Jordan Times
Thursday, July 28, 2005
EC's programme supports
community-based organizations, their contribution to democracy
By Amal El Masri
AMMAN — The Delegation of the European Commission to Jordan will issue a second
call for microprojects by Jordanian NGOs wishing to receive EU funding this
Friday.
The global envelope allotted for this round of
proposals is 451,000 euros. Successful applicants will receive grants between
30,000-100,000 euros each.
The microproject programme is part of the European Initiative for Democracy and
Human Rights (EIDHR), which was created by the European Parliament in 1994 with
the goal of supporting local community-based organisations and their
contribution to democracy.
Sophie Borel, programme manager of Human Rights and Democratisation,
characterised the programme as a partnership between the EC Delegation and the
NGOs.
“It is important for foreign donors to keep financing Jordanian civil society
programmes. A lot of Jordanian NGOs do not have enough of a membership base to
have sufficient funding. This is a real shame if they have a great idea but no
funding to translate it to a project,” she said.
In a statement made on Feb. 14, the EC Delegation identified human rights issues
promoting freedom of association and expression, and advocating the rights of
specific groups such as women, children and prisoners as themes in the work
EIDHR intends to help.
“We selected priority areas through conversations and meetings with NGOs... it
is important to confine and define NGOs to a limited number of objectives,” said
Borel.
The first call for proposals took place on Feb. 15 of this year. Out of 17
submissions, only three organisations were selected.
Approximately 229,000 euros will be divided among projects designed by the Wadi
Al Arab Charity, the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD) and
the Arab Women's Organisation.
The grant awarded to the AWO will finance their Mosawa gender equality centre
and electronic network that connects 50 women's rights NGOs. This programme has
been running for 17 months and is slated to receive EIDHR funding for another
year.
The Wadi Al Arab Charity is using their grant to run a series of six one-day
workshops for women in rural villages.
The goal of this project acquaint women with their legal rights.
“We want to raise awareness about women's rights, such as their rights under
labour laws. Most women don't know about them,” said Yusra El Farhan, president
of Wadi Al Arab Charity.
JOHUD is planning a continuation of Makaneh, a project that promotes collective,
community-based action by forming committees of 20 women in each of the
governorates of Jerash, Karak and Madaba. Committee members act as
representatives of the local population and lobby for services.
“For instance, in [the Governorate of] Jerash, there was no bus coming to a
village, which prohibits [the residents] from accessing services in the city. It
is one of our success stories. Now, a bus reaches those villages and facilitates
access to them,” said Huda Hakki, director of the development information unit.
For the upcoming round of proposals, the EC Delegation will increase efforts to
guide NGOs through the application process.
“We will have information sessions throughout the country to ease the process
and to explain to NGOs what is required,” said Borel.
“In the first round of applications, some groups did not get past the
administrative phase. This is how most NGOs get rejected: Some forget to sign or
submit documents,” she added.
Three EC officials then score the eligible proposals on an evaluation grid. The
feasibility of ideas and thoroughness of planning are taken into account in the
assessment.
“We look at if the idea can be implemented... we look at things like project
cycle management, if they have preparation activities, a training programme. The
budget is also important. For example, if they have only accounted for human
resources as an expense and overlooked other costs, this is a warning sign,”
Borel said.
“We awarded grants to those who scored highest on the evaluation grid,” she
added.
Though the requirement that the application be submitted in English might
disadvantage smaller NGOs, Borel emphasised the evaluators take this into
account and focus on ideas rather than language skills. She explained that
supporting smaller NGOs was a goal of the programme.
“The way forward is to fund smaller organisations... For example, Wadi Al Arab
[Charity] has a tiny structure. They were very excited to learn they were
receiving funds from a foreign donor.”