FOUNDATION FOR CIVIL SOCIETY 2018-2020 - Foundation for Civil Society 2020

General

FSC is an independent Tanzanian non-profit organisation that provides grants and capacity building services to Tanzanian based civil society organisations. FCS was registered as a legal entity under the National NGO Act No 1666 in September 2002 and started its operation in January 2003. Since its inception, FCS has contributed immensely to the capacity strengthening of teh civil society sector in Tanzania. thereby ( in) directly enabling CSOs and citizens become key driving forces for positively influencing democratic governance in Tanzania and better quality of life for all. This is realised through provision of grants, facilitation of linkages, as well as enabling a culture of on-going learning within the civil society and Tanzania as a whole. FCS aspires to maintain its position as a leading financing mechanism for CSOs in Tanzania; and to effectively complement government and development partners efforts towards poverty reduction as set out in Tanzania's main development frameworks: Vision 2025 and the five year development plan 2016 - 2021.

Objectives

The Foundation for Civil Society ( FCS) Key Result Areas 1. GovernanceThe focus is on supporting social accountability, monitoring women's land rights, harmful traditional practices and conflict resolution. It is acknowledged that governance in the context of sustainable livelihoods means working across sectors and levels. This involved changing power relations, developing people capacioties ( resilience, assets base) as well as positively changing attitudes ( sense of vulnerability and powerlessness) There is also recognition between micro actions and macro conditions and their effects on people's livelihoods. In order to realise these results, FCS works with CSos at both local and national levels abd uses them as a vehicle to empower communities to address governance issues. The desired outcomes in this area are that: a) By 2020, Local government authorities ( LGAs) in areas that FCS works are delivering improved quality services. b) By 2020, decision making and democratic processes are better reflecting citizens rights especially those of marginalised groups, PWDs, minority and women. c) By 2020, communities have strong capacities and institutions for dialogue and conflict management. 2.Livelihoods and MarketFCS recognises that there is a strong linkage between governance and livelihoods. FCS approach to livelihoods is based on adressing systems, policies and structures that constrain the target groups from realising their potentials. the livelihood programme is modelled on three pathways: a) First targetting youth and women economic empowerment b) Targetting smallholder farmers access to extension services and productive assets and 3) tragetting communities resilience to climate change and management of natural resourxes. FCS has also pointed out that more and more citizens are organising through economic self-help groups including Village Community banks ( VICOBAa), saving and Credit societies as opposed to traditional NGOs. FCS intends to tap into these already organised spaces while also linking economic empowerment to social empowerment  while promoting the participation of the marginalised groups in decision making. The livelihood desired outcomes are: a) Ensuring tha youth and women entrepreneurs have secured greater access to market and livelihood assets and resources b) Enabling smallhoder farmers to access adequate extension services and improved security of tenure and; c) Ensuring that communities have increased capacity for climate resilience and are more accountable on natural resource management. 3. Capacity DevelopmentFCS collaboates with smaller and grassroots based CSOs who work directly with communities to identify innovative solutions to address poverty. The goal of this component is to contribute to the enhancement of civil society and other development actors to effectively and sustainably attain their mandates. The intention is that by 2020, FCS envisions that the CSOs they work with are strong, coordinated and able to serve their constituents effectively and efficiently. THese smaller CSOs lack proper systems especially those for financial managment, human resources management, monitioring and evaluation as well as suitable checks and balances, capacity to document and disseminate results and also low innovation in adressing societal challenges in a rapidly changing environment. FCS has modelled its programme to ensure that the supported organisations are constantly capacitated to deliver efficiently and document results in such a way that the evidence of the successes is acheived and shared widely. FCS recognises that the capacity of Civil society is central to giving voice to citizens and putting them at the center of good governance, livelihood and economic development processes that form part of their day to day living. FCS supports performance improvement, institutional growth and organisation as well as capacity to relate and link with others.FCS regards Capacity development as a means towards strengthening and enabling key actors - civil society, policy makers and private sector- to actively engage in dialogue about developing appropriate policy responses. It also focuses on identifying key knowledge gaps, equipping decsiion makers with the necessary tools, frameworks ands skill sets to effectively tacle development challenges at individual, institutional and societal levels. 4) Institutional DevelopmentThe overall objective of this area of work is to enable FCS to become a dynamic, efficient and sustainable entity that is effectively relaising its mandate. FCS intends to focus on improving its monitoring, evaluation and learning approach with a focus on constant reflection in order to maintain relevance and competitiveness. It also works on improving internal policies, systems and structures to safeguard its integrity and capacity to safeguard resources entrusted to it. This includes recruitment and retention of high quality staff as well as enhancing and diversifying the resource base so as to improve the sustainability of operations. The key objectives to ensure this are: a) FCS is delivering high quality services efficiently and effectively b) FCS has a diverse and stable portfolio of financing sources c) The internal policy environment (systems, structures, procedures) are upto date, comprehensive, relevant and fully operationalised. FCS is also complying with statutory and donor requirements.In summary, FCS main role is facilitation rather than direct implementation. Facilitation in this regard includes, but is not limited to funding/grant-making, coordination, mobilisation/leveraging resources, enabling of learning and reflections, linking and brokering partnerships and knowledge management. FCS ultimate target group is Tanzanian citizens with particular attention given to the poor, women, people with disabilities, youth. SWEDen'S PREVIOUS EXPERIenCE WITH THE FOUNDATION FOR CIVIL SOCIETY Sweden has previously supported the Foundation for Civil society in 2011. Sweden performed an Efficiency Audit and gave recommendations to the Institution and contributed MSEK 30 to the FCS Strategy 2009 - 2013. In this assessment, it has been noted that the recommendations of the Efficiency audit conducted 7 years ago have been taken onboard and the organisation has grown. It has been documented in the Report of Review of the FCS Strategy 2009 - 2013 that during this period FCS has grown and developed to become a respected institution by Stae and Non Stae Actors alike. Furthermore it has been noted that the work of FCS, its products and services are regarged as very relevant to stakeholders. FCS has also exhibited significant levels of adaptability and tenacity, and has significantly grown in terms of programmes, number of supported partners and financial resource base.  In 2018, Sweden has decided to assess possible support of MSEK 55 to the Foundation for Civil society due to a number of reasons. The FCS contribution will contribute towards the Embassy Open Space Project whose main focus is addressing the issue of shrinking democratic space, since this organisation has the capacity to make linkages with organisation working on matters of  civic space. Another reason is that Sweden’s direct support via contributions to civil society has been solid and persistent over a long period of time. Sweden has a well balanced portfolio in this regard and should remain with the support also under present circumstances. However,new approaches and innovative actions are necessary and this may include providing additional funds to ongoing contributions to address issues that are of critical importance in the civil societies. This proposed support to the Foundation for Civil Society will contribute towards this goal. This support will also enable Sweden to have local outreach as this is the only organisation that can reach community based organisations as well as vulnerable groups that Sweden does not have the capacity to reach within its current contributions. There is no other organisation with the capacity to forward funds to community based organisations in the country.