Deadline: 24-May-2023

The GPSA announces a new Call for Proposals dedicated to advancing green accountability! This call will be global in scope and award a $4 million grant to a CSO or a CSO consortium. The winning CSO or consortium will then sub-grant a significant part of the grant to local CSOs in GPSA opted-in countries.

GPSA’s key objective is thus “to provide more strategic and sustained support to CSOs’ efforts to reflect the voice of beneficiaries, promote greater transparency and accountability, and achieve stronger development results.”

The Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA) was designed to complement ongoing World Bank efforts to increase the effectiveness and impact of country-led governance and development reforms, supported by a wide range of actors.

What is the priority theme of this CfP?

• This GPSA Call for Proposals (CfP) focuses on merging climate action and social accountability through what they are calling ‘green accountability’. Green accountability creates systemic ways for people to have a voice and role in the climate decisions that most impact their lives. It places citizens and civil society at the heart of climate finance to direct funding, implement solutions, and hold decision-makers accountable for effective and equitable climate action.
• The CfP aims to support and develop green accountability among social accountability practitioners and sustainable development CSOs. CSO sub-grants will contribute to ensuring that marginalized communities and local communities have a seat at the climate policy table and improve outcomes and reduce the risks of corruption and capture. The sub-grants will focus both on mitigation and adaptation, for example through implementation of the Principles for Locally Led Adaptation.

GPSA’s Support Areas by Components

• Programmatic Support to CSOs for Social Accountability
• Objective
  • Support CSOs’ SAcc initiatives
  • Enhance core funding for CSOs’ institutional strengthening
  • Provide mentoring and thematic capacity-building to CSOs
  • Knowledge and capacitybuilding grants
• Support for Knowledge Activities
• Objective
  • Build a Social Accountability Knowledge Platform for knowledgegeneration, learning and exchange
  • Strategic capacity building and knowledge grants outside the usual call for proposal

Funding Information

• The grant amount is fixed at $4 million and will be disbursed in 24 months. Grants must close by December 30, 2025, as the GPSA Multi-Donor Trust Fund closes June 30, 2026.

Eligibility Criteria

• All legally registered CSOs can apply for this CfP.
• CSOs include legal entities that are part of a broad-based sector of organizations which operate in the public sphere and interact with the state, market, communities and individuals. The sector encompasses a wide range and variety of non-governmental, not for profit entities -including media – associating to advance the interests and values of their members or others based on cultural, economic, social, or other aims.
• They include charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, professional organizations, labor unions, workers’ organizations, associations of elected local representatives, foundations and policy development and research institutes, and more. If your organization is a non-profit international inter-governmental organization, it is not eligible to apply for a grant.
• The GPSA will not support:
  • Entities or groups with partisan associations
  • Grant applications which include activities which, because of the high inherent risk of political interference, are likely to raise issues related to the World Bank’s mandate as enshrined in its Articles of Agreement. These activities include political dimensions in governance, for instance, support of efforts to help organize political parties, or to the organization, running and monitoring of elections; political campaigning; and
  • Grant applications which include sectarian and religious proselytizing activities.

Criteria used by the GPSA for Assessing Proposals

• Hold legal status as a civil society organization.
• Have at least 3 to 5 years of proven experience in social accountability and/or climate action.
• Demonstrate experience with managing on-granting schemes and present a clear and reasonable implementation plan for realistic allocation of budget resources amongst applicant CSO and any sub-grantee CSOs.
• Provide information about its past and current experience in applying social accountability in environmental and climate work.
• Prepare a logical, achievable implementation strategy, including a sound budget.

For more information, visit Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA).