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Citizen Initatives in action: do differences in funding & support systems lead to differences in the dynamics of the CI sector ?. Workshop B – Round 1 Pierre DANIEL CALONNE Consultant. An European overview of Development microprojects.
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Citizen Initatives in action: do differences in funding & support systems lead to differences in the dynamics of the CI sector? Workshop B – Round 1 Pierre DANIEL CALONNE Consultant
An Europeanoverview of Developmentmicroprojects • A studycommissioned by the Microprojects Agency (EuropeanGuild) • Focused on 15 countries (France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland) • What are the differentfunding and support systems in Europe?
The microprojectsapproach The microprojects approach refers to: • civil society initiatives in the field of international development • initiatives strongly relying on volunteering • it implies a small-sized budget (difficulties in reaching conventional NGO funds) and a strong local partnership • with an ambition of proximity (with donors and beneficiaries) and, sometimes, of innovation.
A convergingpolitical ambition • The specific contribution of citizen initiatives to global developmentiswidelyshared • advantages (new ideas, strongpartnership…) • limits (fragility in the project conception, lack of management skills…) • Three main ambitions at the core of the government support to CIs: • to developcitizeninvolvment in developmentcooperation • to fosterexperimentationsthatcouldbereplicableat a largerscale • to strenghthenactors’ capacities and skills
Heterogeneousfundingschemes • Dedicatedfundinglinesdirectlymanaged by the government (Ministry of ForeignAffairs or Development Agency) • Subgrantingmechanismsvia intermediary organisations • Local authoritiesinvolvement (call for proposals…) • Privatefunders(foundations, churches, NGOs…) Ex: Wilde Ganzen in the Netherlands • Public fundraising: by far the first funding source Ex: in 2012, Welsch CIs collectively generated £1.5million against the £60,000 in small grants from Welsh government
Supportingmechanisms for CIs • Funding and supportingpartners(Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Netherlands…) • NGO umbrella organisations supportingboth large and small organisations • Dedicated organisations or platforms to inform, train and adviseCIs • A specific trend: networking and exchanges betweenCIs(Myworld, 1zu1, Together4Africa…)
A few questions… • Do thesedifferentschemes have an impact in the dynamism of the CI sector? • How doesit affect theirability and/or willingness to gather, share information and develop networking? • What are the best ways to identifyinnovativeapproaches and to help themscaling up?