The Cypriot Civil Society Strengthening Programme (CCSSP) 2007-2008

INTRAC and our partners in Cyprus The Management Centre and NGO Support Centre carried out an 18-month programme of support for the development of civil society across Cyprus, which ran from January 2007 until July 2008.
Cyprus Civil Society Strengthening logo

The CCSSP aimed to contribute to: 

  • A strengthened role for civil society as a crucial actor in deepening citizen's dialogue within and across communities, and participation in decisions affecting the island's development. 
  • Sustainable local capacity building support provision in both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities.

The programme used four main approaches:

  • Open training for Cypriot CSOs
  • Tailor-made technical assistance for CSOs across Cyprus, responding to individual CSO needs.
  • Long-term capacity building support: The programme worked with 15-20 organisations across Cyprus in an assessment and diagnosis of their organisational capacity, linking into plans to address priority issues.
  • Dialoguing events for civil society and non-CSO actors, including workshops, conferences, round-tables, public events to promote exchange of ideas, and knowledge on a range of critical issues facing Cyprus civil society.

The programme was funded by UNDP-ACT in Cyprus, with support from USAID. It was a large and complicated programme that had to be completed within a relatively short time period. As the final evaluation report stated:

'An important and significant achievement for the programme is that it achieved the targets set for all the activities.'