War, emergencies, the pandemic and political turbulence significantly affected the environment for CSOs in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) region in 2021. Their space to operate and possibilities for activism faced significant restrictions, both in law and in practice. However, we have also seen some positive developments such as the improved state funding processes in Armenia and Ukraine, the opening of avenues for cooperation in Moldova or the new civil society strategy in Ukraine.
The report analyses 11 key areas of civil society operation, such as freedom of association, participation or access to funding in 6 countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. It covers the period between September 2020 - December 2021, and builds on the 2021 country reports published earlier.
As a novelty compared to earlier reports, the 2021 report also assesses digital rights as a new area and introduces scoring: for both law and practice the scores range from 1 to 7, where 1 signifies the lowest possible score (extremely unfavourable – authoritarian environment) and 7 signifies the highest possible score (extremely favourable environment).
2021 CSO Meter Scores
Ukraine scored highest in fulfilling the overall standards of law and practice of the CSO environment in the EaP region. Scoring lowest is Belarus, where freedoms and the overall work of civil society took the hardest blow with severe prosecution, sanctions and forced liquidations for both unregistered and registered CSOs.
Key trends and priorities
The CSO Meter also identified 5 key trends affecting civil society environment in the region:
- Crisis measures (to tackle COVID-19 and conflict) limited civic freedoms and further affected the CSO environment.
- Digitalisation progresses faster than the provision of related protections and the enjoyment of digital rights.
- CSOs face increased attacks, stigmatization, and surveillance.
- Limitations and burdensome requirements on access to funding.
- AML/CTF measures have further continued to create burden over CSOs.
To read the analysis, check all the scores for all areas and countries, download the full report from the CSO Meter website.
The CSO Meter project is funded by the European Union.
