Association for civil society development in Azerbaijan

Today the level of the civil society and democracy development in a country is to a certain extent revealed by the so-called “third sector” the sector of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). In spite of substantial achievements in this sphere, a number of serious problems exist in Azerbaijan impeding the local NGOs growing into a real force that can truly boost the development of a civil society in the country.

The poor institutional development of NGOs and their financial dependence on foreign donors cause their excessive political adherence, the restriction of the freedom of choice in their activities, deviation from working towards the resolution of significant social issues. Along with that, the existing social-economic difficulties in the majority of cases bring NGOs' efforts down to just procuring additional financial and material benefits for their members.

Today, there is an urgent need for working out a new strategy on the interaction between the state authorities, business structures, NGOs and media, as the main players in the process of a civil society formation in Azerbaijan. The priorities of such a strategy, aimed at the creation of a strong and financially independent “third sector” in Azerbaijan, should define the ways and methods of assistance to the NGO sector on the part of the authorities and local business- companies.

A wide coalition of organizations interested in the development of civil society in Azerbaijan may participate in the solution of this issue.

Not only independent NGOs, but also entrepreneurs' associations, municipality associations and governmental organizations, engaged in humanitarian, social and public issues, may become potential partners in such an action.

ACSDA as an organizational unit, plans to coordinate the activities of the structures participating in this movement.


The goal of the ACSDA:

The main goal of creating the Association is to contribute to the development of civil society in Azerbaijan by uniting and coordinating the activity of nongovernmental organizations, entering the Association as well as the other representatives of the third sector. So, NGOs which are the members of the Association, aim at attracting the public attention, providing maximal transparency of the processes, taking place in various spheres. In most cases, the effort of one NGO is not sufficient to reach the goal. One of the goals of the Association is to reveal the problems existing in different fields, to bring them to the attention of the mass and realize complex measures on their solution via the coordination of efforts of all NGOs, entering the Association.

Besides this, one of the goals of the Association is to create dialogue between all participants of the civil society (government, society, the third sector, etc.). We understand that the efforts of NGOs only are not sufficient for civil society building. One of the basics of the civil society is the consensus and mutual respect, which cannot be reached without dialogue between the separate society members, civil society as a whole, as well. The Association tries to ensure such a dialogue within its capacity. Naturally, it is hard to imagine dialogue and cooperation between public organizations, central and local executive structures, local self-government without the participation of the other important elements of civil society - mass media. Apart from the fact that media plays peculiar role of a bridge between different strata of the society, they carry out important function of informing the population about numerous programs and events, provide transparency of the processes in these or other fields. The Association and its members try to establish partnership relations between the third sector and mass media.

We, the “Association for Civil Society Development in Azerbaijan,” contribute to the preparation of normative-legal basis, necessary for the development of civil society in the country; tend to the creation of favourable financial-credit, tax and customs regime for the representatives of the third sector.

Summarizing all the above-mentioned, one can conclude that the protection of rights and freedoms of our citizens, creation of social collaboration for anti-corruption, public-social support of the regions and local self-government, improvement of penitentiary system, assisting the settlement of problems of migrants, refugees and IDPs, increase of ecological knowledge of the population and others are included into the list of our basic goals. We understand that it is impossible to reach all these goals in a short period. However, we will use all available opportunities to achieve the goals.


Key activities:

- organization of constructive joint activity with public organizations, central and local executive organs;

- active participation in the creation of normative-legal basis, necessary for the formation of civil society;

- organization of mutually beneficial cooperation between independent mass media and NGOs;

- attraction of private sector to the solution of socio-humanitarian problems;

- legal, organizational and information support to the functioning and new NGOs;

- formation of the system of preparing skilled workers engaged in the third sector;

- protection of the rights of NGO employees.


Activity priorities:

- Protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens;

- Creation of social partnership for combating corruption;

- Support of the social and public development of the regions and local authorities;

- Improvement of the penitentiary system;

- Assistance in resolving the problems of migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons;

- Environmental enlightenment