Now in its fifth year, World Challenge 09 is a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level. World Challenge 09 is brought to you by BBC World News and Newsweek, in association with Shell, and is about championing and rewarding projects and business which really make a difference.Your chance to nominate a projectThey are looking for your nominations for innovative projects or ideas that demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit working for the benefit of the community whilst adopting a responsible approach. For details, click here. Deadline: 30 April 2009Rights & Democracy (International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development) presents the John Humphrey Award each year to an organisation or individual from any region of the world, including Canada, for outstanding achievement in the promotion of human rights and democratic development. The Award consists of a grant of USD 30,000, and a speaking tour of Canadian cities to help increase awareness of the recipients human rights work. It is named in honour of the late John Peters Humphrey, the Canadian human rights law professor who prepared the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For details, click here. More than 55,000 has been awarded to two West Midlands projects thataim to help disadvantaged young people have a positive voice in the media.The grants are part of 485,000 of funding from Mediabox, a Departmentfor Children, Schools and Families fund, that aims to give 13-19 yearolds the opportunity to develop and produce creative media projects.Mediabox has awarded grants to 18 youth organisations and mediacompanies across the country for creative-led projects including film,TV, computer games, online, print and large scale digital imagery andprojection.To date it has funded 242 projects, giving out almost 5 million infunding, benefiting more than 6,000 young people in England.full article Source: Civicus Blog (civilsocietyindex on April 8, 2009)The CIVICUS Civil Society Index (CSI) in Mozambique, implemented by the Foundation for Community Development (FDC) between March and December 2007, found that civil society plays a fundamental role in governance and development in the country. Nevertheless, its ability to participate in these processes is often hampered by several internal and external factors. The findings conclude that Mozambican civil society has weak structure and values, and operates in a constrained environment. Structurally, the main weaknesses are due to limited human and financial resources available to CSOs. In terms of values, the weaknesses relate to transparency, gender equity and diversity. While the environment in which Mozambican civil society operates has improved, citizens are hindered in the exercise of their rights and the state is at times undemocratic and marred by an inefficient bureaucracy. The report reckons that any improvement in the dimensions of structure and environment needs to be accompanied by the promotion of values such as participatory democracy, inclusivity, transparency, tolerance, and non-violence. This will in turn increase societys confidence in civil society and improve the currently low levels of impact of civil society on governance and fundamental developmental challenges in the country. You can find