CIVIC: The Civil Society and Social Innovation Alliance

Summary

In 2025, the World Bank committed to launching a Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV) platform through its global Civil Society and Social Innovation Alliance (CIVIC) to elevate civil society leadership and foster more inclusive, resilient development in fragile and conflict-affected settings across the Global South. The platform aims to shift how local organizations engage in peacebuilding, service accountability, and recovery for historically marginalized groups—moving beyond short-term interventions to long-term systems change. This commitment responds to the urgent erosion of civic spaces and systemic underinvestment in grassroots organizations operating in FCV contexts.Through strategic on-granting, capacity support, and collaborative engagement with governments and World Bank operations, CIVIC will unlock pathways for civil society to influence decision-making, scale innovation, and strengthen the connective tissue of FCV ecosystems. CIVIC will competitively select a global consortium of experienced civil society organizations to lead regional implementation and on-granting. The platform will also establish a regional community of practice to facilitate knowledge exchange, coordination, and learning across all participating countries.

Approach

The World Bank, through its global program CIVIC, commits to launching a dedicated Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV) platform to strengthen civil society engagement and solutions in FCV-affected settings. This platform will provide catalytic grant financing, capacity building, and knowledge sharing for CSOs and social innovators working on peacebuilding, social cohesion, gender-based violence, climate fragility, and service delivery accountability.
This commitment will be implemented by operationalizing a dedicated funding window under the CIVIC Multi-Donor Trust Fund, issuing FCV-targeted calls for proposals, and supporting regional intermediaries to on-grant to community-based organizations. It will also engage with World Bank Country Management Units to identify entry points for CSO collaboration in FCV operations and integrate grassroots insights into World Bank programming.
The World Bank will contribute its convening power, trust fund management, global FCV expertise, and access to operational teams and analytics. CIVIC’s secretariat brings specialized capacity in civil society financing, risk-informed engagement, and platform management. Partners—including CSOs, INGOs, and regional intermediaries—will contribute local access, conflict-sensitive delivery, and thematic expertise in peacebuilding and social cohesion programming. CIVIC will leverage its in-country experience with past grant implementation, particularly in FCV contexts. CIVIC’s in-country experience will also inform country-selection for the FCV platform.

Action Plan

Implementation Steps and Timeline. The CIVIC FCV Platform will be co-designed with civil society and operationalized in phases to ensure inclusive design, resource mobilization, and readiness for effective grantmaking.
Phase 1: Co-Design and Consultations (July–December 2025) July: Launch internal planning; map stakeholders in priority FCV countries. August–October: Conduct an estimated 5 virtual and in-person consultations with CSOs, intermediaries, and Bank teams in regions such as the Sahel, Horn of Africa, and Haiti. November: Synthesize feedback from consultations; WBG, in concurrence with donor partners, will draft platform design and delivery model. December: Finalize and publish co-created design framework.
Phase 2: Resource Mobilization (September 2025–June 2026) Sept–Dec 2025: Engage donors; begin proposal development. Jan–March 2026: Secure initial commitments to the CIVIC FCV Platform; draft contribution agreements. April–June 2026: Establish dedicated FCV funding window under CIVIC Multi-donor Trust Fund (MDTF) . Socialize the call-for-proposals with civil society networks, iNGOs, and social innovation networks.

Phase 3: Launch and Grantmaking (July–December 2026) July: Launch first call for proposals targeting CSOs in FCV settings. Aug–September: CIVIC team and thematic advisors review and select proposals, including intermediaries for on-granting. Nov–Dec: Disburse first round of sub-grants and onboard grantees.
Phase 4: Implementation and Learning (September 2026 – Dec 2026) Monitor progress, host peer learning sessions, and document impact.
Jan: Submit first annual report and update strategy based on learning.

Background

CIVIC: The Civil Society and Social Innovation Alliance represents the World Bank Group’s (WBG) strategic paradigm shift toward global financing and systematic support for civil society organizations (CSOs) , social innovators, and social economy actors. Announced by President Ajay Banga at the 2024 WBG Annual Meetings, CIVIC reflects institutional recognition of civil society’s catalytic role in addressing systemic global development challenges. CIVIC is integrated into the International Development Association (IDA) 21 replenishment package and aligns with WBG’s commitment on Civic and Citizen Engagement reflected in the corporate scorecard.
CIVIC addresses growing demand for strategic, scaled engagement with civil society, particularly in fragile settings, across sectors including climate, health, gender, and youth platforms. Each platform integrates grantmaking, multi-stakeholder dialogue mechanisms, and knowledge transfer systems. CIVIC therefore represents a fundamental transformation in WBG-civil society engagement paradigms. Rather than fragmented project-based grants or ad hoc consultations, CIVIC establishes a permanent, institutionalized platform to channel finance, build capacity, and enable strategic collaboration between CSOs, governments, and WBG. CIVIC furthermore operationalizes network-based approaches to connect local solutions, systematically strengthening institutional linkages between grassroots innovations and WBG operations to address pressing global challenges in partnerships.

Progress Update

Partnership Opportunities

To successfully complete and scale the CIVIC FCV Platform, the World Bank is primarily seeking donor contributions. Financial support is essential to activate the CIVIC FCV funding window and launch the initial round of grants. CIVIC is seeking multi- or bilateral donors, foundations, and philanthropic partners interested in supporting civil society-led action in fragile settings. Once the platform is activated, the World Bank will look to collaborate on CIVIC with trusted CSOs, INGOs, and networks with experience in fragile and conflict-affected areas to serve as on-granting partners and capacity support providers. These actors will play a key role in reaching grassroots organizations and ensuring safe, context-sensitive implementation.,The World Bank will set CIVIC up as a Multi-donor Trust Fund (MDTF) . Applying the experience of other externally facing MDTFs and global partnerships, the governance structure for CIVIC includes a Partnership Council, Thematic Advisory Groups (TAGs) , and a Program Management Team (PMT) .

As part of this Commitment, World Bank will offer partners contributing to CIVIC representation on the Partnership Council as well as the Thematic Advisory Group. The Partnership Council will be established to: (a) provide strategic guidance and direction on the implementation of CIVIC; and (b) review progress reports provided by the Bank based on the results framework for CIVIC. The Thematic Advisory Groups will serve as external advisory bodies that will provide independent advice to the Partnership Council and CIVIC Secretariat on the CIVIC platform, funding priorities, and provide technical advice/input to the Secretariat on the direction of the program. TAGs may also serve as a platform for exchanging knowledge, expertise and experience.