The debate over what civil society constitutes and which segment of civil society deserves donor support has been marred with disagreement. There is one school of thought largely represented by traditional donor agencies putting accountability as a key criterion. Rightly so, for most donors, other than a convincing project proposal aligned to the donor’s thematic priority area, robust governance structures, organisational and financial systems are fundamental pre-conditions for a local civil society organisation to deserve financial support. On the other hand, emerging smaller CSOs working in a more informal and flexible manner usually fall through the cracks, as they fail to meet donor agencies’ stringent funding criteria. Yet often we find the individuals of these organisations are often more motivated and committed to a social cause than the ones working in well-established CSOs. Read more here.
Source: Daily Mail