Sawt Activity Annual Program Statement (APS)

اضغط هنا للحصول على بيان البرنامج السنوي باللغة العربية

The Strengthening Civil Society and Media Systems (Sawt) Activity is a five-year (2022-2027) cooperative agreement funded by and implemented by Internews in partnership with Mercy Corps and the International Center for Non-Profit Law (ICNL).

Sawt will create a Virtuous Cycle of Civic Engagement and will improve community knowledge of their rights and relevant issues through greater access to fact-based and trusted content from online media, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and other civic spaces. Sawt will increase opportunities for citizens to participate in regular constructive civic dialogue through building CSO and citizen advocacy capacity and through support to intersectional CSO coalitions, contributing to increased trust and government accountability. Sawt will build the resilience of partners to operate in a challenging political and legal environment. Moreover, the Activity will ensure under-represented voices are included, heard, represented fairly, and can safely access and use knowledge resources.

The Sawt Activity seeks to support advocacy and public policy initiatives by providing grants that support issue-based advocacy work led by organizations. These organizations may include for-profit companies, not-for-profit companies, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), and Non-Government organizations (NGOs) that are legally registered in Jordan. Selected organizations for the advocacy grants are encouraged to collaborate with other organizations, media, and other stakeholders to ensure participation and civic engagement.   

This Annual Program Statement (APS) includes two sub-funds as follows:  

Sub-fund 1: Advocacy Grants to support organizations to conduct advocacy initiatives at the national or community levels. 
Sub-fund 2: Public Policy Grants to support organizations’ roles in public policy formation and reform.

Both sub-funds aim to contribute to sustainable civic engagement, each with its unique set of objectives. The following figure provides a brief definition of each.  