Nicaragua Capacity Building for Civil Society Advocacy (CBCSA)

Empowering the organizations that empower citizens.

Context

Civil society in Nicaragua had made considerable progress over the previous decade despite a challenging political environment. Although there had been notable advances, many civil society organizations (CSOs) faced challenges in organizational development, fundraising, community engagement, developing international alliances, and implementing effective advocacy strategies.

Approach

Through hands-on mentoring, capacity building, and grants, Dexis supported Nicaraguan CSOs to increase their institutional and advocacy capacity. Dexis provided intensive coaching, mentoring, and direct training to more than 20 CSOs to strengthen their organizational capacity using USAID’s human and institutional capacity development approach and a tailored organizational capacity assessment (OCA) tool. Based on the OCA results, Dexis created individualized training implementation plans for each CSO, increasing capacity in seven organizational development areas. Dexis managed a pool of grants, offering CSOs the ability to implement their organizational development plans, apply new tools for advocacy and networking, and engage the public in dialogue on common economic and social issues.

Achievements

• Aggregate universal OCA score across all CSOs increased by 13.6% from baseline.
• Average individual OCA component areas increased by as much as 19.5% from baseline.
• Dexis created the Central American Alliance of Human Rights CSOs.
• 17 CBCSA partners established and strengthened 127 partnerships.
• 840 youth and women trained in new digital tools and innovation for advocacy and activism.
• 40 initiatives on social innovation developed.
• Dexis created one of the first Nicaraguan crowdfunding mechanisms.
• 17 sustainability strategies developed and implemented.