Policy Impact

This second issue of EPF's quarterly e-bulletin highlights the impact of our programs on improving public policy in the South Caucasus. By engaging local stakeholders in decision making, drafting needed legislation, monitoring government actions, and supporting the annual Data Initiative, EPF is both promoting the formation of sound public policy and ensuring that citizens oversee its implementation.

Eurasia Partnership Foundation's (EPF) mission is to empower people to effect change for social justice and economic prosperity through hands-on programs, helping them to improve their communities and their own lives. Read more...

Education Reform

A recent change in Azerbaijan's legislation aims to increase transparency and local ownership over budgetary spending decisions in secondary schools. To ensure that the new policies are effectively implemented, EPF worked closely with the Ministry of Education to introduce the new funding mechanism; also collected and organized financial and administrative data in 20 pilot schools. The information is stored and accessible from a web portal that was launched in February 2008. Read More...

Corporate Social Investment

To encourage the strategic investments by local businesses and joint ventures into the long-term social and economic development, EPF hold a series of CSR seminars in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. In April 2008 a steering committee meeting was organized in Georgia to start a new project on the development of endowment legislation under the Corporate Social Investment Program. Read More...

Monitoring the Privatization of Agricultural Land

To encourage citizen groups to monitor the government's activities and hold it accountable, EPF launched a grant competition in May, 2008. One award recipient, the Georgian NGO Civic Education Youth Center implemented a project to monitor the privatization of state-owned agricultural lands. The grantees' monitoring revealed several loopholes in the new legislation and in the Presidential decree regulating the privatization of agricultural lands that created problems for many renters of privatized land. The recommendations to correct the loopholes, will be prepared and submitted to the Parliament of Georgia. Read More...

Monitoring the Recruitment of Civil Servants

With funding from the United Nations Democracy Endowment Fund (UNDEF), EPF's partner, the Union of Armenian Government Employees (UAGE), launched a project entitled Monitoring of Civil Servant Recruitment and Attestation Processes. The goal of the project is to reduce the risk of corruption in the civil service through increased civil society participation in the work of the government. Read More...

Improve Policy-Making