Baku, Azerbaijan, May 24, 2005. The Open Society Institute - Assistance Foundation (OSI-AF) today announced the completion of an important phase in the BTC pipeline monitoring conducted by local NGOs in Azerbaijan with OSI-AF support.
In April 2004, OSI-AF and BP Exploration (Caspian Sea) Limited (BP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for supporting NGO monitoring and capacity building. According to the MOU, OSI-AF acted as a donor, facilitator and coordinator of local NGOs throughout the monitoring project. Since then, OSI-AF, the participating NGOs and BP have all worked intensively on this groundbreaking and rewarding project.
In May, 2004 OSI-AF initiated the project with a broad announcement in the national media in Azerbaijan, inviting NGOs with relevant experience to participate in monitoring of the BTC oil pipeline. Monitoring by NGOs was to focus on the following areas:
- environment;
- social issues;
- human rights (particularly labour and land rights);
- historical, cultural and archaeological heritage;
- use of local resources.
OSI-AF, in agreement with BP, wanted the process to be as inclusive as possible and not limit it to only a few NGOs. As a result, eighty-six local NGOs applied to OSI-AF to participate in the monitoring process. To ensure more ownership and capacity building amongst this large number of NGOs, OSI-AF facilitated a selection process amongst them, and twenty-seven NGO representatives were grouped together in five NGO Working Groups, one for each of the five areas listed above. Each Working Group consisted of four to seven members, each of them representing the NGOs selected to participate in the BTC pipeline monitoring.
From the outset, it became apparent that many of the NGOs in Azerbaijan needed development of special skills and experience in monitoring (methodology, planning, data collection and audit analysis, interview techniques, report writing, presentation skills etc). Capacity building was therefore considered essential to promote efficient data collection, systematic interpretation of findings, production of quality reports and ultimately meaningful outputs for all the parties concerned. For this purpose, BP provided OSI-AF with funds to cover all training and mentoring components of the project.
The project commenced in April 2004 and involved activities ranging from training and presentations, initial document reviews, data collection and report writing. They also included site visits to 75% of communities along the pipeline. The result of this was reflected in five reports produced by the Working Groups, the last one of which was completed in early May 2005. A review of these reports took place during a number of workshops attended by the NGOs, OSI-AF and BP over the course of May 2005. During this review, valuable recommendations were identified and taken on board by BP, and an agenda was set for the review of findings that merit further study.
Farda Asadov, OSI-AF/Azerbaijan Executive Director, commented: "The project of civil society's monitoring of the BTC pipeline construction was not only about identifying positive and negative impacts of one of the world biggest construction projects, it was most importantly a first real opportunity for local civil society and a trans-national business giant to cooperate and engage in an equal, healthy, constructive and on-going dialogue".
Michael Townshend, Chief Executive of BTC commented: ""BTC has been subject to an unprecedented degree of monitoring meeting international standards and encouraging public scrutiny. This monitoring initiative provides an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to transparency, to identify areas for improvement and play our role in strengthening the capacities of civil society."
To develop this dialogue further, OSI-AF and BP are planning a second cycle of monitoring later in 2005. This will enable the NGO's to increase their knowledge and understanding of BTC and also, to further develop their capacity and skills.
Five reports prepared by NGO Working Groups together with BP/BTC Responses will be disclosed to the public on May 30th, 2005 during a NGO Work Groups joint press conference, to be held in International Press Centre at 11:00. Reports will be also available on-line after May 30th, 2005.
The Open Society Institute- Assistance Foundation/Azerbaijan belongs to the Open Society Foundation Network established by famous investor and philanthropist George Soros. The Network encompasses more than 50 countries with initiatives in Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, as well as in Haiti, Mongolia, and Turkey. OSI also supports programs in the United States and selected projects elsewhere in the world. The main goal of OSI-Azerbaijan is to foster transition of a closed society to a more open one. Since its establishment in the country in 1996, OSI-Azerbaijan has encouraged the development of the third sector by awarding grants and through operational activity to support civic initiatives in education reforms, communication technologies, human rights and rule of law, mass media, public health, gender equality and arts and culture. Responding to new challenges of the country development, OSI-Azerbaijan has recently concentrated on increasing civil society involvement in the democratization process, good governance and transparency of the use of national resources.
