News

The Tbilisi School of Political Studies and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Georgia hold the second seminar of the series “From Conflict to Confidence Building” on 7-9 May in Bakuriani. The seminar brought together Georgian, Russian and European experts and journalists as well as young leaders from Georgia to discuss perspectives of peaceful conflict resolution in the country.

Despite the fact that natural resource extraction can have negative economic, social and ecological effects on local communities, public control of resource extractives industries is limited. Resource-rich Azerbaijan is no exception there. Therefore, the NGO Civic Response Network (CRN) in cooperation with FES has launched a project with the aim to increase the participation of community members and to create public control on extractive industries in Azerbaijan. The first FES-supported training for local communities took place on 11-12 of April 2009 in Chenlibel, Shamkir region.

FES has published a new short paper on the recent constitutional amendments in Azerbaijan and their consequences for the political system of the country. The report has been written by Aser Babajew, researcher at the Centre for European Social Research, University of Mannheim. It can be downloaded here.

On April 9-10 FES and Centre for Political & Legal Studies “Concord” organized a regional security conference in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia to discuss the recent developments and future scenarios in the South Caucasus, particularly after the Georgian-Russian War of August 2008. The conference brought together representatives from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as from the separatist regions Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Karabakh. This annual FES/Concord Conference is known to be one of the rare occasions where representatives from all South Caucasian states and of separatist regions meet to enter into open dialogue about the way ahead.

“Puls-R” Sociological Service in cooperation with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung carried out a public opinion poll on political attitudes and political participation in Azerbaijan. The sociological survey has been done annually since 2005 with support of FES. It provides a much-needed, neutral source of information on political beliefs and attitude among the population of Azerbaijan and is widely cited by NGOs, newspapers and journalists. The presentation of the latest survey took place on April 10 in Baku. It can be downloaded here. ENG  RUS

The Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation (ACGRC) and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) have published the brochure “Agenda for Armenian Foreign Policy 2009/2010”. The publication describes the major foreign policy challenges of the Republic of Armenia and presents perspectives and policy recommendations for regional cooperation. The report can be downloaded here.

“Access to Public Information” – this is the title of a new project of the Media Rights Institute (MRI) in Azerbaijan in cooperation with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. As part of the project journalists, NGOs, lawyers and local decision-makers will be trained in the application of the “Freedom of Information” act (FOI) which wants to increase public transparency and public service accountability. For this training, the Media Right Institute developed and published an own “FOI Manual” for journalists and other participants. The first two trainings where held in Lenkaran in Feburary and in Baku in March 2009. 

The Baku School of Journalism in cooperation with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung has launched a new training course on peaceful conflict-resolution for journalists. The course “Journalists for Peace in the South Caucasus” trains professional journalists and promotes their understanding of conflict-analysis and conflict-resolution in the region. The training course started on March 17th in Baku.

Between 30.03.09 and 02.04.09 two Members of the Georgian Parliament, Giorgi Akhvlediani (Christian-Democrats) and  Lasha Tordia (United National Movement) go on a study tour to Berlin on the invitation of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. The aim of the tour is to inform the two MPs about the German system of party financing, political foundations and financial accountability.

On March 9- 10 FES provided training on principals and values of Social Democracy for representatives of the main political parties in Georgia. The training was conducted in cooperation with the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS) and it forms part of a GFSIS training course for members of Georgian political parties. The two sessions on Social Democracy were attended by around 30 party members.