Background and Objectives:
Two decades of conflict have taken a serious toll on organised civil society and the promotion of social, artistic and cultural activities in Afghanistan. While there is a thriving non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector, its focus is largely related to the physical, not social, development. Moreover, despite Afghanistan’s tremendous artistic and cultural heritage, this legacy is under threat.

This project’s aim is to contribute to the empowerment of civil society, leading to an increase in social, artistic and cultural activity and to the strengthening of local and national governance.

The project has four principle components: a small-grants programme to support at least 260 civil society activities over 24 months; capacity-building of 270 civil society organisations; strengthening the capacity of eight regional partner institutions to support civil society activities and; the establishment of an independent Afghan grant-making institution with the necessary capacity to support civil society activities.

The overall development objective is to contribute to the empowerment of civil society in Afghanistan, leading to an increase in social, artistic and cultural activity and to the strengthening of local and national governance.

The immediate objective is the improvement of the capacity of Afghan civil society organisations to identify, plan, finance and implement micro and small projects promoting social, artistic and cultural activities in a participatory and inclusive manner.

Activities:
The main activities include:

• Producing a civil society baseline survey.
• Creating a Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) Directory.
• Writing survey analysis reports.
• Conducting civil society research.
• Capacity Building of CSOs and Foundation for Culture and Civil Society (FCCS).
• Awarding block grants.

Results:

• Survey for 30 provinces completed.
• Capacity building of Civil Society Organisations implemented. To date, 3,016 Civil Society Organisations and social activists have been trained as follows: Proposal writing workshop - 2,652; Envisioning Afghan Civil Society - 198, Reporting -166.
• Block grants awarded to 270 Civil Society Organisations and individuals: (Number of proposals solicited - 1,582; number of active grant projects -169; number of closed grants - 46).