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21 Years of Independence: A Few Lessons On Nation Building 101

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  • 21 Years of Independence: A Few Lessons On Nation Building 101

    21 Years of Independence: A Few Lessons On Nation Building 101

    http://asbarez.com/107387/21-years-of-independence-a-few-lessons-on-nation-building-101/
    Friday, December 28th, 2012 | Posted by Alex Sardar

    Visual overview of Counterpart's activities over from 2010-12

    Armenia's development as a post-Soviet republic is not unique, nor is
    it exactly like any other country's process. Armenians have their own
    story, most recently laced with painful episodes of genocide, natural
    disaster and war. For much of the last 21 years since regaining
    independence, Counterpart International, a global non-profit
    development organization working in more than two dozen countries, has
    been in Armenia working on a variety of projects with funding from the
    US State Department and the US Agency for International Development
    (USAID) as well as other bilateral and private donors, including the
    Norwegian Government, UNDP and the Black Sea Trust.

    Asbarez sat down with Alex Sardar, the organization's outgoing country
    director for more than eight years to find out what he and his team
    have learned in Armenia, and why we should consider those lessons
    compelling.

    Asbarez: Counterpart is involved in a variety of things in Armenia.
    Tell us what binds all this work together.

    Alex Sardar: Our work in Armenia began well over a decade ago with
    humanitarian assistance programs in direct response to continuing
    crises in the aftermath of tragic earthquake in Spitak and of course,
    the Karabakh war. Eight years ago, with support of USAID we made a
    shift in our work, and began addressing long-term development
    priorities as part of our civil society and community development
    projects. In other words while we continued assisting Armenia with
    humanitarian commodities, we very intentionally began working on
    developing skills and institutions that would be able to create
    long-term solutions for Armenia's development objectives. And this
    really brings us to the common denominator of the variety of
    activities. If you strip away the color, bells, and whistles of every
    single activity, you'll find that we build everything we do around the
    very important premise of citizens engaging with their community
    organizations, including governance organizations, non-profits,
    educational, PTAs etc., to identify challenges, and to create
    consensus around solutions. In other words, citizens taking ownership
    of their own answers in development. When we talk about this, people
    usually respond with an `of course, that makes sense' but you would be
    surprised how often in the cycle of project management this very
    simple equation gets short changed, and so we've made it our mission
    both in our country program in Armenia, but also institutionally that
    we never discount the value and staying power that equation delivers
    in our work.

    And let me add that at the heart of that equation lies the very
    concept of partnership, because at the end of the day if we don't
    truly partner with those very communities and those other donors and
    interested stakeholders, then we have no business here.

    Counterpart International's Armenia team conferring on community
    development strategies

    Asbarez: OK, we understand that theoretically this works. Give us
    examples of how it works in real terms on the ground.

    A.S. : To give you a sense of how it works in everything we do, allow
    me to first offer a quick overview of the kinds of projects we're
    involved with at the moment. On the macro reform level we're
    partnering with the Ministry of Territorial Administration to
    facilitate the development of a strategic document on local government
    strengthening, meaning making municipal services responsive to and
    effective for citizens, with greater autonomy for municipal leaders;
    and with the Ministry of Justice we've just launched an ambitious
    effort to overhaul Armenia's non-profit sector legislation. This
    effort is essential to the third sector being viable and sustainable.
    On the community level we work with municipal authorities in 43
    communities in all Marzes, non-profit organizations and informal
    CBOs - mostly youth groups - to building capacity in anything from
    community organizing to advocacy to community development efforts.

    Renovated Water Reservoir in Aragatsavan providing drinking water to
    5,600 residents

    If we take the decentralization policy document as an example, while
    it would be easier for us to devise the reform legislation or
    initiative and lobby directly with the executive branch to move it
    forward - certainly faster and much cleaner in terms of the project
    cycle - we instead chose to do it slightly differently. First, we
    brought together a coalition of think tanks that have over the years
    worked on various elements of governance reform, facilitated their
    coalition with financial resources for the activities, and worked with
    them and the government to develop a well-vetted and solid document on
    decentralization objectives. At the same time, we worked with the
    municipal government representatives in our partner communities to
    generate discussion, ideas and debate on the proposals in the
    strategic document. Along with that, under the leadership of the
    ministry the document has now been put into circulation for greater
    discussion, and the coalition of organizations that have been working
    on it are together advocating for the same principles, representing
    certain compromises but certainly consensus ideas.

    So, while at the policy level we work on strong rooted legislation, we
    continue to work at various levels of society to ignite and strengthen
    a participatory culture that strengthens institutions.

    This had never been done before. It took us close to two years to get
    to the point of moving this national policy document, which is one of
    Armenia's international obligations under the Council of Europe's
    Charter on Local Self-Governance, to this stage, but we're confident
    that it has been a process that's been built on smart foundation.

    Asbarez: Decentralization is no doubt an important and long-term
    reform item. What are some of the more focused activities you
    undertake, and how do you apply your approach to those cases?

    A.S.: Well, it's important to remember that everything we do is part
    of a unified approach. In other words, if we're doing decentralization
    work at the national level, then we incubate some of the new
    approaches and hypotheses in that reform proposal on the community
    level to make sure that the ideas are grounded in the realities of
    Armenia's own development trajectory. If we're talking about
    non-profit sustainability and accountability, then with every grant
    that we provide for to an NGO to conduct an activity, we make sure
    that the right systems and levels of reporting and accountability is
    in place. But more importantly, each grant has a built in capacity
    building mechanism, whether in the form of supply-driven trainings on
    transparency, strategic management, project cycle oversight, or on
    more thematic issues such as legislative process advocacy,
    communication and so on.

    Home made cheese production in Gomk as part of livelihoods programs ©
    Counterpart International

    With that in mind, at the community level we've been testing out a
    number of very successful approaches. For the community development
    portion of our portfolio - which in plain spoken English means, creating
    the necessary conditions for people to live and work with dignity in
    their own communities, as opposed to emigrating to other countries or
    moving to large cities and leaving what amounts to Armenia's lifeline
    communities - whether in terms of the national breadbasket or security
    on the borders. Let me give you some numbers to give you the magnitude
    of activity-in the 58 communities where we work, in the course of the
    last 15 months, we've initiated and completed 75 infrastructure
    projects and community programs. This has been done through voluntary
    efforts of the communities themselves. These projects have included
    renovation of kindergartens, heating systems in schools and arts
    centers, library and community center structures, street lighting
    systems, youth and senior citizen centers, and public park and
    recreation areas. Programs have included environment-focused campaigns
    on trash collection, healthy lifestyle activities, computer literacy
    activities, water sanitation and management campaigns etc.

    The process began for us through a string of town hall meetings in the
    target communities, stretching from border to border, and covering
    every Marz. We're in places as remote as Meghri, or as close as Koti
    (in Northeaster Tavush, a stone's throw away from the border with
    Azerbaijan). I say it with pride that it took very little work on our
    behalf to mobilize more than 6000 Armenian citizens in these
    communities to create community working groups (CWGs). These CWGs are
    very much like community development boards in the United States.
    We've have a retention rate of more than 10% of those citizens - more
    than 600 are permanently engaged in the process. That means, without a
    financial incentive and with very little financial investment on our
    behalf, we've found anywhere from 8-10 citizens in each of these
    communities to volunteer their time to plan, communicate, oversee, and
    fundraise for projects that are of concern and import to the entire
    community. Now, I have to remind you that we work in communities with
    200-500 inhabitants. 10 people can make a huge difference. In the
    larger cities like Kapan or Vanadzor, we've approached the process the
    same way but on a neighborhood level. We've had remarkable
    partnerships from municipal leaders, and we've been inspired by women
    and young people in these communities. The grant investment that we've
    made into these projects has been just under $1 million. But what has
    made us take note and truly appreciate the commitment of Armenia's
    communities is that they have fundraised more than 60% on top of that
    amount from their budgets, from private sources and from the business
    sector.

    Here's another number for you - our projects have touched on the lives
    of more than 410,000 Armenians. If we take a step back and do the
    math, I hope you'll agree with me that it doesn't take a lot for
    Armenians to set their own agenda for their own communities, and then
    drive it forward. They simply look for some know-how and a bit of
    learning in the process, and it all comes together.

    Celebrating new art school in Syunik © Counterpart International

    I constantly cite one community when I talk about Armenia's successes.
    Aragatsavan, located in the Aragatsotn province in Armenia has not had
    access to clean water for two decades. The community's water
    reservoir, a holdover from the Soviet Union, held the community's
    daily allocation of 200 tons of water; leaks in the reservoir,
    however, were resulting in a loss of over 70 tons of water a day and
    contaminating the remaining reserve. As a result, the CWG assisted by
    municipal officials and community organizations applied for partial
    funding to urgently fix the reservoir, only after they had gone
    through the community prioritization process. The community
    spearheaded the renovation of the water reservoir, installed a new
    pumping station and shared 56% of the total project cost. Nearly 20
    years of a broken system was solved in two and a half months. Today,
    all 5,600 residents of Aragatsavan have access to clean drinking
    water. That's around $20,000 of investment, and invaluable amounts of
    commitment and political will.

    There are many more examples on our sites www.counterpart.am or
    www.counterpart.org. Anyone can get involved through tools to donate,
    to keep up on ongoing projects or to provide feedback on how we may do
    things better. We're also very active on our Facebook Page at
    www.facebook.com/CounterpartAM

    Asbarez: What's your sense of where Armenia's headed at 21?

    A.S.: The work of our team here has taught me two very important
    things: there is an opportunity around every corner in Armenia. If
    organizations and individuals are serious about getting involved, then
    there is no question that they will see the impact of their efforts.
    But the biggest thing to remember is that the reason why we've been
    able to be successful at most of our initiatives is our ability to
    really allow Armenians to drive their own agenda - we simply play a role
    in facilitating process, offering knowledge and comparative experience
    and a some financial resource. The second lesson is that building
    organizations, nurturing process, and building capacity is the only
    way that Counterpart has been able to make a dent into the most
    pressing priorities in this country - and in so doing, we've built
    partnerships that will outlast any project cycle or donor funding.
    These are linkages that will go on for a long time.

    Much like the partnerships we've built, Armenians and may I also
    suggest Diasporans need to view their engagement with one another as a
    partnership of equals. This is where Armenia's secret to prosperity
    lies. If that collaboration is unlocked, the successes ahead are
    limitless.

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