A surprise finding in the third CSI case study reveals that Armenian civil society organizations (CSOs) believe that they are the most accountable to their own constituents.

Counterpart has published the third of its five comprehensive case studies conducted as part of the CIVICUS Civil Society Index, with generous support from USAID. While the hypothesis of the study titled the Status of CSO Accountability in Armenia set forth that CSOs are most accountable to donor organizations, the study in fact found that Armenian CSOs view their constituents and beneficiaries as the most important stakeholders. While CSOs mostly recognize the importance of accountability especially towards their constituents, several problems were identified, such as the fact that CSOs do not report as regularly and consistently to beneficiaries as they do to donors and that they report on planned activities, but not on finances and the quality of their work. The study then makes recommendation including that CSOs should increase the visibility of their operations by developing a good communications strategy and enhanced networking and that donor organizations should more actively support CSO accountability to their beneficiaries, both strategically and financially.

To watch a video presentation of this case study, please click here for English and here for Armenian. To read the full text, visit this page.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for publication of the remaining two case studies.