During their visit to Azerbaijan at the end of May 2008, ECNL legal advisors met with members of the recently established NGO Council under the President’s Administration in Azerbaijan.

The Council members, Dilara Valiyeva, Gulnare Nuseynova, Jeyhun Osmandi and Vugar Gadirov, were eager to find out about international and especially Hungarian and Croatian experience of state funding for CSOs. Four members of the Council who were present at the meeting asked ECNL’s program team, Dr. Dragan Golubovic and Ms. Nilda Bullain, numerous questions not only about the CSO Support Funds, but also about the European civil society sector in general.

According to the President’s Decree of December 13, 2007, the NGO Council was established in Azerbaijan to ensure support to the local CSOs from government. The Council consists of 11 members. Eight of the Council members are CSO representatives, who were first nominated by CSOs and then are approved by the President. There are also three government representatives in the Council. The Council will be supported in its work by an NGO Experts’ Board that consists of local and international experts. The rules of grant giving were recently approved by the Council and the first call for applications for the year 2008 was launched with a deadline on July 2, 2008. The Call will support organizations in such areas as human rights protection, CSOs capacity-building, public health system development, social services provision, refugees’ rights and many others.