DEADLINE EXTENDED CALL FOR PROPOSAL CSRF – INDONESIA

The Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN, the Netherlands), the Faculty of Geography, and the Centre for Asia - Pacific Studies (UGM, Indonesia) are pleased to announce the Civil Society Research Facility (CSRF – Indonesia) call for proposals on local civil society dynamics in Indonesia. The CSRF-Indonesia is part of the partnership between CIDIN and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is targeted at supporting short-term studies by junior researchers in Indonesia. These diagnostic studies aim to expand knowledge on local civil society dynamics, offer junior researchers a platform to jump start their academic career, and provide information that is relevant for policy and practice of development cooperation and civil society in Indonesia.

PART 1. FOCUS FIELD Research proposals have to fit one of the following themes within CSRF – Indonesia: 1) Indigenous CSO Networks Southern civil society organizations (CSOs) are currently seeking successive collaboration opportunities to expand the scope of their activities. As a consequence, local civil society is progressively engaged in bridge building activities, resulting in partnership agreements, joint lobby attempts, and umbrella organisations. The rationale for establishing these network structures revolves around issues of increased scope of advocacy attempts and coordinated programmes; intensified cooperation is expected to reduce the number of duplicated initiatives and yield better coordination and effectiveness in terms of advocacy. However, some difficulties arise in establishing these cooperation efforts. Often they are caused by competition among CSOs for the same pool of resources, lack of leadership, insufficient coordination and lack of transparency. Some argue that these newly formed networks are counter-productive as small CSOs are more closely involved in communities and remain sensitive to the needs of their constituencies, whereas others emphasise that a relatively fragile and diffuse sector has less impact than large-scale hybrid organisations. The implications commencing from these developments are foremost dependent on the sector organisations are engaged in; service delivery demands a flexible tailor-made approach whereas advocacy is believed to be benefitting from professional bureaucracies. All these developments are not yet fully grasped in the existing body of literature and the following questions are of relevance: Why does local civil society engage in joint partnerships? How do local CSOs engage in hybrid networks? How comprehensive are these networks and who are the stakeholders included? Which factors or characteristics determine the structure of a network and how can they be typified (homogeneous or heterogeneous)? What are the benefits and drawbacks of participation in local CSO networks?

2) Institutional Settings With the increasing presence and proliferation of civil society organizations in advocacy and service delivery activities, serious debates are held on their relationship with governments and the for-profit sector. Their explosive growth in numbers is often explained by highlighting how bilateral donors and Northern NGOs have provided growing (financial) support to Southern CSOs, enlarging the scope and capacity of the latter. Consequently, Southern government responses are evoked as these local CSOs act as service delivery substitutes or pressure government institutes through advocacy activities; their legislative response ranges from partnership and incorporation via indifference to antipathy and mistrust, based upon their perceived role of CSOs in national development. The imposed legislative framework is presumed to influence the way Southern CSOs are organized, exert their activities, advocate and gain legitimacy. Next to government-CSO relationships the link between local CSOs and the for-profit sector offers some additional insights in their external relations with stakeholders. By means of partnerships both entities are expected to improve their skills, knowledge, and organisational infrastructure, with the common aim to produce public goods. What is not yet widely known is how both organisational structures connect, generate a collective goal, and deepen their collaboration. The following research topics are relevant here: What are the characteristics of national civil society legislation and accompanying context? Which institutional factors determine CSO participation in national planning processes? What is the relationship between particular types of NGOs and Southern governments? How does the government value the role of CSOs in the development process? How do donors influence the legislative framework and how does this affect local CSOs? What are the incentives for establishing partnerships between local CSOs and the for-profit sector? What kind of partnerships exists between local CSOs and the for-profit sector? What are the steps in the collaboration process between local CSOs and the for-profit sector? 3) International Networks The relationship between CSOs and international organisations is often considered a result of the international aid chain, but can be stretched out to a wider definition. Because civil society operates between state and market, it can link up to diverse entities to seek increased influence, extend its knowledge, and develop new skills. The organisational environment and latitude has expanded over the years and provided opportunities for civil society to organise beyond borders, yield better access to resources, and increase its influence. Another main reason why CSOs have linked up with international organisations refers to specific cross border needs and global public goods like human rights, environmental issues, and international financial arrangements. There is also a growing tendency to emphasise individual responsibilities over state involvement, stimulating transnational cooperation between CSOs and other organisations like NGOs, multilateral institutes, states, and multinational corporations. This establishment of partnerships and international networks has automatically led to an international discourse between actors on their roles and responsibilities. All these different stakeholders hold diverse perspectives on the international network, but also on the role CSOs (are ought to) perform within various levels of development or international debates. It is therefore interesting to highlight the discourse between international actors and to map how local CSOs assess their own role within development. Other questions could relate to different perspectives between Northern – and Southern NGOs and bilateral donor – local CSO relations. 4) Impact and Accountability Impact and accountability are core concepts within the contemporary discourse on NGO effectiveness. Evaluation is generally considered a good element in nongovernmental activities, but all together they have illustrated little about real impact. Evidence is still lacking on the actual impact of civil society programs; evaluations lack sound methodological structures and often result in descriptive assessments.

In addition, measuring the impact is almost impossible without considering contextual influences and spill over effects. Nevertheless, citizens and donors are nowadays increasingly demanding transparency in development activities and impact assessments; a broader societal awareness has espoused a refocus on monitoring and evaluation for accountability (and learning) purposes, setting a new accountability paradigm. As the accountability agenda trickles down through the aid chain, the question rises if local civil society organisations have monitoring systems in place to account for actions that should reflect the interest of their own constituency. CSOs often advocate for good governance, dialogue, and transparency in all (government) levels, but are they able to implement these pillars into their own organisational procedures? If so, what kind of difficulties do they encounter? Little is also known about local communities and their demand (or the lack of it) for more stringent CSO accountability- and project evaluation activities. How is this interaction structured and valued by both stakeholders? The discourse in this field could also bare the questions: How do local CSOs account their activities to their constituencies? What is the influence of stringent reporting demands for the actual project implementation of CSOs? 5) Open category To prevent the call from becoming a tender, an open category is added to offer the possibility to submit research proposals highlighting other areas of focus within the domain of civil society. However, preference is given to applications in the themes mention above. PART 2. REQUIREMENTS and ELIGIBILITY 1. Researchers who have Indonesian nationality or residents of Indonesia are eligible to apply

for the CSRF - Indonesia. Individual research proposals drawn by junior researchers or recent graduates are strongly encouraged. It should be noted that joint proposals are not accepted. All possible candidates should have met this eligibility as listed below - Master students with on-going research that is approved by the Thesis Supervisor - Master graduates with degree in social or cultural sciences - PhD candidates and maximum 5 years PhD graduates

2. The proposal should not be more than five 5 pages covering a short problem statement, research question, extensive indication of methodology, preliminary outline of the paper, budget and timeline. The format of the proposal could be found in Part 3. Proposals are to be submitted without additional appendices, except those that are requested in the application form.

3. The proposals should relate to a four (4) month process on one of the themes relevant for the CSRF – Indonesia and applicants need to indicate under which focus field their diagnostic study falls and briefly explain this. The research cost should not be more than € 5,000 (workshop and travel expenses are included).

4. The applicant should fill the application form which can be found in Part 3 and provide curriculum vitae of two (2) pages maximum indicating professional affiliations and relevant expertise

5. The applicants with on going research (master or Ph.D candidate) should attach a recommendation letter from the lecturers of faculty management. The applicants should attach a recommendation letter from affiliated institution.

6. Proposals, curriculum vitae, and application form should be submitted to either Faculty of Geography (csrfindonesia@geo.ugm.ac.id) or Centre of Asia-Pacific Studies (caps@ugm.ac.id) by May 15th 2011. Double-submission is not required. Additional appendices are excluded except those that are requested in the application form. For the applicants who have submitted the proposal, they are pleased to have some revision and resend the revised version to either Faculty of Geography or Centre of Asia-Pacific Studies.

7. Administrative selection of the submitted proposals will be conducted by the review committee (Faculty of Geography, Centre of Asia-Pacific Studies, and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and CIDIN). The administrative acceptance or rejection will be announced on 3rd week of May 2011.

8. Eligible submitted proposals will be assessed by the review committee and the best eight research proposals will be selected. The accepted proposals will be then managed equally by Faculty of Geography and Centre of Asia-Pacific Studies UGM. The proposal acceptance or rejection will be announced on end of May 2011 through official letter distributed by the committee.

PART 3. ACTIVITY CSRF Activities Due date Indonesia*

Call for proposals April 1st, 2011

Submission research proposals May 15th, 2011

Distributing research proposals among review committee May 15th, 2011

Assessment of the research proposals May 30th, 2011

Informing candidates on acceptance or rejection May 30th – June 3rd, 2011

Kick-off workshop (one-day) June 20th - 24th, 2011

Submission of the final research proposal July 4th – 8th, 2011

Monitoring and review report 1 Beginning of August, 2011

Monitoring and review report 2 End of September, 2011

Submission of the draft papers October 17th – 21st, 2011

Submission of the final papers November 21st – 25th, 2011

Final workshop (one-day) December 12th – 16th, 2011

Submission of articles to international peer-reviewed journals March, 2012

Conference (the Netherlands) Beginning of 2012 * dates are preliminary and can be adjusted during the research processes.

PART 4. RESEARCH PROPOSAL FORM CSRF - INDONESIA Title of the Proposal

[INSERT TITLE]

[INSERT RESEARCH THEME SELECTED]

Details of Applicant 1

Sur name:

First name (s):

Sex: Nationality:

Date of Birth: Telephone:

Institution: Fax:

Designation:

Address:

E-mail :

Curriculum Vitae

Submission of the Research Proposal

Make sure you follow the proposed research proposal framework

1 Please attach copy of identification

Please attach your CV indicating professional affiliations and relevant expertise (2 pages max).

Passport photo (3x4)

Completed research proposals should be submitted as e-mail attachments to the Faculty of Geography (UGM) and the Center for Asia – Pacific Studies (UGM).

Problem Statement (700 words max.):

- [INSERT PROBLEM STATEMENT]

- Provide context and background of the proposed research.

- Include a short theoretical discourse and position your research within the debate.

- What is the importance of your research project?

- Explain the relation between the problem statement and one of the four proposed research themes.

- Draw up relevant research questions which are consistent with the problem described. - What is/are the key objective(s) of the research?

Methodology (1000 words max.):

[INSERT METHODOLOGY]

- What kind of research design do you plan to use (qualitative, quantitative, mixed method, explorative,

descriptive, deductive etc)? Explain why and how and defend your design.

- What kind of sampling procedure do you opt for (probability – non probability, purposive, snowball, simple

random, stratified, multistage, weighting for disproportionate, etc.)? Explain why and how and defend your

procedure.

- How do you plan to collect the data (survey, interviews, focus groups, literature study)? Explain why and how

and defend your data collection instruments.

- Operationalise the important variables and indicators of your research. Defend your operationalisation.

- What data analysis techniques do you plan to use (interview coding, statistical analyses, content analysis,

secondary analysis, analysis of existing statistics, etc.)? Explain why and how and defend your techniques.

- Explicitly explain the consistency between your methodology and research question and objectives.

- Describe possible limitations of the research strategy (issues of internal-, construct-, and external validity).

Societal Relevance (250 words max.):

- [INSERT SOCIETAL RELEVANCE] - Describe possible policy implications for CSOs in development and/or policy development for government and

donors.

Initial Outline Paper (0,5 page max.):

- [INSERT INITIAL OUTLINE OF PAPER] - Provide a table of contents of the paper (detailed outline). Please note that papers cannot exceed 30 pages

(reference list and appendices excluded).

Timeline (0,5 page max.):

- [INSERT TIMELINE OF RESEARCH PROJECT] - Indicated your research activities and timing per activity.

Budget (0,5 page max.):

- [INSERT BUDGET CALCULATION] - Provide a budget which indicates research expenses and an honorarium and does not exceed € 5,000.

Further information please contact : Frieta Damayanti 081804363170 csrfindonesia@geo.ugm.ac.id