Month: September 2019

RACI was invited to take part in Diagnóstico y Debate (D&D) TV, a television space promoted by CADIME- a member of RACI- and the DPT Foundation. Sol Gorlero- Members Area and Projects Coordinator- and Luana Esquenazi- Research Coordinator- of our network participated in the show.

The objective of D&D TV is to contribute to the diffusion of Science, Education, Technology, and Health in the general community. It is broadcasted on Fridays and replayed on Mondays by Canal Metro. Additionally, they upload all interviews to their YouTube channel and, in turn, share them on their social networks and by email.

In their interview on D&D TV, Luana Esquenazi and Sol Gorlero talked about the strengthening of civil society carried out by RACI, civil society’s current situation and the challenges faced by Argentine organizations nowadays.

According to Esquenazi, Research Coordinator, RACI has a distinct position in civil society, interesting and challenging at the same time. It is an organization with a large federal presence, but also interacts with international organizations and institutions. “It places us as a unique actor,” Esquenazi explains, also considering the link it has with the private sector and with the State. “This is a link that must be made more visible”, agrees Gorlero, Member Area Coordinator, who also discusses the “heterogeneity of the network,” referring to the various manners in which RACI’s members work. In this way, situations are fostered in which the same organizations transform one another; a space is formed where RACI’s members contribute to and receive assistance from each other while giving what they can to the community.

Regarding the Research Area, RACI is currently working on three nationwide research projects to analyze the state of civil society in order to promote public policies that are related to and in accordance with what is happening to the sector. These projects will provide hard data on the state of civil society to organize assistance from companies and the State and ensure that aid reaches vulnerable communities. “It’s not about organizations or companies,” says Esquenazi, “the important actors that we have to take care of are the communities in which organizations work.”

For more information, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jMEL-466Cc to watch the interview on D&D TV’s YouTube channel.

A report released by CIVICUS and Innpactia explores the dynamics and characteristics of the landscape of access to resources for Civil Society Organizations (CSO) in Latin America, in order to help close the knowledge gaps and provide reliable information, capable of producing comparative studies on the availability and accessibility of resources for civil society actors in Latin America.

The research is based on an analysis of 6,657 open calls offering different development resources, published between 2014 and 2017 on Innpactia’s platform, which amount to about USD 5,900 million, stemming from 2,000 donors. The findings from the study indicate that CSO in Latin America, especially those that are locally-based and/or promote social change, are facing significant barriers to obtain funds and other valuable resources from key donors to development aid, those who support their impact and sustainability.

These CSO not only have restricted access to exclusive resources provided by these donors, but they also are subject to an alarming “projectization” of the funds, and they struggle to receive sufficient support to work in areas tied to their intrinsic purposes, like the protection of human rights or challenging the status quo.

The low donor investment in Latin America’s strong, diverse, independent and transformative civil society is especially concerning because CSO are already experiencing reductions in the radical flows and transformations of traditional financing methods. In some countries, Latin American CSO are also facing increasing state restrictions to obtain financial, material, and human resources as part of a regressive attack on their field of work.

For more information, you can access the full article here.

CIVICUS offers a free toolkit for communications professionals that work in Civil Society Organizations (CSO). The tookit was created to improve the abilities of communication relating to future projects, to promote advocacy, and to gather communities for civic action.

The tools provided by this guide will help develop communication strategies based on research, evidence, and critical knowledge of the context. Besides, these will be useful to identify crucial points for action based on audience research and content analysis; and construct effective methods of communication that will work with each other, including in social media. The guide will also help install communication programs and evaluate these to the organizational effectiveness. It will also support the change the organization aspires.

If you are searching for ideas and examples of how to create useful and relevant communication material for social networks and how to maintain a dynamic relationship with the media, you can download the complete guide clicking on this link.

As one of RACI’s monthly visits to member organizations, this month we had the opportunity to visit Cultura de Trabajo, a foundation that specializes in contributing to even the access to work for people who are in unfavorable socioeconomic and housing conditions and who attend night stands, transit homes, community canteens, and other assistance networks, that want and need to work. In this opportunity, we asked one of our volunteers, Christina Fußeder, to tell us her experience.

During the first part of our visit, we were able to participate in the organization’s monthly Admission Interviews. After a brief explanation of what the interviews would consist of, the organization invited us to listen to individuals’ stories of their work experiences, trades, and references of their last jobs. Hearing the stories of some of these people impacted us greatly because they provided very personal insights into their lives. In addition, it caught my attention that the classroom where they conducted the interviews was full of unemployed individuals, in unfavorable socioeconomic and residential conditions.

We then had a meeting with the founders of the organization, who hosted us with a breakfast and explained to us the details of the foundation. They told us their story, how they managed to establish the organization successfully, and explained how and what they are currently working on. Through labor intermediation, pre and post labor insertion support, advice for job interviews and work tools, they work to fulfill their mission and find jobs for people who want and need to work.

I found the whole visit very interesting and exciting, both the practical part and the institutional presentation of the organization. I want to thank RACI for allowing me to participate in the visit to the partner organization as part of the team of volunteers and Cultura de Trabajo for having welcomed us so warmly.

If you would like to know more about Cultura de Trabajo, you can visit their webpage https://www.culturadetrabajo.org.ar/.

In 2017, RACI launched the SDG Platform with the objective of providing information about the work carried out in Argentina by Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and in this way assist and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs were created within the framework of the United Nations and adopted as part of the New Development Agenda 2015-2030.

Approaching the fulfilment of the first five-year period of the New Agenda, the necessity to work on the SDG issues in an articulated and multidisciplinary manner becomes imperative so that the results of the efforts made are manifested with the greatest possible impact.

Our SDG platform contains 165 registered Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and 295 projects loaded so far. Each organization can register on the platform and upload their projects and thus obtain greater visibility and generate greater impact. In addition, the platform allows finding a project or CSO by its objective, target population or by the SDGs to which it contributes.

On our SDG Platform report, the increase in projects that support the SDGs from 2017 to 2019 on the platform can be visualized. In turn, the ranking of projects by province in 2017 and 2019 is compared. You can also see general trends about the provinces that have less representation by CSO, and which are the SDGs worked to a lesser extent in the country.

Visit https://www.plataforma-ods.org/ for more information about our platform and to learn how to add your CSO and make your projects visible in pursuit of the 2030 Agenda. You can also visit and follow our Instagram series of weekly highlights about SDGs and our platform.

Throughout history, women have collaborated strongly to solve social problems. Over the years and with their increased participation in the private sector, their influence as philanthropic donors has also grown, currently being a key actor in the contribution to projects that improve living conditions of girls and women around the world.

According to a report made in 2019 by the Institute of Philanthropy of Women IUPUI, of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, donors to funds and foundations of girls and women – mostly women too – donate more than average donors to other causes. In general, one could consider the actions of donors to women’s funds and foundations from a perspective of greater altruism than the one that can be seen in general donors. According to the aforementioned report, this group tends to donate in a selfless way and compared to general donors they are more motivated to give, to participate in the meetings or to volunteer in an organization, to give back to the community and to believe that their donation can make a difference. In line with these facts, they also use different tools and different strategies when it comes to giving, such as giving circles or wills with charitable provisions. At the same time, it is important to remark that this group is more focused on evaluating their donations, to follow-up and actively participate in the effectiveness of their donations, either by participating in an organization’s board or by contacting other donors.

Some of these characteristics stand out from general donors and can be explained by various reasons. It can be highlighted that the demographic details of this group is different from the one of the general donor: donors to women’s funds and foundations are more likely to be composed of women and LGBTIQ+ individuals, as well as they tend to be less inclined to be composed of retired and/or religious creed individuals. In turn, the self-perception they have about themselves is important. Donors to women’s funds and foundations are more likely to consider themselves as philanthropic experts, philanthropic leaders and activist donors. Along these lines, participating in philanthropic leadership activities often advocate the positive attributes of the term “philanthropy.” This last point can be represented by considering that according to the IUPIU study, only 11% of donors to funds and foundations of women surveyed said they were motivated by tax benefits compared to 23% of general donors.

To access the full report, click here. To access the infographic produced by the IUPUI on the report click here.

The regional center of Latin America and the Caribbean, Innovation for Change, published a study whose objective is to clarify the general view on the strategies of civil society organizations (CSOs) to influence public policies in Latin America and specifically in the Southern Cone. The publication was made under the supervision of the Faro Group and its authors are Leandro Echt and María Mérola.

The study presents a Latin American context in which CSOs have an increasingly leading role, especially in the Southern Cone region – Argentina, Chile and Uruguay – on which the article focuses. Through an extensive literature review and the conduct of a series of interviews and surveys, the authors review the main challenges, opportunities and recommendations in the process of generating incidence from CSOs.

In a scenario in which political culture usually considers the State as protagonist and organizer of public life, the national context has a direct impact on the relationship between it and civil society. Along these lines, several common challenges are generated within the subregion, such as dependence on public financing, the difficulty in generating virtuous dialogues with representatives of the State in institutionalized spaces, as well as government transitions that lead to the loss of some key leadership in the sector.

Faced with such problems, CSOs in the Southern Cone respond to this type of situations through the increasing professionalization of their activities and the use of new strategies with the objective of increasing their impact on public policies. Some of these new tools are the intensive and increasingly creative use of new technologies and, concomitantly, the emphasis placed on communication strategies. However, these tools do not replace traditional methods, such as lobbying practices or public demonstrations, but complement them.

A new generation of CSOs is crossed by new technologies as well as cross-cutting agendas, linked to the inclusion of rights, multiactoral work networks – which include social movements and private actors – that strengthen the capacity to influence. In relation to the last point, tendency in the Southern Cone is to begin to rethink the relationship with private actors, seeking to go beyond the financing role scheme and approach the private sector, incorporating it as a relevant actor in its work agenda, that is, as a sector that works in conjunction and complementarity with civil society.

Finally, the authors reflect on the future of organizations in relation to their advocacy capabilities, which will depend on the continuous efforts of organizations, as well as the exchange of knowledge. In this way, the study proposes categories for incidence strategies with the objective of crystallizing and documenting experiences. Finally, the authors highlight the importance of continuing to explore new incidence strategies that allow updating categories and that consider new contexts and technologies.

For further information, you can access the full publication by clicking here.

The ComuniDas virtual platform – developed by the Innovation for Change initiative – won the popular vote award in the 2019 SID-Washington Innovation Competition. This competition seeks innovative products and services that can provide better access to information, increase commitment and improve decision making. RACI – as a member of Innovation for Change – collaborated in the creation of ComuniDas, a collaborative economy platform in which you can find a type of service needed by an organization and get support from other organizations, offering them another service or product in return. The objective is to create an inclusive and solidary space for social organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to enhance the skills and abilities of each of the organizations that comprise it. In short, it seeks to facilitate strategic alliances that promote capacity building, leadership and resource optimization. This platform is open to all social organizations willing to share information with their peers in the region and, in this manner, promotes proximity actions among civil society in our region. RACI, as part of Innovation for Change in Latin America and the Caribbean, was awarded for its passion, commitment, creativity and impact in the field of international development.

To learn more about the platform, you can visit it by clicking here.