Civil society organisations get WB grants

Shirley WIJESINGHE

Five selected civil society organizations have received grants amounting to nearly Rs. 5 million from the World Bank (WB) for projects for 2009 to be utilized for local government services.

These grants have been allocated by the World Bank for the Civil Society Fund(CSF) Program 2009 in Sri Lanka.

CSF is the only funding mechanism that has been in operation since 2005, available to civil society organizations that are directly managed by the World Bank.

The theme of the projects this year is Advocacy for "Accountability in Local Service Delivery".

Speaking at the grant awarding ceremony World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka and Maldives, Naoko Ishii said that the WB was greatly appreciative of the wealth of knowledge and information that civil society organizations can bring in to support the Government initiated development projects and programs. She added that this collaboration has helped strengthen operational performances of projects , where local knowledge, innovations and skills are of great value.

The grant recipients for this year are Center for Poverty Analysis Colombo (to disseminate an infrastructure needs manual among communities and local authorities) International Center of Ethnic Studies, Kandy, to create awareness and 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 Center 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 to the plantation sector.