Second Round Grants Awarded to Strengthen Civil Society in theMaldives

Following the success of the first round of the nine projectssupported by the Small Grants Facility jointly funded by UNDP and the AustralianAgency for International Development (AusAID), the project has awarded a total of US$79,862.95 to an additional 13 local civil society organizations. The selections were madeout of 54 proposals submitted by non-governmental organizations and CSOs across thecountry.

The main purpose of this initiative, under the UNDP and AusAID partnered ‘Support toCivil Society Development’ project, is to help strengthen civil society through targetedsupport to NGOs, particularly in the field of human rights. It aims to financially supportNGO and CSO initiatives in human rights, governance, rights- based developments,gender equality and youth development.

The final selection of the projects took into consideration geographic representation anddiversity of project themes. The selected projects reflect a wide range of thematic areasincluding capacity building of NGOs, promotion of human rights, good governance,gender equality and the empowerment of women, youth development and policyadvocacy on national and local issues.

Projects have been selected from 11 atolls including Baa, Raa, Haa Alif, Huvadhoo,Noonu, Thaa, Alif Alif, Lhaviyani, Addu City, Shaviyani, Male’ Atoll and Male’ City. As aresult, the project has now covered almost all the atolls in the Maldives.

As part of the project’s objective in increasing institutional and human resource capacityof civil society organizations, a four-day workshop was held at the UN Building attendedby 33 NGOs from around the country.

“Civil society organizations have managed to achieve impressive results under thisprogram, even with relatively little resources,” stated Andrew Cox, UN ResidentCoordinator and UNDP Resident Representative.  “UNDP’s main interest is to supportthe initiatives of these partners, to help in the much needed expansion of civil societyinto the public life of the country.”