THE SASAKAWA PEACE FOUNDATION

Pilot Study on Setting up an Innovative Scheme for Supporting Local NGOs

4,200,000 yen [Grant Project]
The Association of Foundations (AF) (Philippines)

Compared to their urban counterparts, local NGOs play distinctive roles in poverty reduction and social development because of their accumulated knowledge of local areas, support base for field work, and cost-effective activities. However, their financial situations are fragile and the present NGO supporting schemes are not appropriate or effective for them. This project aims to develop and evaluate local NGO support systems in 3 Asian countries that provide small monetary grants for activities such as participating in seminars, inviting speakers, and finding projects. These small expenditures are out the scope of usual grants. The evaluation results and usages of the systems will be available to the public so that the systems can be applied to other countries.

This year, the following activities are planned in the Philippines.

Construction of implementation systems and a steering committee (once a month)
A proper Implementation system will be constructed to manage the project. A steering committee with 5 members will be formed, and will discuss the purposes and directions of the project and frameworks for supporting systems.
Hearing
AF will explain the concepts, framework and contents of supporting systems to relevant people in targeted areas, such as Visayas and Mindaano, and collect opinions from them.
Implementation plans and dissemination of information
Implementation plans will be prepared based on the hearing results and discussion of the steering committee. An information kit to provide necessary information for implementation will be prepared and released on the web for next year's trial.

(First year of a 3-year project)