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Overview

Pact's Global Civil Society Strengthening Leader with Associates Award (CSL) is an assistance mechanism that provides a full spectrum of civil society services. As a pre-competed instrument, the CSL offers ready assistance to missions and bureaus in meeting requirements for assessment, strategy formulation, activity design, and program implementation without further competition or justification. This page outlines the types of activities that can be supported under the award as well as examples of the impact achieved by current CSL programs.

Access

To find out how to access this mechanism, please click here.

Types of Activities Supported

The Cooperative Agreement identifies six core activity areas eligible for support under the CSL mechanism:

Establishing legal frameworks to protect and promote civil society
Increasing citizen participation in policy processes, implementation and oversight
Increasing institutional and financial viability of civil society organizations
Enhancing the free flow of information
Strengthening democratic political culture and gender equality
Supporting activities under the State Department's anti-sweatshop initiative.

1. Establishing legal frameworks

Activities target law reform and implementation to protect and promote civil society activities and organizations. Activities might include:

Undertaking participatory assessments of the political and legal climate
Conducting joint training programs for government officials, and NGO and union staff to foster mutual understanding and cooperation in legal reform and monitoring
Developing resource centers with Internet connectivity and links to databases worldwide that enable information generation and exchange on NGO sector and labor-related legal reform
Fostering indigenous approaches to legal reform through internships, conferences and continuing legal education seminars for law students and practicing lawyers
Educating judges, relevant public officials, members of CSOs, unions, and the community about new NGO and/or labor laws to ensure fair and consistent implementation and enforcement
Providing legal aid and counseling services to unions and laborers.

2. Increasing citizen participation in public policy processes

Activities focus on advocacy and on citizen participation in public policy decision making. Activities might include:

Fostering citizen-government relations through dialogues, consultations, town hall meetings, and legislative caucuses
Engaging communities in local advocacy and problem-solving efforts and fostering federations of neighborhood associations
Providing training in advocacy techniques, including issue identification, research, policy analysis, legislative drafting, media relations, constituency and coalition building, negotiation, policy dialogue, and campaigning
Building local, national and regional NGO coalitions, and linking CSOs/NGOs via conferences, fora, publications, and the Internet
Linking communities to government through service delivery NGOs and their grassroots constituencies
Assessing advocacy capacity of CSOs using the Advocacy Index and other integrated performance, monitoring and evaluation tools.

3. Increasing institutional and financial viability

Activities target building the organizational capacity of CSOs/NGOs to be well-managed, accountable and transparent. Activities might include:

Conducting participatory organizational capacity assessments to identify organizational strengths and weaknesses and to establish baseline information and benchmarks for organizational growth
Providing training in areas including management structure, mission development, participatory planning and evaluation, financial management, board development, information systems and knowledge networking, conflict resolution, and relationship building with the media, government and commercial sectors
Conducting training of trainer programs to create a cadre of local trainers that ensure ongoing availability of and access to capacity building resources
Assisting CSOs/NGOs in identifying and developing fundraising and financial sustainability strategies through enhanced marketing, financial management, and cost recovery
Supporting media campaigns to increase public awareness of the positive role CSOs play in society.

4. Enhancing the free flow of information

Activities focus on enhancing informed public policy debate and decision making, and increasing the flow of information among the public, civil society organizations, government, and the media. Activities might include:

Providing training in journalism and investigative reporting on sectoral as well as political issues
Developing online networks and Websites for distribution of accurate news and editorials
Supporting professional organizations to encourage media accountability and ethical practices
Developing media indices to measure news quality and objectivity
Assisting media and CSOs in improving the enabling environment for speech and media freedom
Assisting media organizations in developing alternative funding mechanisms, such as low interest loans, revolving loan funds and endowments
Supporting regional networks and conferences for media and related CSOs
Supporting study tours, peer partnering, and exchange programs for journalists and media executives.

5. Strengthening democratic political culture and gender equality

Activities target efforts to enhance democratic political culture through civic education, conflict resolution, and equity and participation, especially among women and marginalized groups. Activities might include:

Supporting citizen-local government exchanges through neighborhood committees, town hall meetings, and other forums for discussion
Training women and marginalized groups in political processes, political leadership and campaign organizing
Designing and implementing voter education campaigns
Developing specifically targeted civic education messages for dissemination to local and national audiences
Developing school curricula and activities that foster democratic values and behaviors
Supporting conflict prevention and resolution efforts, focusing particularly on the use of local mechanisms and cultural practices
Working through labor union to address the particular needs of women workers.

6. Supporting anti-sweatshop activities

Activities target efforts to eliminate abusive labor practices in factories exporting consumer goods to U.S. markets. Activities might include:

Conducting educational campaigns on workers' rights and the elimination of abusive labor conditions in factories abroad
Coordinating anti-sweatshop efforts of unions, employers, government and NGOs across the developed and developing world
Supporting the monitoring and reporting of labor code violations
Conducting educational exchanges and training seminars on organizational and bargaining techniques and strategies
Fostering and supporting legal rights centers staffed by specialists in labor conflict resolution
Conducting surveys and investigations of sweatshop conditions
Engaging the media in disseminating information on sweatshop abuses.

Impact

Since its inception in 2001, the CSL has helped missions and bureaus to implement programs that have greatly strengthened civil society. A few examples are described below.

1. Zambia: Increased Public Debate (IPD)

Description
The Increased Public Debate program promotes public debate on issues essential to democratic reform, with the longer-term objective of strengthening pluralistic dialogue and citizen influence on public policy. Targeting Zambian media, membership organizations (unions and church-based NGOs), professional associations, and critical government departments, Pact has helped key advocacy CSOs earn a seat at the policy table on critical reform topics. Working largely through small grants, Pact trains these CSOs to conduct policy research, poll their members, analyze policy issues, develop positions, conduct media campaigns, lead sensitive public debates, build coalitions, and carry out all aspects of an effective advocacy campaign. Two additional activities have been incorporated into the program: Parliamentary Reform Phase II (PRP) and the Anti-Corruption Initiative (ACI). Under PRP II, Pact will facilitate the Zambian Parliament's implementation of the plan for reform that it devised in Phase I, while under the ACI Pact will oversee and coordinate the Parliament's anti-corruption activities.

Key interim results

Media law reform. Pact's partner NGO, ZIMA, led lobbying and public debate that resulted in the parliament ending ten years of delay on enacting media reform and passing two laws that will give greater protection to the independence of the media and will create a new media regulatory body in line with that proposed by ZIMA and its constituents.
Parliamentary reform. The Parliamentary Reforms and Modernization Committee (PRMC) recently passed a unanimous resolution to press for Constitutional amendments to establish the Parliamentary Service Commission and to amend the Standing Orders, which govern the running of the National Assembly and outline the powers of the Speaker and the Members of Parliament.
Creation of a new anti-corruption body. Under the new Anti-Corruption Initative (ACI), Members of Parliament established a Zambia chapter of the African Parliamentary Network Against Corruption (APNAC) and developed a local charter.
First annual CSO-Parliament meeting. The first annual meeting between the National Assembly and civil society organizations (CSOs) brought together 21 chairpersons of Parliamentary Committees and 20 CSO representatives under the theme "Connecting Parliament to Civil Society Organizations."
Pressure for openness and transparency in constitutional reform. National conventions hosted by the OASIS Forum, a Pact-supported Zambian advocacy consortium, generated public consensus and strong pressure on the government to amend the constitution via a constituent assembly, rather than a closed process.

For more information on the IPD program, click here.

2. Madagascar: Linking Actors for Regional Opportunities (LARO) Program

Description
The vast majority of Madagascar's population depends on subsistence agriculture for its livelihood, causing environmental degradation that threatens not only biological diversity but also the watershed and soil stability vital to an agrarian economy. The LARO program addresses Madagascar's severe environmental crisis and agrarian poverty through a public-private alliance between USAID/Madagascar and the multinational mining conglomerate Rio Tinto/QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM). The programs focuses on the participatory identification of local development and conservation priorities, the creation of a regional development framework, the selection of environmentally and economically sound activities within the framework, and technical assistance in the management of those activities.

Key Interim Results

Anosy Regional Development Framework. The 130-member General Assembly of the Regional Development Committee for the Anosy region has developed and approved the Regional Development Framework, facilitating the rapid and appropriate implementation of various projects. The national government already views the Framework as a model and reference tool for other regions.
Fort Dauphin Urban Development Plan. The city of Fort Dauphin has created an Urban Development Plan that is integrated into the Regional Development Framework. The Plan has already leveraged the interest and support of other donors, including the World Bank, which selected the city as a priority "growth pole" for its IG2P project.
Communal development plans. Communities have established Communal Development Plans that align with the Regional Development Framework and promote environmental sustainability.
Conservation site. Working toward the designation of the Ambatotsirongorongo forest as a conservation site, the LARO team has carried out various biodiversity diagnostic studies, has sensitized local communities to the need to protect this threatened habitat, and has facilitated the development and preliminary implementation of a concerted site management plan.

For more information on the LARO program, click here.

3. Tanzania Advocacy Partnership Program (TAPP)

(Consortium partners: International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) and the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)

Description
The Tanzanian Advocacy Partnership Program (TAPP) strengthens the capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) to articulate and represent public interests to the Government of Tanzania on the civil society legal framework as well as selected health, environment, and private-sector policy issues, while fostering an enabling environment for CSO-government partnership. TAPP works closely with national and local advocacy organizations and networks to build an indigenous cadre of master trainers and capacity builders, who train and mentor other CSOs in organizational and financial management, networking, coalition-building, and the essentials of effective advocacy campaigns. The program supports proactive and sustained civil society advocacy through a combination of customized technical assistance, training, mentoring, and grants.