Financial Support for Civil Society Organisations in Ghana: A Study of Natural Resources and Environmental Governance

Abstract

Civil Society Support Funds (CSSFs) are becoming a common mechanism for providing financial support and capacity building to Civil Society groups in most parts of the world. Management of these funds have become a challenge to the donors with options either to channel it through intermediaries or present it themselves. Multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral approaches were adopted and supported largely with other participatory methodologies that combine social, institutional, political and economic parameters in the information collection, collation, analysis and synthesis, and for reporting. It was found out that an independent funding scheme earmarked for the Environmental Natural Resources (ENR) sector is a preferred funding mechanism for the sector. The name ‘Civil Society – Natural Resource and Environmental Fund’ was recommended. This scheme is perceived to be independent of any existing scheme or institution and presents a mechanism for specific targeting of ENR issues and addresses variations in CS capacities. It was concluded that the use of intermediaries for the management of donor pool funding is an effective way of finding balance between the two horns of a dilemma – the DPs or Government donor funds meant for the development of the CS capacity for accountability.