Contacts:
In Colombo Chulie de Silva (9411) 5561323
cdesilva@worldbank.
Colombo, May 15, 2009 – The World Bank, launched the Civil Society Fund Program for 2009 in Sri Lanka today distributing grants of nearly LKR 5 million ( US$45,000) to five civil society organizations for projects that will strengthen delivery of Local Government Services.
The Civil Society Fund (CSF) seeds and supports activities that empower and enable citizens to take initiatives to enhance and influence development outcomes. This year’s theme for CSF 2009 “Advocacy for Accountability in Local Service Delivery” compliments the World Bank Country Assistance Strategy 2009-2012 key objective of “Enhancing quality services and accountability.”
"The World Bank has great appreciation of the wealth of knowledge and information that Civil Society organizations can bring in to support the Government initiated development projects and programs," said Naoko Ishii Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives. "This collaboration has helped strengthen operational performance of projects, where local knowledge, innovation and skills are of great value."
This year’s recipients are the:
• Center for Poverty Analysis, Colombo to test and disseminate an infrastructure needs manual among communities and local authorities;
• International Center for Ethnic Studies, Kandy to create awareness and to replicate effective practices in public service delivery in the district of Kandy;
• People’s Service Council, Trincomalee to create good governance councils for local service delivery;
• Plantation Worker’s Service Centre, Hatton to establish a model development council to serve the estate community; and
• Transparency International, Colombo to conduct a report card survey to improve service delivery in education in the plantation sector
In Sri Lanka, the Civil Society Fund is the only annual funding mechanism available to Civil Society Organizations that is directly managed by the World Bank. The Fund has been in operation since 2005 and was formally known as the Small Grants program. Over this period under themes of Social Accountability, Youth Development, Disability and Reconciliation for Development innovative inclusive and accountable projects have been able to achieve successful civic engagement benefiting communities that would have not been reached by other World Bank supported development assistance programs in Sri Lanka.
For more information on the World Bank in Sri Lanka, please visit http://www.worldbank.org.lk
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