About SWDF
Background Pursuant to the Lump Sum Grant Independent Review Committee (LSGIRC)'s recommendations, Social Welfare Department (SWD) obtained a funding from the Lotteries Fund to set up a $1 billion Social Welfare Development Fund (SWDF) to be implemented by three 3-year phases for a total of nine years from 2010-11 to 2018-19. All NGOs subvented by SWD are eligible to apply for funds to carry out projects under any or all of the following scopes: (a) training and professional development for NGO board members, management and staff (not limited to social workers), covering also the cost of workers to relieve staff who go on training; (b) business system upgrading for NGOs (both information Technology (IT) and non-IT projects), e.g. IT infrastructure, system design and initiatives to enhance NGOs' management capacity or to facilitate their re-engineering; and (c) studies aiming at enhancing NGOs' service delivery. Under Phase 1 of SWDF (2010-11 to 2012-13), there were three rounds of applications. A total of $262.9 million was approved for 150 NGOs to implement their approved projects. The review of Phase 1 of SWDF was conducted from February to September 2012. The feedback of NGOs on Phase 1 of SWDF was generally positive with some suggestions for enhancing the implementation of the Phase 2 to facilitate the use of the funds, including the setting up of an e-platform to promote a sharing culture among NGOs. Under Phase 2 of SWDF (2013-14 to 2015-16), there were three rounds of applications. A total of $277 million was approved for 154 NGOs to implement their approved projects. The review of Phase 2 was conducted from September 2014 to October 2015. The feedback of NGOs on Phase 2 of SWDF was generally positive with some suggestions for enhancing the implementation of the Phase 3 to facilitate the use of the funds. |