|
PRESS RELEASE
Washington,
D.C., March 6, 2007
World Bank
Announces Winners of Small Grants Program in Belarus
Belarus’
Winners of the Small Grants Program of the World Bank (SmGP) for civil
society organizations have been announced. Four civil society organizations,
which proposed solutions to environmental challenges at a local level, will
receive grants of $8,000 - 10,000 to implement their projects ideas. The
projects were selected by a special committee comprising besides World Bank
staff representatives from the Ministry of Nature Resources and
Environmental Protection and from the Small Grants Program of the United
Nations Development Program/Global Environmental Facility in Belarus (UNDP/GEF).
The Small
Grants Program of the World Bank aims to make development more inclusive and
to empower citizens to have greater ownership of development processes. The
program helps disseminate information and enhance cooperation between key
development players, including public sector agencies, civil society
organizations, bilateral and multilateral organizations, funds, and the
private sector.
The Small
Grants Program of the World Bank for civil society organizations has been
implemented in Belarus since 1999. During this time 54 projects received
support totaling about $300,000. The projects were selected out of more than
500 applications. In recent years, the program has become thematic. In 2005,
the program supported projects, which aimed to mitigate long-term post
Chernobyl consequences. Activities supported in 2006 related to the 20th
anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. The focus of the program in 2007 is
environmental protection.
"We have
received 36 applications, and the committee had a challenging task of
selecting the winners. A series of criteria were considered, such as
inclusion of vulnerable groups (for instance, disabled young people and
orphans), regional focus of the proposed activities, possibility of
achieving the goals within a relatively short period. Almost all project
proposals submitted for the Small Grants Program in 2007 were thoroughly
prepared and appropriately presented. We hope that the organizations that
have not won World Bank awards will receive support from other sources,"
noted Elena Klochan, Operations Officer from the World Bank Country Office
in Belarus.
The
following projects are announced winners of the SmGP in 2007:
- “Milashki:
Clean Water”. The project will be implemented in the village of Milashki
of Braslav rayon by an international civil society organization
"Understanding".
- “Our
Home Is Our Concern”. The project will be implemented in the village of
Tarasovo of Minsk Oblast by the Minsk city branch of a civil society
association «Belarusian Association for Assistance to Children and Young
People with Disabilities".
- “I Am
For Clean Smilovichi”. The project is prepared by an international civil
society organization "Education without Boundaries".
- International
ecologic television and cinema forum of the countries in Eastern and Central
Europe and the Baltic: "Role of Cinema, Television, and Mass Media in
Addressing Environmental Problems". The project is prepared by a
republican civil society organization "Belarus Association of
Cinematographers".
To learn
more about the Small Grants Program of the World Bank in Belarus, please
press here. |
