The countries of the Eastern Partnership face numerous challenges in expanding civic space for citizens’ initiatives and civil society, as such. Increasingly, CSOs have become more aware about the need to apply a common approach in monitoring the environment in which they operate – both in terms of law and practice.
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To support their efforts, ECNL and its partners:
Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center (Armenia) | MG Consulting LLC (Azerbaijan) | Civil Society Institute (Georgia) | Promo-Lex Association (Moldova) | Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research (Ukraine)
launched the process of developing a Monitoring Framework on Enabling Environment for Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership region.
The “Monitoring Progress, Empowering Action” project will be implemented between 2017-2020 with the support of the European Union. The project aims to contribute to the improvement of the environment in which CSOs operate. It also aims to strengthen CSOs’ capacities to promote evidence-based reform initiatives and increase public accountability across the region. On the country level, the project will enable local CSOs, donors or other interested parties to monitor and assess the state of the legal environment for civil society, as well as its implementation in practice. On the regional level, it will allow for cross-country exchanges, formulation of regional priorities and better communication in order to improve civil society conditions.
The core group of legal experts will develop a Monitoring Framework with substantive and comparative expert assistance from ECNL and through consultations and piloting of the tool with the CSOs in their respective countries. The Monitoring Framework will rely on key international, European standards on fundamental rights and civil society space. Based on the applied methodology and findings of the developed Monitoring Framework, the core group will summarise country and regional reports, which will guide local initiatives to bring about positive reform in laws and policies affecting CSOs.
The project “Monitoring Progress, Empowering Action” is implemented with the financial support of the European Union.