WORLD BANK GROUP: THE WORLD BANK YEREVAN OFFICE, COUNTERPART INTERNATIONAL – ARMENIA, AND JINISHIAN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE THE CIVIL SOCIETY FUND 2009 WINNERS

M2 PressWIRE
May 20, 2009 Wednesday

Office, Counterpart International – Armenia, and Jinishian Memorial
Foundation Announce the Civil Society Fund 2009 Winners

YEREVAN — Today the World Bank Yervan Office, Counterpart
International-Armenia and the Jinishian Memorial Foundation announced
the results of the Civil Society Fund 2009 (CSF-09, formerly
known as the Small Grants Program), also as a part of Counterpart
International’s Limited Intervention Program Statement (LIPS) grants.

Eight Armenian non-profit, non-governmental organizations were
selected finalists to receive grant awards for the implementation of
civic engagement – focused projects. In total, 99 project proposals
were received from NGOs from all over Armenia. The proposals were
reviewed and selected by a committee comprising representatives from
the World Bank Country Office, Counterpart International-Armenia and
the Jinishian Memorial Foundation.

The following NGOs and their respective projects were selected under
the CSF-09/LIPS grants:

1. Investigative Journalists (IJ) for enhancing marginalized groups’
access to judicial assistance, and raising the voices of those
who need legal human-rights related consultancy. With the proposed
‘Effective Public Defenders’ project, the NGO aims to monitor the
reasons why generally people decline to use the services of the
Public Defender’s Office, concentrating on the regions of Kotayk,
Aragatsotn and Gegharkunik., and thus to improve free legal services
to the poor, and increase efficiency of use of budget resources. The
NGO will uncover the root-causes of the problem, through monitoring,
and investigative research in regions, produce analytical reports,
conduct round tables in the regions, publish and disseminate a booklet
on the Public Defender’s Office for public awareness, as well as a
guide with the findings and reports. The IJ will achieve the widest
possible media coverage sharing the outcomes, as well as communicate
them to the professional circles.

2. Armavir Development Center for strengthening civil society
locally and civic engagement of Armavir residents into community
decision-making processes. Through the ‘Transparent and Participatory
Community Budget’ project, the NGO will apply its pilot model of
participatory community budget conducted previously in several areas of
Armavir. As an outcome, the residents will be well-informed of their
rights to participate in budget formation and the channels of their
practical application; the process itself will become transparent, the
accountability of 2010 budget execution to the public will increase;
and the community budgets will reflect residents’ needs. These
will be achieved through focus groups discussions in 4 communities,
information dissemination. An overall number of 10 000 rural residents
will be involved in the project activities.

3. Women for Green Way for Generations for mainstreaming climate change
mitigation practices in the development strategies and policies. With
the project: ‘Climate Change: Each One of Us Has a Role to Play’,
the NGO will help enhancing public perception of the environmental
problems in Armenia and will generate participatory capacity and drive
for public action to engage in decision-making. Special emphasis is to
be given to information on country vulnerability, adaptation to climate
change impacts and greenhouse gas mitigation option in Armenia. The NGO
will aim at delivering findings in a language and format understandable
for wide strata of population. The broad activities will focus on
implementation of awareness raising programs, round table discussions
with all the interested parties, conduction of the final conference
along with creation of a Coalition of stakeholders on Climate Change,
involving NGOs especially in the backcountry regions.

4. Center for Community Dialogues and Initiatives for promoting civic
engagement at the local level, specifically through youth. The proposed
‘Youth Mobilization and Action’ project will reduce the traditional
gap in the level of awareness and civic engagement between the youth
in the regions and those in the capital. The team will mobilize the
youth in Vanadsor town and surrounding communities to develop a draft
policy addressing the various needs and prioritizing youth issues. The
policy will be presented to and actively promoted with the Municipal
Council for inclusion in the Four-Year Community Development Program,
with appropriate budget earmarks. In total of 4000 young people will
participate and benefit from the new youth policy. The NGO expects
gaining a full assessment of the youth problems and needs in Vanadzor,
and significantly increasing youth awareness and empowerment in the
community decision-making.

5. Khatutik NGO for addressing the issues of marginalized groups and
helping to educate tolerance and participation of the healthy and
disabled children in joint initiatives. Through the project ‘Talking
Books’, the NGO will also develop 20 pieces by Armenian and foreign
literary classics into audio books for multiplication and distribution
to schools with special needs (the Yerevan School for the Blind, and
the Yerevan School for children with breached-movement extremities),
as well as to Armenia’s main children’s library – Khnko Apor for
wider audiences. This will address the stark educational/cultural
need of the special schools for disabled students. Simultaneously, the
process of bringing together children within the framework of debate
clubs in the Khnko Apor Children’s Library, will seek to engage and
empower future citizens in an environment where the basis of civic
participation is laid in integration.

6. National RoadSafety Council for developing and engaging in advocacy
for improved road construction norms, in compliance with international
standards, and for conducting activities to raise general public
awareness about road safety. The ‘Make Roads Safe in Armenia’ project
will address the problem of roads being built in violation of safety
measures, and what the public is in the power of doing to influence
decision-making. In the meantime, since the sharp increase in road
accidents is also linked to general low awareness about rules and
good culture observing those rules, the project will aim at broader
awareness-raising. To achieve these, the NGO will disseminate awareness
raising materials and conduct other activities targeting the general;
do community mobilization through coalition formation; draft amendments
to the Orders of the Ministry of Urban Construction via expert working
groups, submit it to the Legislative and execute public pressure.

7. Socio-Economic Analysis Center’s ‘Why the Poor Do not Apply to
the Poverty Family Benefit System’ project will look to analyse the
reasons why the extreme poor remain out of the Poverty Family Benefits
System, and develop ways to improve the actual situation with regards
to identifying and registering the poor for state support. This is
of high urgency in times of economic crisis. The NGO will identify
and analyze reasons for low rate of registration, publish and highly
publicize the findings and share them with the Ministry of Social
and Labor Affairs.

The project will provide the extreme poor with the awareness and skills
to use the available state support channels, as well as will conduct
capacity-building with local NGOs, thus engaging and empowering them
for sustained action. The NGO will select a group of families and
follow closely their actual registration, publicize the results, and
will make their story public, along with the main research findings,
through a press-conference and a TV report.

8. Women’s Resource Center for striving to secure gender equality in
the NGO sector by way of ‘Gender Mainstreaming for Local NGOs.’ The
organization will address the issue of low representation of women in
decision-making process on different levels. It will target especially
NGOs in the regions who have difficulty implementing gender programs
or don’t have the necessary skills. The NGO will aim at ensuring that
the principles of gender equality and a rights-based framework are
incorporated into gender perspectives of planning and decision-making
and a gender-responsive budgeting. Through various activities, the
project will aim to raise awareness on gender issues among local
civil society leaders/staff, and developed capacity of regional NGOs
for gender mainstreaming and policy implementation, gender monitoring
and evaluation, as well as developing gender indicators for strategic
planning.

The WB Yerevan Office, Counterpart International-Armenia and the
Jinishian Memorial Foundation will be interacting with the Grant
recipients during the projects’ implementation to ensure that the
objectives and the goals of the agreed programs are met. Counterpart
Armenia will bear primary responsibility of project implementation
and financial oversight of the grants.

Based on the success of the projects the World Bank looks forward
to strengthening its cooperation with NGOs in Armenia on development
issues.

This is the eleventh year of implementation of the World Bank Civil
Society Fund in Armenia. During this period 61 local NGOs have
received grants. The amount of the disbursed funds totals $ 348.000
by the WB Yerevan Office, another $ 188.000 by the former partner
Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation Armenia, $ 30 000 by
Counterpart International -Armenia, and $ 10 000 by the Jinishian
Memorial Foundation. Counterpart International-Armenia’s projects are
generously supported by the United Agency for International Development
(USAID).