Project name: “Improving trust, transparency and accountability through E-Governance and Information Technology in 10 municipalities in North Azerbaijan”
Financial support: The Program for Local Governance (ProLoGo ) of the German Organisation for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) is now the GIZ
Period: 15 September 2010 – 15 September 2011
The main objective of the project was improving the transparency and efficiency in local self-governance bodies, strengthening and supporting their social participation and institutional development. The following points were necessary in order to accomplish the project successfully: increasing the participation of the citizens in formation of the budget (through Citizen Report Cards); strengthening the transparency both in calculation and collection of the municipal taxes and municipal expenses (‘transparent budget’ and ‘applied budget analyze’ programs, creating accounting cards for the local tax payers etc.); achieving the widely participation of the citizens, especially women in municipal decision-making processes (budget discussions, forming women groups etc.)....
Download full report Annual report 2011
This paper reports the results of an assessment the Economic Research Center’s (ERC) use of three years’ of institutional support provided by the Think Tank Fund (TTF) during 2006-2009. This is an ex post assessment that relies on a substantial amount of background material provided to the consultant, information on the ERC web site, responses to a questionnaire sent to ERC for completion prior to the consultant’s Baku visit, critically reading and rating ERC policy research reports and shorter papers, and interviews with ERC management, staff, and Board members, and members of the policy community during an eight day visit to Baku. Within the policy community the consultant met with seven persons in the international community, staff of two NGOs, and three government officials. Those interviewed were selected by ERC and the Center arranged the meetings.
Implementation of programs / projects and achievement of planned objectives During 2007 Economic Research Center implemented several projects, the results of which were successful both for ERC activity and society. Generally, projects have covered economic fields of the country, particularly anti-inflation policy of the government monitoring of funds allocated for different social assistance purposes, transparent municipality budget and increasing level of public participation in municipalities’ decision making process.
During the passing time different meeting were held with the municipality heads, accountants and other people in Guba and Khachmaz in 46 municipalities in order to choose for cooperation, and their technical, financial means were checked. Heads of the municpalities were given survey papers covering main questions for the selection. In each of Guba and Khachmaz regions 5 municipalities were chosen tocooperate. These include Talabgishlag, Timiryazev, Digah, Vladimirovka and Second Nugadi in Guba, Gimilgishlag, Godakli, Lower Zeyid, Lajat and Piguluoba in Khachmaz. Annual budgets of these municipalities range between 10 000 – 61000 AZN.
Program and financial report of Economic Research Center covering activities in 2012