Democracy Commission Small Grants

Public Affairs Section

Embassy of the United States of America

Baku , Azerbaijan

Program Report

To be Accompanied by a Financial Report

Please type. If you need more space, attach a separate sheet. Please attach also copies of any relevant press coverage.

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Current date: December, 19, 2007

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Name of the organization: С enter for Economic and Social Development (CESD)

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Name of the project: Promoting and Advocating of Community Participation in Public Expenditure Tracking

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Date the grant was received: July, 03, 2007

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Amount of the installment and when received: 8 000 USD, July, 2007

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If part of the money has not been spent yet, describe how it will be spent, again with a cost breakdown by items: The money was spent according to the budget line and action plan.

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Has the grant been used in a way consistent with the original proposal? If not, please explain: Yes, the grant has been used in a way consistent with the original proposal. Some small amounts, less than 10 per cent, however, were saved to use for other directions. For instance, 360 USD was saved from accommodation of staff to hire car for trainers to attend the regional workshops.

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Please describe the impact the Democracy Commission’s grant has had on your organization and the participants in the program activities, including evidence of change of attitude or knowledge:

Democracy Commission’s grant has some positive impacts on our organization activities regarding to public expenditure tracking and strengthening cooperation with communities. The impacts can be characterized as followings;

1. After starting the project, public expenditure issues have been re-put in CESD’s agenda. This project will give more opportunity and chances to CESD to strengthen its activities in this direction;
2. The project assists CESD to strengthen cooperation with communities in terms of conducting research on community participation. For instance, CESD has developed cooperation with several communities since the project was started to be implemented;
3. The project gave chance to set up cooperation with different international and voluntary organizations. For instance, the project staff has met Peace Corps Volunteers and they became familiar with activities done within the project. CESD staff members are becoming volunteers to help Peace Corps’ alumnus and current volunteers.
4. The project activities, especially how public expenditure can be tracked in communities have been presented at World Bank (WB) Meeting in Sarajevo, BiH. The information was also posted in the WB’s group.
5. Because Democracy Commission’s grant started, CESD started actively participated in the events regarding to the public expenditure tracking in communities.

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Please describe how the goals of the program were met:

According to the project, the main goal is to explain to end beneficiaries how government appropriates and distributes funds to provide health care services to residents in rural areas and to provide local citizens with the necessary information and tools to hold local officials accountable for health care spending practices. The goals of the project for first period have been completely met. Following can be taken into consideration to explain how goals of the project were met;

• The public expenditure tracking in communities issues have been taken into agenda by engaging mass-media, NGOs, government bodies to the process;
• 3 two-days workshops have been held in Salyan, Ter-Ter and Gence (for Shemkir communities) to explain them how they can track public expenditures;
• Awareness on public expenditures among communities has been increased by using different methods including, workshops, discussions, meetings and etc.
• 3 quarterly meetings have been organized to continue supporting communities’ participation in public expenditure tracking.
• Discussion with communities, municipalities, local government officials have been held to increase dialogue between community and local government.

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Please describe the kind of events organized, the issues discussed, the number of participants, the new contacts made (attach lists, dockets, participant evaluation forms, program or activity calendars, samples of distributed materials, copies of press coverage, etc.):

The project has been implementing in Shemkir, Ter-Ter and Salyan regions of Azerbaijan. In each region CESD interviewed and selected approximately 30 community members and local government officials from different villages to participate in a 2-day workshop on health care spending process. Workshop participants have been informed about health care budget for their region and each individual community. Following events have been held within the framework of the project;

• 3 two days workshops have been in 3 different regions of Azerbaijan (Salyan in July, 29-30, 2007, Ter-Ter in August 31- September 01, 2007 and Shemkir in September 24-25, 2007). About 30 representatives from municipality, local government, municipality, NGOs, Mass-Media have attended the workshops;
• 3 quarterly meetings have been held in Salyan, Ter-Ter and Shemkir. Project coordinator has met how community taken part in public expenditure tracking process;
• New contacts with communities, local NGOs, such as Regional Democracy Development Center in Salyan have been created;
• New contacts with volunteers of Peace Corps have been created.

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Please give an illustrative example of the program’s success:

After starting the project, public expenditure issues have been taken on the country’s agenda. Not only newspapers and TV channels, but also information agencies, such as APA, First News has distributed information about the project. Community members have been educated, local budget packets for 2008 fiscal year became more transparent. More community members have attended budget discussions.

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Any problems encountered and how they were solved:

Some problems from Salyan Executive Authority have been encountered when the first workshop have been held. Those problems, however, have been solved by holding discussion with executive authority members. No any serious problems have been encountered.

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Please describe the likely future impact of the program and what new plans or projects were conceived:

Cooperation with community members will be kept and strengthened to advocate their role in public expenditure tracking. Contacts with mass-media will be also strengthened to increase awareness on the project activities, as well as, public expenditure tracking.

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Other comments or suggestions for improving the program:

None

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Please indicate any address, email, or telephone/fax changes:

None

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Please attach copies of any materials you have produced, articles about the project that have been published, participant sign-up sheets or feedback, etc.

Thank you for your cooperation!