If you accept public funds, you must establish clear guidelines on transparency and confidentiality to protect clients. When developing these guidelines, consider covering topics such as the need for enhanced staff training on protocols specific to the government donor, how to redact (hide) identifying information from casework data that is reported, and ensuring anonymity in case studies or human interest stories. It may be appropriate to make joint decisions on accepting public funds with the community you serve to avoid misunderstandings and loss of trust. Keep in mind that the state is made up of many diverse government institutions. You may seek both local and national public financing, for example. Birth registration and other forms of foundational legal identity documentation also increasingly link individuals to a host of different government sectors like education, health, employment, justice, and social welfare. There may be funding from different ministries or public agencies connected with each of these sectors. Diversified public financing can help to reduce dependency on any one source and provide protection in case shifts in the political sphere lead to shifts in funding for your work. 3.4 Other Funding Sources Projects with a specialized focus on citizenship, statelessness, and legal identity documentation can attract funding from donors for which these issues are a priority. Organizations that have funded paralegal projects in this field include those listed below, although they may not always continue to do so. It is wise to approach many funding sources. • UNICEF • UNHCR CASE STUDY “When we first realized that there was a need to open an office in Perak so that we could reach out to undocumented persons, we did not have any funding,” explains Nanthini Ramalo, executive director of paralegal project Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas (DHRRA) Malaysia. Yet many people in Perak were undocumented. Ms. Ramalo recalls a 57-year-old man in Perak with serious medical conditions who died trying to get national documentation so that he could receive national healthcare services. DHRRA used creative thinking and social entrepreneurship to make the office possible, opening up the first fitness center in the Sungkai district and using its profits to set up the new office and keep it running. • The UN Development Programme • UN Common Humanitarian Fund • The European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operation (ECHO) • European Union (Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund) • European Commission and Council of Europe (e.g. joint funding for Roma women’s access to justice) • World Bank • African Development Bank • National Justice Ministries and Civil Registry Agencies • Embassies and Foreign Affairs Ministries (e.g. Norway, Netherlands, Australia) • Government international development funds, such as: USAID; the U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration; the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) DISCRIMINATION EMPOWERMENT SUSTAINABILITY DATA RELATED RESOURCES (EXTERNAL) RELATED SECTIONS (WITHIN) • Open Society Foundations It may be necessary to avoid international funding, if officials or the community will believe your project brings controversial foreign influence A C O M M U N I T Y- B A S E D P R A C T I T I O N E R ’ S G U I D E : D O C U M E N T I N G C I T I Z E N S H I P A N D OT H E R F O R M S O F L E G A L I D E N T I T Y | 35