Civil society organisations in South Sudan serve as a bridge between their communities and local authorities and other decision-makers who hold power. Through the Civil Society Facility programme, we are helping CSOs to become stronger and more effective stakeholders in the social and economic transformation of local communities in South Sudan.
The Civil Society Facility Phase 2 (CSF2) is a US$3.8M programme managed by Mott MacDonald, which offers capacity development and grants to CSOs. Phase one, with a contract budget of US$ 4M, ran from April 2019 to March 2021 and phase two, which began in September 2021, also runs for two years until end of August 2023.
So far, CSF has assisted 69 CSOs and four international non-governmental organisations (INGOs). CSF is funded by the Dutch Government with additional support from the governments of Norway and Sweden during phase one.
Mott MacDonald builds on the lessons learnt in CSF 1 to continue strengthening organisational capacities of civil society organisations in South Sudan. The services provided include:
- grants to civil society organisations
- technical assistance and support to enhance capacities of local CSOs
- learning and knowledge management
Although CSOs cover a wide range of activities – such as campaigning to prevent child labour, improving flood protection or providing clean water and sanitation – they have some common needs to strengthen their organisational capabilities. These common capacity needs include financial management, accessing donor funding, effective advocacy and how to approach partnerships and conduct effective networking. In addition to these common needs, CSF applies a participatory organisational capacity assessment (OCA) process to determine the individual capacity development needs of each CSO. This is operationalised through a capacity development plan (CDP) that is being implemented using the grant and with capacity support provided by the fund manager.
Since April 2019, the CSF programme has provided a variety of capacity building activities and guidance to strengthen these areas.