Ceps project fund launched |06 April 2016

The Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles (Ceps) has launched a corner stone of resource mobilisation.

The ceremony took place on Saturday evening during a short ceremony held at the International Conference Centre (ICCS).

The non-governmental organisation (NGO) has a membership of sixty two civil society organisations (CSOs) and its main aim is to enhance citizens’ engagement in development.

Ceps’ mission is to be united and engaged as key partners in nation-building through active dialogue, participation and action.

In fulfilling this strategic mission, Ceps is setting up a special fund called the Project fund in its operation so as to mobilise resources.

The presentation on the special fund was led by Ceps’ chief executive (CEO) Marcel Rosalie.

He said the aim of the fund is to promote the spirit of volunteerism and to have a designated account for business wishing to contribute to the sector.

“The Ceps project fund aims to mobilise resources so that our member organisations who are in need of resources can implement their projects. So it will be a way of bringing some benefits to them so that is why it is important for them as an organisation to join Ceps because they will be getting some formal assistance from us,” said Mr Rosalie.

The potential sources are corporate social responsibility (CSR) tax contributions, voluntary contributions, fund raising initiatives, grants from government or other donors and other legal sources of funding.

The objectives of the fund are to finance their strategic programmes and initiatives which will benefit the civil society sector, to finance services, programmes and projects of CSOs and to finance the annual volunteer award ceremony.

A mechanism will be set up for administration of the fund, so that Ceps members can benefit through a transparent system.

The fund will be managed by a committee comprising five members, elected by the general assembly.

The Project Fund is a structural extension of Ceps and therefore all finances must be handled in a transparent manner.

The Trust Fund will elect and mandate three signatories to its accounts and the Project Fund account shall be audited by an auditor appointed by Ceps.

Two businesses also signed a pledge towards the fund and they were Cable and Wireless Seychelles (CWS) and the Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB).

The business will contribute to the fund financially or of any kind as well as engage their employees in the project.

The managing director of MCB, Bernard Jackson, said MCB wanted to have a meaningful and a focused contribution.

“We met Ceps and we saw that they have this global approach and they are regrouping many NGOs and we could have this common initiative which is of a very structured nature to know how we can have a very focused strategy in terms of CSR. We are very happy today to have been able to make this pledge,” said Mr Jackson.

The CSR manager of CWS Muriel Morgan said that a lot of organisations that are linked with Ceps are also working with CWS.

“It is a way of formalising what we give to the organisations and it doesn’t mean that having signed on with Ceps we will not be helping out the other organisations voluntarily or on an individual basis. We are proud today to be a partner of Ceps,” she said.

Present during the ceremony were members of the business community and of Ceps, representatives of various ministries and associations, and other stakeholders.

The chairman of Ceps, Jules Hoareau, also addressed the guests present.