Civil Society Platform For Social Protection

Organization's name: Civil Society Platform For Social Protection
Organization's acronym: CSPSL
Former Name(s): ZAP
Headquarters address  
Address: 6L Byrne Lane, Off Aberdeen Road, Murray Town, Freetown
PMB 882 Freetown
ZAP
Sierra Leone
Phone: 232 22 30508467, 232-77285089. 232 79454673
Fax: 232222224439
Email: cspspsierraleone@yahoo.co.uk
Web site: www.cspsl.org
Organization type: Open-ended Working Group on Ageing
Languages:
  • English

Activities

Areas of expertise & Fields of activity:

Gender Issues and Advancement of Women:
  • Advocacy and outreach
  • Education and training of women
  • Indigenous women

Social Development:
  • Aging
  • Conflict
  • Disabled persons
  • Employment
  • Indigenous issues
  • Information and Communications Technologies
  • Poverty
  • Social policy
  • Technical cooperation
  • Youth

Sustainable Development:
  • Agriculture
  • Capacity-building
  • Disaster management and vulnerability
  • Education
Geographic scope: Regional
  • Africa
Country of activity:
  • Gambia
  • Zimbabwe
  • Sierra Leone
  • Uganda
  • Guinea
Millennium Development Goals:
  • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
  • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  • Achieve universal primary education
  • Promote gender equality and empower women
  • Reduce child mortality
  • Improve maternal health
  • Ensure environmental sustainability
  • Develop global partnership for development
Mission statement:
Year established (YYYY): 2008
Year of registration (YYYY): 2008
Organizational structure: The management structure of the Platform. The present structure of the Platform is composed of the following: a) The Board members; (The National Coordinator plus the Regional Coordinators), b) The Secretariat: (The National Coordinator, the project officer, the finance officer and the public relation officer). c) The Executive Committees at Regional Levels. The Platform is now planning to recruit six International NGOs, and two UN Agencies to serve on the board as advisers. (Concern Worldwide, Plan International, ActionAid, Sightsavers International, Save the Children (UK),UNICEF and UNFPA). Some of these agencies are already supporting civil society engagement in SP and at least one is alongside CEM on the Government’s Committee for the development of a National social protection policy.
Number and type of members: Collaboration. The Platform will be seeking alliances and support from International NGOs, UN Agencies and local authorities during project implementation. The Platform will be working with professionals who have a wide range of skills and perspectives on social protection related issues in Sierra Leone. The Platform is a member of Africa Civil Society Platform (ACSP) and the Regional Experts on Social Protection for West and Central Africa. This Network has a wide range of experts and donor agencies. Volunteers (experts) would be drawn from this network that would render their professional services during project implementation and will complement the Platform’s capacity to deliver aspects of the project. Targeting Targeting is a key challenge for any social protection programme. In a state as poor and fragile as Sierra Leone it is of the utmost importance to aim for prioritization of resources towards the poorest and the promotion of transparency and clear policies that explain those priorities. A National Social Protection Policy should establish the political will to meet the needs of the poorest groups. Civil Society then has a clear role to play in cooperating with Government in helping to identify membership of targeted groups and in making sure that these groups are reached inclusively and fairly. The immediate and directly targeted groups for the programme are the members of the 96 Civil Society organizations across the country to be linked through networking, training and other activities as members of the Civil Society Platform on Social Protection. The Platform membership is diverse – including organizations of and/or representing specific groups of the marginalized – people with disabilities, minorities, women, youth etc., grass roots activist CSOs/CBOs working on rights and advocacy, church-based groups, trades unions and national and local civil society networks. Through these primary targeted organisations, it is planned to support the Government’s social protection agendas for the poorest sections of society. By grouping the Platform membership into four “Chapters” with approximately equal numbers of members it is intended that all four Provinces/areas of the country will participate in sharing experiences and delivering benefits to the poor across the country, reducing the piece-meal approach to social protection achieved through deployment of only pilot and limited scale protection projects by Government and civil society. By aligning targeting of action by the Platform in support of the Government’s Social Protection Policy it will be possible to reinforce focus on agreed priority groups. The Platform will aim to ensure that targeting is not influenced away from the poorest through cooption and political manipulation at any level. The Africa Framework for Action on Social Protection provides all Africa’s Governments and societies with clear guidance on overall prioritization, which emphasizes the importance of including women in need, the young, the unemployed and the elderly in societies where men, who hold most of the power, frequently marginalized them. The Platform, through the proposed programme, will aim to further refine this general targeting by advocating for and monitoring the inclusion of specific groups, which to some degree are determined by local context – for example single parent (usually female) led families, child miners in mining areas, amputees and others affected by the civil war
Funding structure:
  • Membership fees or dues
  • Fees for education and training services
  • Fees for providing consulting or research services
  • Product sales and business services
  • Donations and grants from domestic sources
  • Foreign and international grants

Additional Information

No additional information available.