Counterpart’s Arlene Lear Attends International Civil Society Conference in Azerbaijan
Arlene Lear, middle, before she delivers her opening remarks.
By Maggie Farrand
Arlene Lear, Senior Vice President at Counterpart International, joined other co-sponsors in making opening remarks at the International Conference “Civil Society Development and Public Financing of NGOs: Best Practices and New Opportunities“ which took place on November 25-26, 2010 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Organized by the Council of State Support to Non-Governmental Organizations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (The NGO Council), this conference brought together more than 100 participants from Azerbaijan and European countries to share their successful experiences and lessons learned in promoting NGO-government collaboration and partnership in the development of civil society.
Welcoming remarks were made by Azay Gulyiev, Chairman of the NGO Council, followed by opening remarks by Deputy Prime Minister Ali Hasanov and by representatives of other co-sponsors; Keith Simmons, USAID Country Coordinator; Bilge Cankorel, Head of the OSCE Office in Azerbaijan; and Farda Asadov, Head of the Open Society Institute (OSI) office in Azerbaijan.
An opportunity for conversation
The conference encouraged a free exchange of ideas and opinions among international and national NGO leaders and government officials on a range of topics including successful models for government funding of NGOs, collaboration in the provision of social services to vulnerable populations, and effective ways for facilitating international partnerships.
All participants agreed that the conference created an excellent opportunity for participants to learn from one another through substantive exchange of ideas and exposure to challenges and opportunities for civil society development in different country contexts. Following the conference, the NGO Council issued the Baku Declaration, representing the collective spirit of the conference participants in support of some universally accepted guiding principles for civil society development.
NGO-government partnership
Arlene Lear began her remarks by expressing gratitude to the Government of Azerbaijan for the opportunity to participate in the conference. And she made reference to Counterpart’s fruitful partnership with the Cabinet of Ministers in the provision of humanitarian aid to vulnerable populations, and to the partnership with the Presidential Administration in support of civil society.
Ms. Lear also expressed appreciation to the U.S. Government, especially USAID, for enabling Counterpart to engage with both government and NGOs in Azerbaijan in support of their institutional strengthening, partnership and constructive dialogue.
Excerpts from her speech are as follows:
“The NGO Council was an outgrowth of political will on the part of the Government of Azerbaijan to create a permanent mechanism and funding stream for civil society development as well as assistance to vulnerable populations.
I applaud the creation of the NGO Council -- a true reflection of the government’s commitment to making tangible investments in the civil society sector as a means of supporting socio-economic development. That investment to date has totaled 5,400,000 Manat = USD 6,750,000.
Without this buy-in and investment in civil society on the part of the government at the national level, civil society here, as elsewhere, has limited opportunity for building a domestic donor base, to reduce reliance on foreign funds and ensure longer term sustainability.
I also applaud the government of Azerbaijan’s enthusiastic efforts to gain access to social contracting best practices and mechanisms at work internationally, that can be adapted to the Azerbaijan context – this has included document research and study tours, with assistance from our partner ICNL, to Croatia, Hungary and the United States and now this conference.
The will of the national government to invest in NGOs, as well as the enhanced capacity of these organizations to serve vulnerable populations and constructively raise constituent interests with government, is laying the foundation for a vibrant civil society sector in Azerbaijan.
A lesson that I’ve learned over the years is that sound leadership has been a key factor in the success of all organizations. In the case of the NGO Council, Azay Guliyev has shown himself to be a strong leader with the ability to assess and address issues in a way that seek benefit for his government as well as his NGO constituents.
Counterpart is truly heartened by the civil society strengthening developments in Azerbaijan; we recognize that there are challenges ahead in fostering greater transparency and accountability on the part of both partners to each other.
There will also be issues about what is eligible for funding, among many other challenges to be faced…But this is normal in most societies where social contracting is taking place.
The real challenge is to end up in place where mutual self interest is being served.”
December 1st, 2010 | Tags: Arlene Lear, Azerbaijan, Baku, civil society, conference | Category:
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