The World Bank announced the launch of its Small Grants Program for Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, which has U.S. $ 90,000 dollars to finance projects for civil society organizations to submit innovative ideas to promote the participation and commitment of society to promote transparency and social responsibility.

The project should be directed to any of the following objectives:

• Empowering citizens Encouraging them to address problems of corruption and lack of transparency in their community, which adversely affect their economic and social
• Create innovative participatory mechanisms civil society in monitoring social experiences.
• Take collected for someone who can not fend for himself (A disabled or elderly), and determine who would take care of it if we are not
• Provide tools to civil society organizations to act as guardian of public policy.
• Promoting access to public information and give voice to the poorest and most vulnerable sectors in the creation of public policies.
• Promote permanent culture of accountability.

Contest winners receive a donation of $ S 5000 to implement his project, which should be carried out within a year.

The announcement of winners will take place on March 27, 2006 at the World Bank website

The Small Grants Program of the World Bank is an initiative created in 1983 to strengthen the voice and influence of poor and vulnerable.

The Small Grants Program is one of the main tools of the World Bank to support activities with direct funding of civil society.

Since its inception over 20 years, dozens of organizations have carried out social inclusion projects, youth support, and environmental protection, among other issues.

Through a competitive process, the program provides grants to implement projects whose main objective is to strengthen civic engagement.