NGOs going to receive grant from Small Grants Program 2007

World Bank Country Specific Small Grants Program
Evaluation Committee Meeting

March 5, 2007 - Friday, 2:⁰⁰pm

Minutes of the Meeting & Decision of the Committee

Background:

Within the framework of the Country Specific Small Grants Program (SmGP), this year Turkey Country Office has allocated a total of US$ 35,000 to be distributed as grant for the implementation of projects focused on ’Civic Engagement for the Empowerment of Youth’.

Invitation was made to NGOs in provinces through the Local Agenda 21 Network of UNDP, to NGOs in the database of the World Bank, and to all interested parties through an announcement that was posted on the country office website of the Bank in addition to an official invitation letter to the NGOs that are in the database of the Bank. In the request for proposals that was sent to the Civil Society, the description of activities that the SmGP would finance, was given as follows:

The SmGP supports activities whose primary objective is civic engagement. Project Proposals could be on activities related to the topic of “Civic Engagement for the Empowerment of Youth”.

Proposed activities could be:

• about support to the empowerment of youth groups and young people to have greater ownership of development processes, making these processes more inclusive and equitable.
• about dialogue promotion and information dissemination related to youth at the local level;
• about dissemination of information or organize public awareness activities on issues like
  empowerment of youth group

In addition:

• Activities may include, but are not limited to workshops and seminars to enhance appropriate communication campaigns
• The activity should be completed within one year of the date the grant is awarded.
• Priority shall be given to organizations that have not been supported by the Program in previous years.

It was also indicated that the SmGP would not take into consideration the initiatives/ proposals that fell outside the Program’s criteria (eg: direct social assistance, office equipment).” 

In order to evaluate the 101 Project Proposals submitted, the Evaluation Committee met on Monday , March 5^th, 2007 at 2:⁰⁰ pm at the premises of the World Bank. The Committee was composed of the following participants:

• Gülin Çakır  (World Bank)
• Umur Aydınoğlu (World Bank)
• Nilgün Çavuşoğlu (UNICEF)
• Berna Beyazıt  (UNDP)
• Ufuk Atalay   (Youth Development & Social Inclusion)
• Muharrem Bayraktar  (Youth Voices)

The applications had to be presented in a way to cover the following points:

• The applicant institution should be an NGO that has legal status, not less than 3 years of experience on social issues and a bank account.
• The applicant NGO must submit an Application Narrative
• Please provide the following information in narrative form. The narrative should not exceed four typed pages.

1. What is the activity proposed?  Describe briefly:

2. How does the proposed use of grant funds address ‘Civic Engagement for the Empowerment of Youth’ at the local level?

3. What are the expected results and how will these be measured? Describe whom the activities will benefit and the expected impact of the activities.   Describe how you will measure the effectiveness of your activities.

4. Describe the organizational arrangements and staff capacity to carry out the activity identified above.

5. Describe plans for obtaining other funding needed to carry out the activity, including amounts requested of other funders. The Small Grants Program rarely funds more than half of the proposed budget for an activity, and therefore prefers that its grants help to generate additional contributions from other sources.

6. Provide a budget for the activity showing estimated costs; amount requested from the Small Grants Program and the categories for which it will be utilized; and other principal sources of support.

7. Submit the following attachments with the completed proposal:

Methodology:

The Committee members received earlier a copy of the 101 applications and attended the meeting in a prepared way. The Evaluation Committee reviewed each project proposal individually according to the following criteria:

• Civil Society Institution’s and the Project Manager’s previous experience
• Detailed Activity Report
• Methodology and Work Plan
• Technical Viability for accomplishing the objectives
• During the meeting a short list was composed. This was followed by a second round of evaluation during which the short listed projects were revisited and discussed by the Committee Members.
  

Decision: