Strengthening Civil Society

Background

Civil society is becoming increasingly influential in public policy. In line with recent forms, there is now more space for civil society actors to engage in livelihoods activities and to shape policy processes and outcomes.

LIFT Action

Why LIFT Supports Myanmar Civil Society

LIFT’s 2014 strategy explicitly acknowledges that strengthening civil society, as well as government and the private sector, promotes stronger and more sustainable livelihood systems, and that social actors and civic action are essential to reducing poverty and promoting equitable economic and social growth.

For this reason, LIFT has an explicit programme-level outcome of “strengthened local capacity of communities, local government, CSOs and private enterprises to support and promote food and livelihood security”. The main indicator LIFT uses to measure its performance against this outcome is the proportion of LIFT funds that are managed by national entities.

Trends in LIFT Support to Myanmar Civil Society

Since its inception, LIFT has engaged with civil society organisations in many ways, including through training, mentoring and the development of resource materials. For example, one project completed in 2015 (with the Inya Institute) funded the development of a bilingual social research manual, which is a useful resource for individuals and CSOs conducting social research. The graph below summarises the training conducted by LIFT since 2011. The cumulative number of training sessions completed to date amounts to 2,381 with over 357,000 participants, 60 per cent of whom are women.

However, the training of individuals does not necessarily lead to any institutional strengthening of CSOs as many Myanmar CSOs suffer from high staff turnover. In addition, training tends to be supply-driven (i.e. the type of training offered is usually defined by the provider). Civil society organisations are increasingly vocal about the need for capacity support to civil society being demand driven, avoiding ready-made training packages. As a result, LIFT is increasingly trying to include flexible training and capacity-building resources into the budgets of projects managed by Myanmar CSOs. LIFT also changed its Operational Guidelines in 2014 to clarify that in partnerships and consortia, indirect costs should be shared among implementing partner organisations, including local CSOs, proportionate to their implementation budget. This enables CSOs to prioritise the little flexible funding available to them.

The success or failure of including flexible capacity-building resources in project budgets rests, of course, on an assumption that Myanmar CSOs are successful in accessing LIFT funds, either as direct implementing partners of LIFT, or as partners of other recipients of LIFT funds. The graph below summarises how the proportion of LIFT project funds that are managed by Myanmar CSOs has evolved over time. Unfortunately, the graph illustrates that the proportion of funds managed by CSOs has declined recently, particularly in 2015, when LIFT launched a large number of calls for proposals.

Myanmar CSOs and LIFT Calls for Proposals

LIFT launched seven open calls for proposals (CfPs) in 2015. Overall, the number of Myanmar CSO submissions was relatively low, and when CSOs did submit a proposal, LIFT was less likely to fund it than proposals from international agencies until new measures were introduced to support CSO applications (see below). A LIFT review of the appraisals of proposals submitted by Myanmar CSOs identified two common issues:

Local CSOs had difficulty aligning their ideas with the LIFT programme frameworks. Proposals often represented the programme of the applicant rather than the programme framework provided by LIFT. For example, there was often a lack of clarity on how the proposed activities would be implemented, and incoherence between project components. This issue has become more common as LIFT’s calls for proposals have become more prescriptive over time.

Local CSOs struggled to describe their experience and its relevance to the LIFT programme frameworks. Even though some CSOs have good technical capacity for field operations, and LIFT has had positive experience in working with many of them, the proposal design and presentation often fell short of the standards set in the CfP process. Moreover, CSOs sometimes proposed approaches that have previously shown to have little uptake by farmers.

Myanmar CSOs identified similar issues themselves during a brief study on the low success rate of CSO submissions. The four local NGOs interviewed, who had all participated in LIFT CfPs, attributed the rejection of their proposals primarily to the complexity of the LIFT programme framework, a lack of LIFT ‘fit’ with civil society programmes, and a lack of resources to produce good proposals, (e.g. time, funds and proposal writing skills). All were willing to identify quality issues within their own process. While the local NGOs participating in the LIFT CfPs had initially welcomed the opportunity, and saw it as encouraging them to expand into new sectors and activities, they discovered that their unproven capacity would work against them and make them uncompetitive. As expected, the study also found that language was a major barrier and that if local NGOs wanted to be successful they needed to employ an English-language writer.

New Measures Introduced to Support CSO Applications to LIFT CfPs

The initial assessment process of the Delta 3 and Dry Zone proposals received through the respective CfPs identified no submissions from Myanmar CSOs that were ready for funding. However, the Fund Board recognised the inherent value, as articulated in the LIFT strategy, of having Myanmar CSOs, as well as international agencies, as partners. As a result, LIFT re-assessed all of the applications from Myanmar CSOs with the aim of identifying projects with the greatest potential for strategic fit with the LIFT programme frameworks. Those applicants were given an opportunity to submit revised proposals based on detailed feedback on their original submissions. At the end of the process, five additional local partners were contracted for USD 3.5 million (two partners in the Dry Zone and three partners in the Delta).

For the Uplands CfP, which was a two-step process (concept notes from all applicants and then full proposals from shortlisted applicants), shortlisted Myanmar CSO applicants were provided with small grants (maximum USD 15,000) to support the proposal development process. This process was successful as five CSO applicants received proposal support grants and three of those proposals were eventually funded. The successful applicants used the small grants in different ways: hiring a value chain specialist; collecting more data and further engaging with communities; and, hiring English language writers. In LIFT’s view, the resulting proposals were significantly stronger than they would have been without the small grants for proposal development.

Introduction of Small Grant Funds and Strategic Partnerships

Small grant funds

Early in 2015, LIFT engaged a team of consultants to carry out a scoping exercise on how to get LIFT funds to civil society in ways that meet the needs of both LIFT and the CSOs. In October 2015, the LIFT Fund Board endorsed one of the report’s main recommendations, to establish separate small grant funds for LIFT’s main geographical programmes, one each for the Dry Zone and the Delta, and two funds for the Uplands (a one window for Chin State). The focus in all areas will be on township-level civil society, although the parameters are likely to be different in each area.

The rationale for the small grants funds is to strengthen the livelihood systems in the areas where LIFT works. The small grants will support people’s organisations and civic groups that are local and constituency-based, particularly at township level, but also open to region/state CSOs for their work that engages township-level civil society. The small grants funds will support demand-driven capacity-building for the CSOs they fund, where this is appropriate.

The funds will support a range of grant sizes as well as a critical number of grants in each zone. LIFT’s initial estimates regarding these issues are provided below. The call for proposals for the fund facilitators for each zone will be done in 2016.

Allocation of LIFT Small Grants by Geographic Area

Zone	Approx. grant size (USD)	Approx. no. of grants
Dry Zone	$10,000 - $15,000	5 per township
Delta	$30,000 - $100,000	10 in total
Uplands	$15,000 - $100,000	10 per state
Chin	$5,000 - $15,000	4 per township

Strategic partnerships with CSOs

In October 2015, the LIFT Fund Board also endorsed another recommendation of the report Supporting Civil Society with LIFT Funds: to enter into a limited number of strategic partnerships with CSOs with the intention to move the LIFT/CSO relationship from one of funder/implementer to a committed organisational partnership based on common development objectives and knowledge sharing. To quote the report: “Strategic partnerships facilitate greater engagement between the partners at a strategy and policy level. Each partner supports the other’s efforts to be as effective an organisation as possible.”

For LIFT, strategic partnerships provide important benefits to both LIFT and the CSO strategic partner. The partnerships provide CSO partners with technical, policy and organisational resources that are otherwise difficult to access within Myanmar. The partnerships also provide LIFT with access to specific contextual analysis that is otherwise difficult to obtain. The strategic partnerships include funding from LIFT to a CSO partner, but instead of being tightly linked to a set of prescribed activities, this funding assigned iteratively over time to particular outcomes, especially in locations not covered by other LIFT programmes.

Through strategic partnerships with local CSOs, LIFT expects to achieve the following:

Better and more visible results of LIFT’s efforts on civil society strengthening
Improved contextual understanding for LIFT of the social and political landscape of Myanmar, including a more inclusive understanding of civil society
More involvement of CSOs in policy dialogue related to livelihoods and food security
More interactive linkages and networks within civil society and between CSOs and concerned government agencies

In 2015, LIFT established strategic partnerships with the Food Security Working Group, the Land Core Group and the Gender Equality Network. There are ongoing discussions about possible partnerships with three other CSOs.

With different civil society strengthening approaches being used, the effectiveness of such strategies will be assessed during 2016.