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  • World Bank Group: The World Bank Yerevan Office, Counterpart Interna

    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).
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