Armenia Case Study: Financial Sustainability

The CIVICUS CSI implementing partners in Armenia, Counterpart International, have posted Youtube videos in which they speak about the case studies that they chose to undertake as part of the implementation of the index in Armenia. In the videos, Lusine Hakobyan (national coordinator for implemenation of CSI at Counterpart International) and Mane Tadevosyan (researcher) speak about the process of selecting the cases studies and the findings of the research that they conducted. They also speak to the implications of the findings and how they contribute to developing civil society in Armenia. Below is one of the video diaries on the case study on financial sustainability of civil society organisations in Armenia.

To read the full case study click here FIN-Eng_web

To read the Armenia Country Report from the 2003-2006 phase, click here http://www.civicus.org/new/CSI_Armenia.htm

What makes Civil Society Strong?

V.Finn Heinrich, CSI’s friend and until the end of 2006  CIVICUS’ Director of Programs, has published online his doctoral dissertation “What Makes Civil Society Strong?“.

The study addresses the most important research questions facing civil society scholars and practitioners today, i.e.

• How to conceptualize and measure civil society?

• How to explain the different strengths of civil societies across the world?

• How to support efforts to strengthen civil society?

The entire dissertation can be downloaded clicking here

Abstract of Dissertation:  “What Makes Civil Society Strong?”

How to conceptualise and measure civil society and how to understand its development over time are two of the most prominent research questions facing civil society scholars today. It seems that the first issue – i.e. lack of an appropriate measure of civil society – is a key obstacle for addressing the second research gap – i.e. identifying civil society’s enabling conditions and causes – and that the two questions are inextricably linked.

Using a new data source and employing an innovative combination of mutually complementary analytical approaches, the dissertation engages with both research questions. First, identifies an operational concept and measurement model for the strength of civil society, which is suitable for comparative international research. Second, making use of the measurement of civil society’s strength in 43 countries, identifies those factors which “make civil society strong” via a combination of analytical tools, i.e. regression analysis, fuzzy-set analysis and a theoretical exploration of the main processes which drive civil society’s development.

The thesis’ first component of conceptualising, operationalising and measuring civil society is approached via an in-depth exploration of the current state-of-the-art regarding civil society concepts. This leads to the identification of a concept of civil society’s strength based on two dimensions: structure and values (and its operationalization via dimensions and indicators). Using data stemming from the CIVICUS Civil Society Index Project, a measurement of civil society’s strength in 43 countries is put forward. The high validity and robustness of this measurement is demonstrated through comparison with existing measures and tests against critical country cases.

The second part of the thesis employs this measurement to examine the causes for civil society’s strength, recognizing that the limited validity of existing measures has been a key factor in the lack of a consolidated body of scholarship on the driving factors of civil society’s development. The causal analysis uses a hypothesis-testing approach by first exploring the explanatory power of each of the major theories which concerns itself with civil society’s development, ranging from modernization theory, political culture approaches, social origins theory and historical institutionalism to actor-centered approaches. It then proceeds to multivariate regression models as well as fuzzy-set analysis, which provides a complementary approach to regression analysis by allowing for complex combinations of causal factors and multiple pathways towards a strong civil society.

The key finding – emerging from both regression and fuzzy-set analysis – concerns the power of historical factors in explaining the strength of civil society today. It suggests that the length of a country’s democratic experience is particularly relevant for civil society’s development. This main result of the causal analysis is further put to the test via endogeneity tests and via a theoretical exploration of the specific causal processes which are likely to be at play between a country’s democratic and civic development. Both tests further strengthen the robustness of the findings.

Equipped with wide-ranging and highly robust results regarding the applicability of the civil society concept to empirical research, concerning the varying strengths of civil societies around the world, and on the key driving factors of civil society’s development, the final section of the dissertation explores the implications of these results for research, policy and practice.

Culture of Volunteerism in Armenia Booklet

The publication is a culmination of the research done by Ms. Mane Tadevosyan and Ms Lusine Hakobyan, the national coordinator for the CIVICUS Civil Society Index in Armenia, a project within Counterpart International.

The booklet outlines the pattern of civic participation in volunteering in Armenia using three main focus areas; the regulatory environment, motivations behind volunteerism and volunteer management practices in an effort to inform policy makers on ways of improving volunteer contributions.

 UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Mr. Dirk Boberg launched the booklet in Armenia and he said that it is intended for the use of the general civic society, including students, volunteers, civil society activists and authorities and decision makers.

The information provided by the booklet is greatly informed by the study done using the CS Index which provides a quantitative and qualitative methodology for assessing the different conditions in a country that influence the civil society in the country.

 The Culture of Volunteerism is published in Armenian and English and was funded by the United Nations Volunteer (UNV) Programme. 

To read the full volunteerism case study please click here:Volonterism_Eng-web

To learn more about the CSI project in Armenia, please visit http://www.advocacy.am/en/?nid=319

For more information please visit www.civicus.org

“Civil Society: Challenges of today, the path for tomorrow” Albanian CSI National Workshop

A key stage of the CSI participatory methodology is the National Workshop which is conducted as one of the final stages of the CSI implementation process. The National Workshop is a space designed to facilitate the discussion and validation of the CSI findings. The National Workshop is open to the participation of various sectors such as the media, the business community, donors and academia. The workshop agenda facilitates the discussion of not only the strengths and weaknesses of civil society, but also an action plan for strengthening it.

The Albanian CSI National Workshop themed ‘Civil Society: Challenges of today, the patch for tomorrow’, took place on the 5^th of July 2010 in the capital Tirana and was organized by our Albanian partner, The Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) which was represented at the workshop by Sotiraq Hroni, IDM Executive Director . CIVICUS CSI was represented by Katsuji Imata, CIVICUS Deputy Secretary General. Amongst the more than 110 attendees to the event was H.E. Ambassador Helmuth Lohan, Head of the EU Delegation to Albania whose address at the workshop can be found here:  http://ec.europa.eu/delegations/albania/press_corner/all_news/news/2010/20100705_en.htm , as well as Gulden Turkoz-Cosslett, UNDP Resident Representative and Norimasa Shimomura, UNDP country Director.

 

The workshop had two plenary sessions, the first addressed the issue of internal governance and transparency in civil society and the second session addressed the Albanian context, civil society stakeholders and its challenges. As part of the national workshop, the IDM formally launched the Albanian Analytical Country Report which can be accessed here: http://www.civicus.org/civicus-home/1411

The CSI at the International Society for Third-Sector Research 9th annual conference

The annual International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR) conference is taking place this week from the 7th-11^th July 2010 at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, Turkey. ISTR is a major international association promoting research and education in the fields of philanthropy, civil society and the non-profit sector. ISTR reflects the growing worldwide interest in Third Sector research and provides a permanent forum for international research, while at the same time building a global scholarly community in this field.

ISTR is one of the major international membership association and rec­ognized leader promoting research and education in the fields of civil society, philanthropy, voluntarism and the non-profit sec­tor. The Society is known for its commitment to excellence, its collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach, global outreach and values of diversity and inclusion.

Jacob Mati, CIVICUS CSI Senior Research Officer, and Megan MacGarry, CIVICUS CSI Programme Officer, will be attending the conference and both will be presenting papers in the session entitled: Building on Knowledge in Strengthening Civil Society Around the World Thursday, July 8, 2010, 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. The session will be chaired by Jacob Mati and other participants in the session will be Michael Hoelscher, Naoto Yamauchi and Midori Matsushima

The title of Megan’s paper will be: “Do action-research projects have impact? Insights from the Civil Society Index Programme’s Impact Assessment” and it addresses the question of how challenging it is to define the impact of action research projects. By using the Civil Society Index (CSI) as the principle example to extract insight and lessons from it, Megan’s paper will be an attempt to resolve the issues at play and begin the process of answering such a question.

Jacobs paper is titled “Imperatives for innovations in civil society: Reflections on experiences in the implementation of CSI (2008-2010)” and explores some preliminary findings from the 2008-2010 phase of the CSI.

Click here for more information on the conference, https://istr.conference-services.net/programme.asp?conferenceID=1799&language=en-uk

After the conferences Megan and Jacob’s papers will be available online.

El índice de la Sociedad Civil avanza en Latino América

El índice de la sociedad civil (ISC) sigue avanzando en Latino América; Abril y Mayo han sido meses de gran actividad para nuestros socios encargados de la implementación del Índice a nivel nacional, habiéndose desarrollado talleres nacionales en tres de los seis países de la región que participan del ISC  en la fase 2008-2010.

El Taller Nacional es el evento culminante de todo el proceso de investigación-acción que el ISC comprende.  El ISC se construye sobre la base de una metodología participativa, dentro de la cual el taller nacional es una herramienta fundamental dado que permite una amplia participación, incluyendo representantes a nivel nacional de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil, el gobierno, los medios de comunicación, la academia y el sector privado. En el taller se presentan los distintos hallazgos de la investigación, se debaten en profundidad y validan algunas de las principales conclusiones y, finalmente, se discuten líneas estratégicas y propuestas específicas de acción orientadas al fortalecimiento de la sociedad civil y sus organizaciones.

Talleres Nacionales celebrados en Abril y Mayo:

Venezuela: Taller Nacional Dialogo Nacional – El papel de la sociedad civil como agente de cambio. El mismo se llevó a cabo el día jueves 15 de abril en la ciudad de Caracas y en su organización se conjuntó el esfuerzo de Sinergia (nuestro socio local) y el Foro sobre la Eficacia del Desarrollo de las Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil.

Argentina: Taller Nacional Los Desafíos de la Sociedad Civil Argentina hacia el Bicentenario: Del diagnóstico a la acción. Coincidiendo con el mes de los festejos nacionales del Bicentenario Argentino, el taller se desarrollo los días 19 y 20 de mayo en la Universidad Católica Argentina en un esfuerzo conjunto de nuestros socios Asociación Civil GADIS y el departamento de Sociología de la Universidad Católica Argentina.

Nicaragua: el Taller Nacional Índice de la Sociedad Civil Nicaragüense se celebro en la ciudad de Managua el pasado 20 de Mayo y fue organizado por nuestro socio La Red Nicaraguense por la Democracia y el Desarrollo Local (RNDDL). En el mismo participaron  71 representantes de OSC, medios de comunicación y agencias de cooperación, quienes distribuidos en 5 mesas de trabajo elaboraron propuestas para el fortalecimiento de la sociedad civil en las 5 dimensiones del ISC.

Uruguay: El Instituto de Comunicación y Desarrollo (ICD), socio de CIVICUS en Uruguay, se encuentra en la etapa final de redacción del Informe país, habiendo realizado el taller nacional en Octubre 2009. Sin embargo el pasado mes de Mayo ha sido un mes de mucha actividad y difusión para el ICD, quien realizo el 21 de Mayo la presentación oficial de los resultados del ISC en el marco del proyecto “Fortalecimiento de las capacidades de la sociedad civil”, programa conjunto del Gobierno de Uruguay y el Sistema de Naciones Unidas en el marco de ONEUN. En el mismo evento se realizo la presentación del libro “Avances y Necesidades en el fortalecimiento de la sociedad civil uruguaya” que recoge las ponencias y debates realizados durante el Foro Internacional “Fortalecimiento de la Sociedad Civil” realizado en Octubre del año 2009.

CSI’s Impact in Uruguay’s National Media

El Pais, one of the major newspapers in Uruguay, has reflected in one of its articles the CSI findings on the state of Uruguay’s civil society.

Please access the entire article by clicking here.

Uruguay: repercusión en los medios nacionales del ISC.

El periódico El País de Uruguay, reflejo en una interesante nota algunos de los hallazgos del Índice de la sociedad Civil (ISC) en ese país. El pasado Viernes, el Instituto de Comunicación y Desarrollo (ICD), quien fue el encargado de coordinar la confección del índice a nivel nacional, presento el resultado de mas de un año de investigación sobre el estado de la sociedad civil en Uruguay.

La nota, escrita por Sebastián Auyanet, resalta que las organizaciones del la sociedad civil en Uruguay si bien alcanzan un buena organización y tienen capacidad de impacto, aun no logran la participación de demasiados ciudadanos y tienen complicaciones en cuanto a la recaudación de fondos.

Los invitamos a leer la nota completa  clickeando aqui  clicking here

Sinqobile Dube and Megan MacGarry talk about monitoring and evaluating the CSI project

Below, Sinqobile Dube (Civil Society Index Support Officer) and Megan MacGarry (Civil Society Index Programme Officer), discuss some of the work being undertaken by the CSI project to better monitor and evaluate (M and E) the strengths and weaknesses of the project and of implementation.

Check back here in the next fortnight for the External Impact Assessment Report of the 2003-2006 phase of implementation, as well as for further video updates from different members of the CSI team.

Click here to find out more about CIVICUS’ monitoring and evaluation (M and E).

Update from the CSI project – 15th March 2010

Below, Mark Nowottny, Civil Society Index Programme Officer, takes his turn to highlight some of the key developments in the CIVICUS Civil Society Index project over the last couple of weeks.

In the coming weeks, the External Impact Assessment Report from the CSI will be posted here on this blog – check back here soon.

You can find out more about the Cross Border Initiative between Armenia and Turkey by clicking here.

You can find out more about Megan MacGarry, the CSI team’s new Programme Officer working on Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, by clicking here.

Keep checking the CSI blog for fortnightly updates from different members of the Civil Society Index team!

Creating space for cooperation: Counterpart Armenia heads to Turkey

Following a video update last week, this week Counterpart International Armenia, CIVICUS’ partners implementing the Civil Society Index, report in more detail on the Cross-Border Initiative.

On February 18, 2010, an unprecedented step was made in Turkish-Armenian civil society cooperation. A group from Counterpart International Armenia travelled to Istanbul, Turkey, for a two-day working meeting with the Third Sector Foundation of Turkey, or TUSEV. The trip was the first activity in the Cross-Border Cooperation Initiative, a continuation of the CIVICUS Civil Society Index (CSI), generously supported by USAID and the Black Sea Trust. While Counterpart Armenia is implementing the CSI in Armenia, TUSEV is carrying it out in Turkey. The goal of the Cross-Border project is to compare Turkish and Armenian civil societies, find similarities and differences, and create future opportunities for cooperation between organisations on the two sides of the border. 

The working meeting at TUSEV addressed many important issues. The two organisations first presented their research findings in the framework of the CSI, discussed similarities and differences in the civil societies of each country and discovered areas in which they can share experiences and learn from each other.

The two teams set the framework for the future activities to take place within this initiative. The structures and formats for the outputs of the project, the comparative study and the joint workshop were discussed and agreed upon. The next steps include carrying out the joint comparative study of the two civil societies and a reciprocal visit by the Turkish CSI National Implementation Team to Yerevan in April 2010, to attend Counterpart Armenia’s National Civil Society Conference. During this Conference, a joint workshop will be held dedicated to the Cross-Border Cooperation Initiative.

Counterpart was also able to meet with representatives from many Turkish CSOs that are working with Armenian organisations such as the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), the Hrant Dink Foundation, Agos, and the Bahçeşehir University. During these meetings other cross-border projects were discussed and many areas for future cooperation were identified.

Looking beyond this Initiative, both organisations are hopeful that the activities carried out within its framework will lead to more opportunities for interaction and cooperation between Turkish and Armenian CSOs.

Below, watch a feature video produced by Counterpart International Armenia on the initiative