Anti-corruption - small grants component

This call is closed. View the latest updates here. 

 

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Background information:

Open to:

Community-based organisations (CBOs), district level civil society organisations, community-based radio stations and other citizen groups.

Theme: 

Towards a more effective anti-corruption strategy: citizens’ actions matter

About STAR Ghana

STAR-Ghana is a five-year (2015 – 2020) voice and empowerment programme supported by UK Aid, the European Union and DANIDA.  Its purpose is to support the development of a civil society and citizenry capable of influencing change which will lead to improved inclusive access to high quality, responsive service delivery in Ghana. Its strategic approach is focused on supporting the creation, utilisation and institutionalisation of spaces for collective engagement, within civil society and between civil society and other actors, as a means of increasing the accountability and responsiveness of the executive and key state institutions at both local and national levels.

The anti-corruption call

National corruption surveys in recent years point to a significant deterioration in citizens’ perceptions of corruption Ghana. Corruption is a barrier to the achievement of gender equality and social inclusion.  Corruption has the greatest impact on the most marginalised and most vulnerable in society. It marginalises those living in poverty by putting goods and services further out of their reach and consequently leaves them lagging even further behind in economic, social and political development.  Tackling corruption is therefore essential if Ghana is to achieve sustainable and equitable growth.

Towards this end, STAR-Ghana is inviting proposals from eligible CSOs to implement projects under the Small grants component of its Anti-corruption call.

Examples of projects to be funded under this component include:

• Citizens’ access to public goods and services such as health and education;
• Management and accounting for local revenues;
•  Citizens’ access to economic resources, including markets and credit;
• Increased accountability and transparency of local government institutions and other key public institutions in the discharge of their duties;
• Citizens’ education around anti-corruption;
•  Other locally relevant anti-corruption issues, particularly those affecting women, the youth and persons living with disabilities.

Eligible organisations:

Registered Ghanaian civil society organisations (CSOs) including Media organisations located or operating at community or district levels. These include:

• Small CSOs located in and/or operating primarily at community/district  or sub national levels;
• Community-based organisations;
• Faith-based organisations;
•  Town, village and community associations;
• Farmer-based organisations, fishermen and women associations representing peasant or small-scale food farmers or small-scale fishermen or fish processors;
• Youth associations,
•  Associations of persons with disabilities; and
• Community radio stations

NB: These organisations must be registered with the Registrar-General’s Department and must have a Tax Identification Number.

Existing STAR-Ghana grant partners, under the GESI and Media calls, are not eligible to apply as lead organisations.

Focus and duration of projects

This component of the Anti-Corruption Call focuses on supporting the piloting of innovative strategies and approaches to facilitate citizens’ active engagement in the fight against corruption leading to good governance and sustainable development. The focus is therefore on citizen mobilisation and actions on locally relevant anti-corruption issues. The proposed project should:

• pilot or test an innovative strategy or approach or build from an existing approach that has proven effective in order to achieve greater impact and results;
• have a maximum duration of 12 months and;
• Have a maximum budget of approximately GHS 200,000.00 per project.

Organisations are encouraged to build partnerships with various stakeholders/actors, including media organisations, government agencies and other CSOs operating at district or regional levels to enable more innovative and joined-up actions. Particular priority will be given to proposals that build partnerships between various stakeholders to strengthen accountability through citizens’ actions.

Eligibility criteria for the CSO or the coalition/network/alliance

• Should be able to state clearly the results and outcomes that will be achieved from the project;
• Must demonstrate a track record in working with and delivering results for the target social groups;
• Should have linkages with other Civil Society Organisations at district and local levels to leverage additional capacities;
• Should provide bank statements for the past six (6) months);
• Must be registered with the Registrar-General’s Department with Tax Identification Number;
• Be known by community leaders in the communities where they seek to operate their project;
• Should be able to submit references from the District Assembly, Traditional Council or a funding organisation/agency.
• Must not have been blacklisted by any donor agency, governmental agency or national CSO;
• STAR Ghana may request additional information at the due diligence stage of the process when shortlisted;
• Should provide 2016 audited accounts – for organisations which have been in existence for 3 years and above, and the latest financial statement – for organisations which have been in existence for below 3 years.

For enquiries, please email us at the following address: info@star-ghana.org or call (0302) 774488 between 9am and 5pm on week days.

Approach

Our approach

Our approach focuses on three interconnected pillars:
- The creation, utilisation and institutionalisation of spaces for collective civil society engagement with stakeholders at all levels.
- Embedding a PEA approach in programme development and implementation as part of an adaptive programming approach; and
- The centrality of Gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) in all programme activities.

 

 In the consultations leading up to the design of the second phase of STAR-Ghana, a number of constraints were identified to explain why STAR-Ghana Phase 1 did not achieve transformational change. The consensus was that rather than continue to fund civil society ‘projects’ through conventional funding mechanisms, STAR-Ghana should play a more strategic, analytical, convenor, coordinator and catalyst role (STAR 2015). It is this analysis that forms the basis of the 3C+L strategic approach for STAR Ghana II, namely, Convening a broad range of stakeholders for dialogue and to support the identification of opportunities and critical entry points for action and engagement.
 Catalysing change through joint working with new and innovative strategic partners.
 Coordinating with a broad cross section of actors, promoting joint influencing and actions amongst partners, to ensure effective use of limited resources available.
 Learning from past and present experiences and effective application throughout the process of implementation.

To perform this role effectively the programme constantly scans the horizon for opportunities to identify locally salient issues and “magic moments” around which it can convene and catalyse stakeholder dialogue and actions.

This e approach reflects the dual focus of STAR-Ghana2 - catalysing the efforts of citizens towards systemic change on specific issues and working towards the creation of an independent national entity to sustain support for civil society actions and efforts beyond the life cycle of Phase 2.

The key shift from the current STAR-Ghana programme is the new strategic focus on facilitating and supporting processes and interventions which aim at systemic change in socio-economic and political institutions/structures in the interest of all Ghanaians. The core mandate and function of the programme is therefore to act as Convener, Catalyst and Coordinator of civil society action towards system change.

 

These actions will be supported by grant-making, technical assistance (including capacity strengthening) and relationship(s) and knowledge brokering.
We are also working towards the establishment of STAR-Ghana as a self-sustaining, Ghanaian institution with a central role in mobilising active citizens and civil society around accountability.

STAR-Ghana also believes that in order to better deliver on its outcome and impact objectives, political economy analysis needs to be embedded within local implementation teams. Rather than distinct pieces of analysis which are often divorced from operational realities, knowledge of the political economy is fed systematically into STAR-Ghana’s design, programme management, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation processes in locally led and iterative ways. Practically for STAR-Ghana’s adaptive programming means that:
• The theory of change will be reviewed regularly to test assumptions and inform programme interventions going forward (Barr, 2005)
• While the goals (outcomes/impact level) will not change, as knowledge of how to achieve those outcomes is accumulated and integrated over the lifetime of the programme, the mix of inputs and outputs (activities) will change.
• Indicators and log frames will need to evolve to keep pace of modification in programme intervention activities
• The GESI strategy will be regularly refined to ensure that adaptive development principles are integrated into its gender mainstreaming approach and applied to broader issues of social inclusion.