Background

The Civil Society Partnership Programme (CSPP) is a six-year £1m pa programme that began in April 2005. The objective of the programme is to 'promote improved contribution by CSOs to pro-poor national and international development policies'.

This goal will be achieved through collaborative work to ensure that:

• CSOs understand better how evidence can contribute to pro-poor policy processes;
  
• Regional capacity to support Southern CSOs is established;
  
• Useful information on current development policy issues, and how this knowledge can contribute to pro-poor policy, is easily accessible to CSOs;
  
• CSOs participate actively in Southern and Northern policy networks to promote pro-poor policies.

The CSPP is currently carrying out scoping work to systematically compare and learn from how other organisations with similar objectives best address the issue to identify the kind of project structure (or infrastructure) that would best help us achieve our objectives.

Overall Objectives of the Study

The study will:

• review other existing programmes that have similar objectives (i.e. to 'promote improved contribution by CSOs to pro-poor national and international development policies');
  
• assess the functions and structures they use and identify which seem to work best (in different contexts) and why;
  
• identify the programme requirements for successful interventions;
  
• outline the different 'infrastructure' options for the CSPP and make suggestions regarding which 'infrastructure' would help to improve the CSPP and maximize the chances of achieving its objective.

Study Team

The study is being carried out by PRIA International, New Delhi. PRIA's Mission is 'To strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations to play their rightful role in creating and sustaining a just, democratic and human society'.

The coordinators of the study are Rajesh Tandon (President, PRIA) and Colin Ball (Consultant, PRIA).

For more information, please contact: PRIA International, Society for Participatory Research in Asia, 42 Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110062, India, Email: msc@pria.org or colinsusanball@bigpond.com

ODI Contact

For further details please contact Julius Court, Research Fellow, Overseas Development Institute. Email: j.court@odi.org.uk

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