Problem Being Addressed
Local governments in developing countries need additional resources and technical assistance in order to implement social, environmental and economical development projects and programs to better serve their populations. Since the budget allocations are not enough, they need to seek for grants, technical assistance, volunteers and technical experts from international organizations, foundations, corporations and nongovernmental organizations. In Ecuador (South
America) before 2005, it was almost impossible for municipalities and for other grant seekers to search for donors, review their guidelines, prepare a proposal and actually receive funding or technical assistance. For the most part, the available information is in English, is dispersed or is located in a website that is impossible to open and navigate (due to low bandwidth), or because it is designed in a complicated way.
Tools Created to Address the Problem
An increasing demand from municipalities for information regarding international cooperation and personal frustration looking for grants and technical assistance, led me to explore the idea of conceptualizing a solution that would address the need for centralized and easy to access information about international cooperation, that would be easy to update, that will work in a low bandwidth country and that uses new media.
The Association of Ecuadorean Municipalities (AME) is a public agency based in Quito. It also has seven regional offices, 60 permanent staff members and the number of consultants and volunteers vary according to the municipalities’ needs. AME represents municipalities' interests and serves as a bridge to the central government and international donors. The 220 municipalities are members by mandate and contribute with 0.04 percent of their annual budget to finance AME’s operations.
SIOC's Development
Sistema de Información de Oferta de Cooperación (SIOC) is a free of charge, centralized online international donor database that works through the Association of Ecuadorean Municipalities (AME) website www.ame.gov.ec and was created to facilitate Ecuador’s local governments' donor search and presentation of grant proposals, technical assistance, expert matching, and other types of international cooperation. SIOC was funded entirely with AME’s resources. The donors’ information provided is the most relevant for applying for their funds or programs, is completely in Spanish and is presented in a user-friendly design. The information is relevant to Ecuador, in other words, these donors operate or provide funding for the country. The information has been verified with the donors through surveys and is updated and reviewed entirely every four months. At this time SIOC has 720 donors and new ones are incorporated every month.
- How Organizations Can Access:
In order to have access to SIOC, the interested institution needs to request a username and password. AME imposed this policy in order to assess SIOC’s usage and to improve its service provision. When it was first launched, SIOC was conceptualized as a service only for municipalities, but since no other institution in Ecuador had a similar tool, AME decided to provide usernames and passwords to other institutions free of charge. In a developing country that needs collaboration among organizations working in development, there is an increasing need to share information that will enable partnerships and joint initiatives.
The application allows you to search or sort, and to specify or broaden your search according to your organization's needs or preferences. Users can choose one or more options in order to conduct their search. After the user selects his or her needs or priorities, the application will provide a reminder of the chosen selections and a list of donors that meet the criteria. Afterward, the user can access the donor’s specific information that will display on a different screen. Besides the above mentioned information, the donor's specific forms provide contact information such as email, website, telephone and the person to contact. It even provides the donor’s forms for grant applications and other relevant information that the grant seeker should know before applying.
Click here to access SIOC's demo (in Spanish)
Replication of SIOC in other countries
Similar organizations such as the Federation of Municipal Associations from Bolivia-FAM and the Association of Mexican Municipalities-AMMAC expressed their interest in duplicating SIOC in their countries. Even the Latin American Federation of Cities, Municipalities and Local Government Associations-FLACMA wanted to duplicate SIOC and develop one for the entire region.
AME is willing to provide the know-how to its partners and will share all the available information and lessons learned with those interested. AME’s officials have agreed to offer technical assistance in situ and to accompany the organization along the entire process. It is feasible to develop this kind of tool and is important for institutions such as those whose constituents are local governments (who are the major users) to oversee, coordinate and be in charge of the initiative.
For more information:
www.ame.gov.ec
cooperacion(at)ame.gov.ec
Image sources:
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"New Media Tools for Accesing International Cooperation" pages researched and produced by Andrea Vivero (MPA Candidate).
Note: Andrea Vivero conceptualized SIOC while working for the Association of Ecuadorean Municipalities
