. As a result, increased demand by the civil society for transparent public procurement system and better quality roads will be ensured.

Contact Information

Contact person: Bibhu Prasad Sahu

Website: www.ysdindia.org

 

Centre for Civil Society

The Centre for Civil Society (CCS), established in the late 1990’s is a non-profit, research, education and advocacy think tank committed to increasing opportunity, prosperity and quality of life for every Indian by reinvigorating civil society and readjusting public policy. Their mission is to promote social change through public policy by being a resource for innovative community and market based ideas for critical policy issues particularly in the areas of education, livelihood, governance and environment. CCS has made considerable progress in the education and governance issues. For example, in education they developed the School Choice Campaign with the idea to convert state funding to per student basis. In this effect they have successfully completed two pilot projects to test the feasibility of the school voucher scheme under the campaign.

The goal of the project is to make the provision of elementary education aligned to the requirements of the Right to Education Act (RTE Act) in schools covered through the implementation of the community score card and to create of a culture of accountability amongst beneficiaries and providers of services in these schools. The project will be implemented in two villages (one tribal-dominated and one non-tribal) and one town in Rajasthan. Primary education is one of the five subjects that have been devolved to Panchayati Raj institutions in the state making the environment conducive at the local levels for the community score card process.

The project focuses on constructive engagement with all stakeholders and made provisions within the project to involve the community in the score card process to make it an on-going initiative. The audit of the Right to Education Act is not just to carry out a one-time exercise of auditing the implementation of the RTE Act but to create a culture of social accountability whereby people are empowered to demand their entitlements under the RTE Act and the government is held accountable to deliver the same. It is expected that the project will create a shift in people’s attitude in the delivery of educational services and inculcate the notion of demanding for their entitlement for the same.

Contact Information

Contact person: Parth J Shah

Website: www.ccsindia.org

 

 

Nepal

 

Citizens' Campaign for Right to Information

Citizens' Campaign for Right to Information (CCRI) was developed in 2005 as a loose network of the different NGOs and INGOs working on the theme of RTI in Nepal. The network was created for advocacy and lobbying for the enactment of the Right to Information law. It was registered as an NGO in 2007. CCRI has coverage within Nepal and its central office is located in the capital city Kathmandu. Since its establishment, CCRI has engaged in a number of thematic areas including Freedom of Expression, Right to Information (RTI) and Transparency. It is an organization dedicated to the promotion, protection and implementation of RTI laws to increase social accountability in Nepal.

CCRI’s project is entitled “Making Representatives Accountable”. It is expected to enhance accountability of the elected representatives towards the people they represent and thereby strengthen democracy in Nepal. Parliamentary Report Card (PRC) shall be developed and used to achieve this objective. By monitoring and scrutinizing performance of Parliamentarians, this project will ensure an increase in the quality of representation. Quality of queries/issues raised and time spent on issues shall be the determining factors for the assessment. This information will be collected through the filing of RTI and Public Interest Litigations. Parliamentary reporting trainings, capacity building trainings to watch group shall be organized to achieve the awareness level of the media and relevant civil society organizations. At least 75 per cent of the elected representatives will have participated in the each meetings of the parliament by the end of July 2012. The project also seeks decrease the number of bills pending in the parliament by 75 per cent by the end December 2011.

Contact Information

Contact person: Tanka Raj Aryal

Website: www.ccrinepal.org

 

 

Pakistan

 

Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives

The Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) was established in 2003. The goal of CPDI is to create an enabling environment through research-based advocacy and capacity building in order to promote citizenship, build peace and achieve inclusive and sustainable development. CPDI-Pakistan has extensive experience of holding capacity building workshops, organizing awareness campaigns, implementing advocacy initiatives, monitoring government performance, and managing networks of civil society activists. CPDI is now working in ten districts at grassroots level, with research and advocacy components having national outreach. The program areas of CPDI-Pakistan includes (1) promotion of peace and tolerance; (2) rule of law, especially police reforms; (3) transparency and access to information; (4) budget watch; and (5) legislative watch and democratic development.

The overall goal of the current project is ‘To Promote Transparent Public Procurement Regime in Pakistan’. The project intends to improve awareness regarding social accountability tools (RTI/Public Procurements Procedures/Budget Tracking) in selected Tehsils in Rawalpindi and Jhang districts. Issues pertaining to procurement process in Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) or Development Budgets will be analyzed and Model for Transparent Public Procurement and Pro-poor Budgeting will be showcased. Demand for accountability in public procurement will be strengthened at national level through raising issues related to public procurement and budgets at national print and electronic media, based on empirical evidences and in-depth research studies. Partnership will be built with PPRA, which is considered crucial for achieving the project objectives.

CPDI believes that creating strong public demand for making these laws effective, efficient utilization of mechanisms provided by these laws for citizens’ access to information, coupled with skills to track, analyse, and influence budgetary and procurement processes can greatly contribute in social accountability and transparency.

Contact Information

Contact person: Zahid Abdullah

Website: www.cpdi-pakistan.org

 

Hisaar Foundation

Hisaar Foundation, a foundation for water, food & livelihood security (meaning protective circle) was formed in response to the severe drought that affected parts of Pakistan in the second half of 1999 and first half of 2000 is a non-profit organization registered under Section 42 of the Companies Ordinance 1984. Hisaar Foundation’s vision is balancing environment with development through innovation and its mission is to promote creative, low-cost solutions and policies for conservation in Pakistan by working on water, food, livelihood and climate change issues.

The goal of the project is to pave the way for refinement and acceptability of the concept of mutual accountability. The project will take a holistic approach to water resources among the stakeholders, change the way people think and behave, and show that groups that usually have a trust deficit can come together, work together and make themselves accountable to other groups. Mutual accountability will ensure that citizens of Karachi consume and manage water in a conscientious manner. The project will establish a Town Water Partnership which will be a neutral platform where concerned water sector stakeholders, both government (service delivery agencies) and citizen groups of the project area are brought together and in an enabling environment all stakeholder groups realize the sensitivities attached to water usage, management and conservation and their respective roles and responsibilities and are prepared to be assessed on their performance and take ownership of their scarce water resources and employ more efficient, equitable and ecologically sustainable practices and management of this resource. This platform will thus be the forum where different groups of stakeholders will hold each other accountable for their performance.

The project will be implemented in Sadar Town, one of the 18 administrative towns in Karachi.

The project will set into motion the participatory process in the proposed Town and strengthen the existing Town network but also through active involvement of all stakeholders, overcome the shortcomings of the established services by simply improving the existing delivery mechanisms and suggesting ways in which these existing services can be made more efficient, equitable and sustainable and create trust and realization among the stakeholder groups of their role and responsibility towards water resources thereby making them mutually accountable to one another.

Contact Information

Contact person: Amina Siddiqui

Website: www.hisaar.org

 

Shehri-CBE

Shehri - Citizens for a Better Environment was formed in 1988 (based in Karachi City), as a non-political, non-commercial, non-governmental organization. Started as a pure environment oriented organization, Shehri-CBE is now fighting at the forefront of various issues of public concern related to the environment. Besides environmental cases, Shehri-CBE is now actively engaged in areas of work like public advocacy/Public Interest Litigation, RTI, freedom of information, good governance, community policing, nature conservation, corporate social accountability, and institutional reforms. Shehri-CBE is arguably the only civil society group that has a pro-active and meaningful channel of communication open with the parliamentarians both at the provincial and local level with regular participation in hearings/debates and training and capacity building of parliamentarians.

The project intends to identify the reasons that may have political, administrative and development implications for the inequitable growth and development in rural Karachi inhabited by the original and indigenous inhabitants of Karachi city (Case Study – Gadap Town) in terms of lack of planning, inadequate and in cases lack of provisions of basic services and infrastructure and limited capacity of affected communities to influence the decision making processes. Based on this analysis and evaluation, to develop strategies and implement actions to improve the situation through planning recommendations and advocacy/awareness raising for relevant policy, planning and institutional reforms. To facilitate the capacity building of local communities for enhanced and informed political involvement and institutionalizing the related civil society monitoring, regulation and social accountability mechanisms, especially the Community Score Card.

The project will enhance understanding of perceptions of inequality and injustice in rural areas. It will show how rural policy can be refined and targeted to tackle these multi-faceted problems in the most appropriate way for the benefit of society.

Contact Information

Contact person: Mrs. Amber Alibhai

Website: www.shehri.org

 

Sustainable Development Policy Institute

Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) established in August 1992 is an independent non-profit research organization based in Islamabad, Pakistan. Their mission is to catalyze the transition towards sustainable development, defined as the enhancement of peace, social justice and well-being, within and across generations. SDPI is one of the influential think tanks in Pakistan and serves as a source of expertise for policy analysis and development, policy intervention, and program advisory services. They made considerable progress in the education sector. For example, SDPI researchers revealed discriminatory material against non-Muslims in Pakistani textbooks, alternative text books to celebrate religious diversity, the impact of children’s work on education etc. SDPI has successfully completed numerous projects on education, in collaboration with many renowned international and national organizations.

The goal of the project is to increase literacy rate of secondary level education and improve overall education system in the slum areas to provide a model to increase equity between different classes of society as well as across the two genders. The project will be implemented in the slum areas of Ali Pur Frash and Hansa Colony .The project will mainly focus on Citizens’ Report Card to gather their feedback on the state of secondary education in the public schools of Islamabad, which will ensure the quality of teachers; curriculum, school facilities, infrastructure (building, tables, chairs, drinking water, bathrooms, and electricity, heating / cooling) and some other factors that determine the enrollment and completion rate of secondary education.

Constructive engagement with parents, students, teachers and school authorities will ultimately increase the literacy rate and quality of education in Pakistan. As a result, education will lead to better socioeconomic opportunities that will ultimately reduce poverty and social inequality in Islamabad.

Contact Information

Contact person: Faiqa Umer

Website: www.sdpi.org

 

 

Sri Lanka

 

Federation of Sri Lankan Local Government Authorities

Federation of Sri Lankan Local Government Authorities (FSLGA), established in June 2008, represents the interests of the Local Government Sector in Sri Lanka. Its main objective is to co-ordinate a unified approach among Local Government Authorities in Sri Lanka to resolve common issues and develop participatory governance for the well-being of citizens. FSLGA is also coordinating and liaising activities with Provincial Councils, Central Government Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils and other relevant line Ministries and Authorities of the Government of Sri Lanka. It has made considerable progress in formulating local government policies, rules, by-laws, carrying out various policy and advocacy programs in relation to special issues affecting the local government systems, providing advisory services to the national committees set up by the line ministries and provincial ministries to promote local government reforms.

The main goal of FSLGA’s project is to develop an efficient, effective and uniform procurement system for Local Government Authorities in Sri Lanka that promotes transparency and social accountability, and minimizes wastage of public funds and resources. The project will be implemented in 9 provinces of Sri Lanka. It will focus on citizen’s engagement and participation in council affairs to create formal mechanisms, which will create a platform for citizens to hold the councils responsible for spending public funds.

A user-friendly guidebook on new procurement system will be developed in English/Sinhala/Tamil languages, to create awareness among general people on the new procurement system. Citizen’s engagement and participation in public procurement system will foster a sense of ownership for public goods. The guidebook will empower citizens to demand their basic constitutional rights. Thus the project is expected to minimize corruption, inefficiencies, and delays in delivery of public services.

Contact Information

Contact person: Ganewattage Deepani Hemanthi Goonasekera

Website: fslga.wordpress.com

 

 

 

First Grant Program

 

 

Bangladesh

Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF)

Manusher Jonno as a project evolved through an innovative process in terms of structure, management and functions. Starting in 2002, it was managed by Project Management Partners (PMP) comprising of national and international agencies and led by CARE Bangladesh. MJF has developed innovative partnership model with partners at grass root level and has developed a comprehensive financial and program monitoring system to enable it to measure impact across programs. Over the period MJF has demonstrated strong capacity to handle partners. During first round funding it managed only 21 partners and gradually its capacity to manage partners has been enhanced. Now it is managing 300 partners including sub partners all over the country working on seven thematic programme areas. These are: violence against women, rights of the marginalised, workers rights, child protection and development, improving accountability and responsiveness of public institutions, access to justice and socio economic development of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

MJF is also working for mainstreaming Right to Information as crosscutting theme across all programmes.

MJF received a grant from ANSA for a two year long project, entitled, Community Score Card in Primary Education and Social Safety-net. The goal of the project is to contribute to the reduction of poverty and social vulnerabilities by ensuring poor and disadvantaged people's better access to services particularly safety net and primary schools.

Key Contact Person: Arif H. Khan

Email address: info@manusher.org

Web address:www.manusher.org

PRIP Trust

Private Rural Initiatives Program (PRIP) was initiated as an USAID sponsored Project of PACT, Washington, USA in November 1988. PRIP was conceptualised with the framework of "Three Generation of Voluntary Development Action" of Dr. David C. Korten, and operated with about US$ 12 Million for building Institutional Capacities of the Local Initiatives, inclusive Civil Society Organizations, Public and Private Sector. The trend of exceeding the goal of the project, and increasing demand from NGO sector for a strategic focal point for the sector created a situation, where the issue of indigenization of PRIP become inevitable. In July 1996, PRIP Trust was registered as a Trust under "Trust" Act of Bangladesh as an indigenous National Support Service Organization initially with 5 Member Board of Trustees. Its core areas of competencies and expertise include organisation development, network development, sectoral relationship building, partnership building.

With a goal to develop a common platform to promote social accountability practices among the community and the health, education and agriculture related public service providers, being mediated by local government institutions at Adarvita Union of MadarganjUpazila in Jamalpur District, PRIP Trust has taken up the project, Citizen's Engagement for Quality Service. The ANSA grant will be used to finance the project.

Key Contact Person: Amitabha Bhattacharjee

Email address: amitabha@priptrust.org

Web address: www.priptrust.org

India

ADHAR

ADHAR is a grassroots-level development organisation, which was initiated by a group of intellectual activists in 1992. Its main operational area is the Loisingha Block of Bolangir district in Orissa, India. It focuses on five core programme areas: Basic Human Rights, Livelihood, Child Rights,Natural Resource Management, and Gender Equity & Empowerment.

ADHAR will be using the ANSA grant for the programme, Promoting Social Accountability to Assert the Right to Food & Livelihood of the Poor. With this two-year long project, ADHAR aims to promote social accountability through community initiatives for further activation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and the Public Distribution System(PDS). This will ensure the food and livelihood security of 10,000 targeted families from 70 villages of 10 Gram Panchayats under 5 Blocks of Bolangir district in Orissa state.

Key Contact People: UmashankarSahu, Executive Secretary

                                   Rabindra Kumar Sahu, Treasurer

Email address: adharbolangir@gmail.com

Centre for Development Services (CDS)

Centre for Development Services (CDS) is an Indian organisation established in the late 1990s in the Angul district of Orissa. The main objectives of the organisation are to give free and compulsory education to children below fourteen years, provide assistance to the weaker sections of society, especially the disadvantaged- orphans, the disabled, women, children, marginal & small labourers, and to work for water and sanitation in the rural areas, STs, SCs and to carry out developmental activities in socio-economic, education and agricultural fields. In lieu of these objectives, it has implemented various projects- Drinking Water and Sanitation, National Environmental Awareness Campaign, Improvement of Livelihood System of poor and marginalised tribal in remote areas of Angul district, and Strengthen Food Security of the poor and marginal farmers by enhancing the production and productivity of land through developing irrigation system.

With the ANSA grant, CDS will be implementing the programme, Pro-poor Legislations for Ensuring Social Accountability and Livelihood Security of Poor and Marginalised, which will be carried out over a period of two years. With this project it aims to establish pro-poor, accountable and transparent governance system in the project region in the wake of progressive legislations like the Right to Information (RTI) and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), for substantial improvement in life and livelihood of the poor and marginalised.

Key Contact Person: Mr. Mahendra Kumar Tripathy, Executive Director

Email address: cdsorissa@yahoo.co.in

Centre for Rural Education and Development Action (CREDA)

Centre for Rural Education and Development Action (CREDA) was founded by a group of activists and social workers in the year 1982. The objective of the organisation is the development of the rural poor through various need-based programmes. CREDA has implemented a number of development programmes to benefit the rural poor. These are: elimination of child labour and bonded child labour, empowering women through skill training and capacity building programmes, medical outreach programme in remote villages, empowerment of poor adolescent girls through skills training and literacy, mainstreaming of children in government schools, training of rural youths on RTI and MNREGA, speaking out against irregularities in PDS and deprivation in minimum wages, youth leadership training, and networking with NGOs in the U.P., Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan by providing them needed inputs.Issues related to dalit and human rights, child rights and entitlements are the major areas of expertise of the organisation.

CREDA has been awarded a grant by ANSA to finance a project, entitled, Empowering rural people for seeking their entitlements under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) to ensure livelihood and food security. The goal of the project is to empower people, especially the poor and marginalised, in 30 backward villages in Halia block of Mirzapur district about their legal entitlements, to take benefit of MNREGA without corruption and injustice and move forward towards livelihood opportunities and food security within the two years of project period.

Key Contact Person: Shamshad Khan, Secretary/Director

Email address: samshad@sancharnet.in

Web address:www.credaindia.org

Consumer Unity & Trust Society- Centre for Consumer Action, Research & Training (CUTS-CART)

Established in 1996, CUTS Centre for Consumer Action, Research & Training (CUTS CART) is a Programme Centre of Consumer Unity & Trust Society, which was registered in 1983. This Programme Centre was created as a result of diversification of CUTS in order to move ahead with its inherited agenda: consumer protection and education, and to create a more responsible society. Currently, CUTS CART is working consistently on seven programmatic areas through consumer perspective. These are: Consumer Education and Protection, Investor Education and Protection, Good Governance (with focus on accountability and access to information), Utility Reforms, Sustainable Mobility (which includes road safety), Women and Child Rights and Sustainable Development (which includes MDGs, environment, livelihoods etc). Its areas of expertise include: an active research focus that has established a track record of obtaining competitive research grants from various international organisations, developing and presenting a range of tailored training and professional education modules for government and other development agencies, providing consultancy in the use of Citizen Report Card (CRC), Community Score Card (CSC), Participatory Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS), Budget Analysis and other tools of social accountability and Right to Information (RTI), Consumer Impact Assessment (CIA) etc, in-depth knowledge and resources to provide consultancy in the field of consumer protection and education, investor protection and education and utility reforms.

CUTS will be using the ANSA grant to implement a two-year long project, entitled, Developing a culture of good governance and accountability in the state of Rajasthan, India.It aspires to successfully conduct this project by involving civil society organisations (CSOs) and building their capacity with a focus on improving the public expenditure outcomes; to begin with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and trying to institutionalise it, to be adopted for assessing the various schemes.

Key Contact Person: George Cheriyan, Director

Email address: cart@cuts.org

Web address: www.cuts-international.org

Jan Sahas

Jan Sahas became operational in the year 2000 by initiating action in the Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh on the issue of the deaths of one child labourer and two dalit labourers in an illegal fireworks factory in the district. Since then the organisation has been working on the rights and empowerment of Dalits and women in Dewas and Ujjain districts of the state of Madhya Pradesh. The organisation has made interventions in other districts of the state as well through its network partners. It works on six thematic areas: Manual Scavenging, Land Rights, Governance and Social Accountability, Education, Dalit Empowerment (Holistic Development and Empowerment), and Dalit Atrocities.

With the ANSA grant, Jan Sahas will be implementing the project, Peoples Initiative for Accountability and Transparency in Health and Education. With this project, Jan Sahas aims to bring social accountability and transparency in government education and health services (under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and National Rural Health Mission) with a focus on primary schools and primary health sub centers in 2 district of Madhya Pradesh, India. This project will be drawn over a period of two years.

Key Contact Person: Ashif Shaikh, Secretary

Email address: jansahas@rediffmail.com

Web address: www.jansahasindia.org

Public Affairs Center (PAC)

PAC is a leading non-profit and non-partisan Indian civil society organisation (CSO) dedicated to mobilising a demand for good governance in India. The focus of PAC is primarily in areas where citizens and CSOs can play a proactive role in improving governance. PAC has designed a number of leading-edge tools in this regard and has also been at the fore of groundbreaking advancements in electoral legislation in India. Our services have been sought internationally for consultancy on World Bank, UK's Department for International Development; Asian Development Bank as well as a host of other donors. Our tools are designed towards allowing citizen-monitoring of public service delivery and our most famed innovation, the Citizen's Report Card (CRC), has received much acclaim globally, earning extensive mention in the World Bank's World Development Report 2004, ‘Making Services Work for Poor People'. Initiated with grants from the Ford Foundation and the National Foundation of India, PAC now works on a largely project basis, conducting CRCs; public policy research; and channelling funds to improve accountability in public service delivery in India.

It received a grant from ANSA for a project, entitled, Enhancing Community-Centred Governance in Climate-Change affected Coastal Areas. The goal of the project is to enhance accountability and community participation in environmental governance of coastal areas. The project objectives are threefold and are as follows: to develop a database of relevant information that will support advocacy for higher-level reform resulting in a more responsive environmental governance policy and regulatory system; to develop a tool(s) which facilitate citizen monitoring of the impact of climate change in their local areas and assess the effectiveness of local environmental regulation, and which generates an objective body of evidence on the impact of climate change on local livelihoods ; develop mechanisms whereby communities can meaningfully engage with governance structures and sustainably participate in local environmental management.

Key Contact Person: Raghavan Suresh, Director

Email address: mail@pacindia.org

Web address: www.pacindia.org

Social Action for Association and Development (SAAD)

The organisation Social Action for Association and Development (SAAD) was formally established in May 1998, as a registered Trust. The objective of the organisation is to empower and promote the weaker section of the society, especially women, through various programmes and training sessions. It has been successful in reaching out to the most neglected and unnoticed target groups namely Aradhey, Murali, tamasha dancers, prostitutes, destitute and Muslim women, children, and the marginalised sections from the general village community. SAAD has focussed on the capacity building of community-level activists and has been involved with various movements of the developmental field in Maharashtra. Its areas of expertise include:

Capacity Building, Documentation, Project Planning, Monitoring, Networking and Technical Support to community-based organisations from Maharashtra.

About 20 years of experience in various areas of Social Development Sector, such as:

Watershed Development and Natural Resource Management, Disaster Management, Policy and Action Research, NGO Management and Leadership

Development of Project Design, Implementation, Management, and Evaluation, Training, and Guidance, Community Capacity Building, Community Organization and Mobilisation, Women's governance and child development Ensuring rights of the children to education, 

Social actions and advocacy, Network and networking namely Bal Hakka Abhiyan, JaminAdhikar, Wada Na Todo and WE CAN campaigns

Developing people's organisation and Institutions, Developing linkages and alliances, Issue base campaign planning, Documentation, Reporting and Translation

It received a grant from ANSA for a year long project, Governance Right through Access, Support & Participation (GRASP). The goal of the project is to Ensure Governance Right through Access, Support and Participation [GRASP] by building capacities of SHGs and CBOs for effective implementation, delivery and monitoring of benefits of Government schemes by using social audit tools with the Right to Information Act.

Key Contact Person: Mangala Daithankar, Project Director

Email address: vasudeosaad@dataone.in

Sambandh

Sambandh, an organisation based in Bhubaneswar, India became operational in the year 1992. Its major focus areas are the following:

Strengthening local government and constructive civic engagement in tracking the poverty alleviation schemes and public expenditure in delivery of public services

Sustainable livelihood through Natural Resource Management (NRM) based integrated watershed and non-farm activities

Community health based on local health practices and uses of medicinal plants

Climate change trials through alternative energy resources and conservation of forest.

Community based disaster preparedness

It received a grant from ANSA for a two year long project, Social Watch Group for Social Accountability. With this project, Sambandh aims to institutionalise the demand side of social accountability with greater civic engagement for making the government officials accountable in quality implementation of government's schemes like National Rural Employment Guarantee Acts (NREGA) in Thakurmunda block, Mayurbhanj district, Orissa.

Key Contact Person: Bibhu Kalyan Mohanty,Executive Director

E-mail: sambandindia@gmail.com

Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM)

Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) was incepted in the year 1984 by a group of medical students. Its principle area of operation is HeggadadevanakoteTaluk in Mysore District of Karnataka, India. SVYM has been vigorously involved in fields of Health, Education, Community Development Services, Training, Research, Advocacy, Consultancy services and Academics. Acting as a key promoter-facilitator in the community's efforts towards self-reliance and empowerment, it is developing local, innovative and cost-effective solutions to sustain community-driven progress. It has around 70 projects in sectors of health, education, community development and training located in all the districts of Karnataka. This organization also runs Vivekananda Institute for Leadership Development (VILD), which is involved in training Government Officials, Youth, NGO and Corporate personnel on various issues of Development. With recognition from the University of Mysore, it is offering the country's first Master's Programme in Management of Non Profit Organizations. It is involved in training of Panchayat Raj Institutions, Government functionaries including Administrative Service Officers. SVYM has been identified as a Resource Centre by Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussorie and as a nodal training centre for Karnataka and Maharashtra by the Engender Health Society (India). It is involved with the Government of Karnataka's Administrative Training Institute (ATI) and Abdul Nazir Saab State Institute of Rural Development (ANSSIRD), Mysore in the design and implementation of various training programmes for various sections of the Government and Civil society.

SVYM's novel and flagship programme Training Course - "Youth for Development" (Y4D) won it the ANSA grant. With this project, SVYM aspires to provide man power (six lakh rural youth over a period of 20 years), who has capacity and commitment to the development of the world. The project objectives are three-fold: to enhance capacity of 180 rural youth and empower them to participate in governance issues and strive for the sustainable development of their villages; to promote organization of youth (establish Social Audit Groups) to monitor the implementation of various government projects and schemes through the respective Gram Panchayats; to extend guidance and support to the trained youth through "Youth Help Line" to address problems like corruption, misappropriation of funds, rural sanitation, housing, school related issues, etc. using Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Key Contact Person: Dr. (Flt. Lt.) M. A. Balasubramanya, CEO

E-mail: mabsvym@gmail.com

Website: www.svym.org.in

Leadership through Education and Action Foundation (LEAF) Society

Leadership through Education and Action Foundation ( LEAF) a non profit organisation, registered under Societies Registration act that has been working closely with rural communities in two of the most impoverished districts of Tamilnadu, India. LEAF aims to achieve highest level of participation from local communities, make them believe in what they have, educate them to improve their educational, economical and social status and give the best to their children & communities.

Their eighteen month long project, entitled,  Educating (Empowering) marginalised & vulnerable local communities in negotiating their rights, demands & entitlements from Government &   Fighting Corruption using the Right to Information Act of India in Namakkal District of Tamilnadu, India, won them the ANSA grant. The project objectives are threefold:

To empower, educate & build capacities of locally vulnerable,marginalised & poor communities from 20 villages of Namakkal district of Tamilnadu, India in claiming, demanding & negotiating their entitlements and rights in Government programmes, such as the the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(NREGA ), welfare, Rural Development, road safety and water & Sanitation programmes.

To fight against corruption by increasing the level of understanding of women leaders, youth groups, teachers, children & Panchayat raj institutions members; this will empower them to actively participate in the process of ensuring transparency in all Government projects & welfare schemes in 20 village level panchayats of Namakkal district of Tamilnadu through RTI instrument.

To build & be part of Social Accountability networks & alliances for supporting community initiatives & institutions in promoting and strengthening their 'responsible citizenship' in Namakkal district of Tamilnadu.

Key Contact Person: S.L. Sathiya Nesan

Email address: leafsociety@gmail.com

Sri Lanka

Asia Foundation

The Asia Foundation's history in Sri Lanka dates back to 1954. The Foundation and its partners, including the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils (MLGPC), the Sri Lanka Institute for Local Governance, provincial councils, municipal councils, urban councils, and pradeshiyasabhas, have been at the forefront of efforts to strengthen the capacity of local authorities (LAs) through various local government-strengthening programs. Through these initiatives, the Foundation has helped LAs adopt numerous social accountability (SAc) mechanisms. These include participatory plans and budgets through the Technology of Participation (TOP), citizen charters and Economic Governance Index (EGI).

The Foundation has played a catalytic role in introducing and embedding accountability reforms across six provincial councils and 45 local authorities in Sri Lanka. This has resulted in provincial councils and local authorities restructuring administrative systems, improving service delivery, financial management, and raising local revenues significantly. Recently, the Foundation developed a Social Accountability Training Curriculum in collaboration with the World Bank Institute. It covers a broad spectrum of issues regarding SAc and democratic governance.

It will be using the ANSA grant to further its goal of enhancing social accountability, by executing the project, Programme to Strengthen Social Accountability with Local Authorities in Sri Lanka. The salient objective of the project is to enable local authorities in Sri Lanka to be more accountable and responsive to citizens and for citizens in turn to hold their elected local government bodies to be more accountable and responsive to their needs and priorities. The project is spread over a period of two years and will be carried out in six phases.

Key Contact Person: Nilan Fernando, Country Representative, Sri Lanka

Email address:info@asiafound.org

Web address: asiafoundation.org/country/overview/sri-lanka

The Centre For Policy Alternatives (CPA)

The Centre for Policy Alternatives is an independent civil society organisation, formed in 1996, providing innovative policy alternatives through research, advocacy and capacity building to strengthen and safeguard peace and democratic governance. In the past, CPA has undertaken various projects aimed at augmenting and consolidating social accountability. These projects include:

Reinforcing the inclusiveness and participatory nature of public policy through pioneering public opinion polling.

Human rights reporting through field visits to marginalised and vulnerable communities.

Pioneering initiatives on media reform such as draft legislation on the right to information and citizens' journalism - Eg: Groundviews & Vikalpa.

Electoral reform including monitoring of election related violence.

CPA was awarded the ANSA grant, Improving Transparency and Accountability through Participatory Budgeting in Pradeshiya Sabhas: Local Authorities- Sri Lanka, which will be implemented over a one year period. The goal of the project is to increase public scrutiny and improve capacity of the public officials engaged in budget formulation in 20 selected Pradeshiya Sabhas in Sri Lanka. This project will be undertaken with the active participation of tax payers /civil society on participatory budgeting and monitoring of Pradeshiya Sabhas financial aspects including, budget formulation, enactment, execution, evaluation in order to make Pradeshiya Sabhas accountable to its tax payers by the end of year 2011.

Key Contact person: Ms. Sriyanie Wijesundara, Researcher and Coordinator

Email address: sriyanie@cpalanka.org

Website: www.cpalanka.org