Philipsburg- After a year of meticulous planning and preparation the Resources 4 Community Resilience (R4CR) project will be officially launched on Wednesday November 18 at 5pm via Zoom. This project (officially called the Civil Society Partnership Facility for Resilience Project) includes a grant scheme as funding mechanism for community and social rehabilitation initiatives on Sint Maarten and focuses on improving the capacity of local Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) in reconstruction and resilience activities post hurricane Irma. The R4CR program is financed by the Government of the Netherlands via the St. Maarten Trust Fund which is administered by the World Bank, implemented by the NRPB ( National Recovery Program Bureau) and executed by the VNGI (Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten International) in close cooperation with the NRPB, Foresee Foundation and other local partners.
The grant scheme will be active for four years and will provide grants to local CSO’s (formerly known as NGO’s) to execute projects focused on reconstruction, resilience and improved service provision. Project activities by registered CSO’s can cover subject categories such as neighborhood initiatives, sports, nature, culture, poverty relief, day care centers/after school programs, youth employment, skills development, psycho-social support or preventing gender based violence. In the first year R4CR will organize two “Quick Win” rounds that will focus on small projects that can be completed in six months with a maximum budget of US$50,000.

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Projects that meet the criteria and pass the strict selection process will be financed. The CSO’s will receive (pre-disbursement) training, guidance form the R4CR project team and will file monthly progress reports during the implementation of the project. R4CR’s first call for projects was sent out in September followed by three information sessions which were held at the St Dominic High School. In addition, one online session was held via
Zoom for those who could not attend the information sessions in person. Thirty-two project proposals were received and after a careful selection process by the local R4CR team and vetting by the independent Technical Committee, twelve projects were approved for funding in this first “Quick Win” round. On Wednesday November 18 the proud grant recipients will officially sign their grant agreement during a virtual ceremony in which several dignitaries from
the VNGI, NRPB, The World Bank and the representative of the Netherlands in Philipsburg will be present. The ceremony will be hosted by radio personality Kevin “Suppa” Petrona (who is R4CR’s local Communication and Outreach expert). After short official speeches each CSO will be given one minute to pitch their project to the public. The event will be live streamed on R4CR’s Facebook page (R4CRSXM).
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