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Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan Civil Society Project
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Background
The Civil Society Project (CSP) is the United States Agency for International Development’s 5-year initiative in Azerbaijan, launched in fall 2005 and implemented by Counterpart International in partnership with Urban Institute (UI) and International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL). The goal of this program is to assist citizens and government of Azerbaijan to develop a dialogue while working towards creation of a more representative and better functioning democracy. The Urban Institute is responsible for project components focusing on the development of Azeri policy research organizations (PROs) and increasing local government engagement with citizens and civil society. Development of Azeri policy research organizations (PROs) is an important project component managed by UI. The objective of this component is to increase the volume and quality of policy research produced by PROs and to ensure that such analysis is provided to policymakers at the time important issues are under deliberation.
Approach
The goal of the Civil Society Project’s work with policy research organizations is to increase the volume and quality of policy research produced by PROs and to ensure that such analysis is provided to citizens and policymakers at the time important issues are under deliberation. A secondary goal is increasing the receptivity of government to policy research from independent PROs. The Civil Society Project will principally cooperate with PROs through a series of workshops. The workshops will be organized in two streams—those addressing policy research techniques and those focused on improving institution management in areas such as quality control, setting overhead rates, and staff motivation. The initial offering is an 8-day course “Policy Fellows Course” that addresses such issues as defining policy problems, identifying and evaluating policy solutions, considering the distributional aspects of policies/programs (who benefits/pays), balancing political and technical factors, and writing strong policy recommendations. The project will also work more closely with selected policy research organizations to produce high quality analyses and to strengthen their management and marketing. A modest number of research grants for priority policy research projects will be made to the selected organizations. Each selected organization will receive consultation from an international mentor with specific expertise on the topic of the research; advice will also be given on effective ways to communicate the research results to civil society and policymakers. In later stages, the project will offer a modest number of international travel grants for researchers from PROs to present the results of their work at international conferences. The goal of the Civil Society Project’s local government initiatives is to increase and improve local government engagement with citizens and civil society organizations, leading to active, civic-oriented citizens and transparent, accountable, and responsive local governments. The Civil Society Project team will work with and through its network of Support NGOs throughout Azerbaijan to identify pro-active communities. This will include approximately 8 municipalities during the first year of the project and additional municipalities in each of the following years of the project. In each of these locations, the CSP team and its Support NGO partners will work with interested municipal councils, Local Executive Authorities, civil society organizations, and citizens. Training and technical assistance from international and local experts will focus on improving communication between government and citizens, organizing public meetings for local government action planning, collecting information on citizen preferences for local government activities, and mobilizing women and youth to participate in the community. Initial activities in each location will include training on the basics of citizen participation techniques and the creation of a citizen participation action plan facilitated by the Civil Society Project’s NGO partners and to be implemented by the municipal government. NGOs based in municipalities that develop a citizen participation action plan will be eligible for citizen engagement grants to support activities described in the plan. Through grantees, the Civil Society project is also working with municipal councils on improving transparency in local budgets.
Results
Based on interviews with government officials and NGOs, Ray Struyk and Irina Stobetskaya wrote a baseline report on policy research in Azerbaijan and its use by government official entitled, “Policy Research in Azerbaijan by Local Organizations.” Jerome Gallagher and Vagif Hasanov (local staff) wrote a baseline report on the civic engagement activities of local government in six cities in Azerbaijan entitled, “Local Government Engagement in Azerbaijan.” An eight-day Policy Fellows course for developing was offered in Baku in February 2006. This course, developed by the Urban Institute with USAID support, teaches policy analysis skills through practical exercises. Over 25 participants from various NGOs, policy Research organizations, government, and media attended the course. Other seminars and training sessions for Policy Research organizations included: “Quality Control at Policy Research Organizations,” presented by Ray Struyk in May, 2006; “Understanding the efficiency of targeted social assistance,” presented by Anastassia Alexandrova (U.I. consultant) in August, 2006; and “Communicating Policy Research Results,” presented by Jerome Gallagher in September.” Two Azerbaijan policy research organizations, Sigma and the Economic Research Center, received policy research grants in July to conduct policy relevant research on gender discrimination in the labor market and the implementation of a new means-tested social assistant. The Economic Research Center was awarded a Civil Society Project civic engagement grant in September to work with eight municipalities on improving municipal budgeting procedures and transparency. Eight Azerbaijani municipalities signed memorandums of understanding in August and September with the eight Civil Society Project Support NGOs. These municipalities will cooperate with the Civil Society Project on efforts to improve citizen participation in municipal affairs.
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