Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) is a Johannesburg-based foundation established in 1997, working in ten Southern Africa countries: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

OSISA offers support to projects that are both national and regional. The programmes broadly focus on the following areas:

• Economic Justice
• Education
• HIV and AIDS
• Human Rights & Democracy Building
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
• Language Rights
• Media

Click here for more information on these programme areas.

OSISA's funding relies on and encourages donor, government, and other partnerships wherever possible. Community involvement and in-kind or monetary contributions to a project by a grantee are also encouraged. OSISA is committed to developing funding strategies that inherently encourage and develop self-reliance and effectiveness.

Funding principles:

• OSISA will provide start-up funds for a project on the explicit understanding that no further support will be granted if, in the course of the first year, an organisation fails to develop a credible plan to sustain itself without further OSISA funding after more than another two years.
• OSISA will generally fund projects on the basis of proposals that set forth a credible plan to sustain the initiative without continued OSISA funding after no more than three years.
• OSISA may provide funds for projects that, by their nature, would be completed within a three-year period.
• OSISA will provide no more than one-third of the resources needed by an organisation on condition that the remaining amount needed is obtained from other sources.

In addition to the body of the proposal, all organisations should include the following information as attachments:

• a cover letter signed by the chairperson of the board of the organisation or any other executive authority in the organisation;
• current activities and financial report or, if they differ, a most recent annual report and audited financial statement;
• proof of registration and statutes of the organisation;
• list of board members, trustees, and staff;
• most recent evaluation of the organisation or of a programme related to the proposal.