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The Social Welfare Department (SWD) today (January 13) announced to subvented non-governmental organisations (NGOs) the implementation details of a $1 billion Social Welfare Development Fund (SWDF).
Making opening remarks at a briefing for all the 171 subvented NGOs, the Director of Social Welfare, Mr Patrick Nip, said, "The $1 billion SWDF was recommended by the Lump Sum Grant Independent Review Committee (LSGIRC) to support training and professional development, capacity enhancement initiatives and service delivery enhancement studies of NGOs.
"With the implementation plan discussed thoroughly in the Lump Sum Grant Steering Committee comprising members of NGO management, NGO staff, service user and staff union representatives, and independent persons as well as views exchanged with the Core Group of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, and approval in-principle subsequently granted by the Lotteries Fund Advisory Committee (LFAC), I am pleased to announce the setting up of the SWDF today.
"In mapping out the implementation details of the SWDF, we have struck a balance between the prudent use of public resources and allowing flexibility for subvented NGOs to use the Fund.
"Taking the SWDF into account, we have launched or put in place all the 36 recommendations made by the LSGIRC with a view to further improving the Lump Sum Grant Subvention System," he added.
"Apart from the SWDF, additional resources amounting to about $360 million were so far secured and allocated to NGOs for carrying out other recommendations by the LSGIRC, such as $278 million to 74 NGOs in three years for employing paramedical staff and/or hiring paramedical services; $26 million to 37 eligible small NGOs in four years for strengthening administrative and professional support; $52.8 million to NGOs for replacement of personal computers including hardware, software and printers. Moreover, the NGO cap of the Block Grant was increased from 1% of the annual subventions to 1.5%."
The SWDF will be implemented in three phases for a total of nine years from 2010/11 to 2018/19, with each phase lasting for three years. Phase 1 will last from 2010/11 to 2012/13. All the 171 NGOs subvented by the SWD are eligible to apply.
An eligible NGO may submit an application to carry out projects under any or all of the following scopes:
(a) training and professional development for NGO board members and subvented staff (not limited to social workers), covering also the cost of workers to relieve staff who go on training;
(b) business system upgrading for subvented NGOs (both Information Technology (IT) and non-IT projects), e.g. IT infrastructure, system design and initiatives to enhance NGO's management capacity or facilitate their re-engineering; and
(c) studies aimed at enhancing subvented NGO's service delivery.
The funding cap for each NGO is set at 9% of its annual subventions in 2009-10 or $2 million, whichever is the greater, and an NGO may apply up to 33% of the funding cap in Phase 1. The grants will be approved to NGOs based on the merit of their applications and disbursed to NGOs on a yearly basis in accordance with the schedule of the approved projects. NGOs are required to submit progress reports and phase-end evaluation reports to the SWD for monitoring of their use of SWDF.
NGOs may submit applications to the SWD for Phase 1 between January and June 2010. After vetting of applications and LFAC's formal approval of the allocations recommended for individual applicant NGOs, the SWD will notify NGOs of the application results and to launch their projects as soon as practicable.
Ends/Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Issued at HKT 17:21
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