Regional Project “Civil Participation in Decision Making in the Eastern Partnership Countries” AIMS ♦ Promote effective interaction between civil society and public authorities; ♦ Stimulate the participation of civil society actors in the democratic decision making process; ♦ Strengthen civil society in the region. ACTIVITIES ♦ Working group meetings, awareness-raising actions, workshops; ♦ Preparing two regional studies on strategic and immediate priority issues; ♦ Multilateral regional conferences on relevant issues, notably those covered by the studies; ♦ Drafting a regional strategy for promoting civil participation in decision-making.

Regional Project “Civil Participation in Decision Making in the Eastern Partnership Countries” AIMS ♦ Promote the effective interaction between civil society and public authorities; ♦ Stimulate the participation of civil society actors in the democratic decision making process; ♦ Strengthen civil society in the region. ACTIVITIES ♦ Working group meetings, awareness-raising actions, workshops; ♦ Preparing two regional studies on strategic and immediate priority issues; ♦ Multilateral regional conferences on relevant issues, notably those covered by the studies; ♦ Drafting a regional strategy for promoting civil participation in decision-making.

At the global level, civic space is narrowing and thus efforts to protect and promote it are more important than ever. The OECD defines Civic Space as the set of legal, policy, institutional, and practical conditions necessary for non-governmental actors to access information, express themselves, associate, organise, and participate in public life. This document presents the Civic Space Scan of Finland, which was undertaken at the request of the Finnish government and is the first OECD report of its kind. OECD Civic Space Scans in particular assess how governments protect and promote civic space in each national context and propose ways to strengthen existing frameworks and practices. The Scan assesses four key dimensions of civic space: civic freedoms and rights, media freedoms and digital rights, the enabling environment for civil society organisations, and civic participation in policy and decision making. Each respective chapter of the report contains actionable recommendations for the Government of Finland. As part of the scan process, a citizens' panel - also overseen by the OECD - was held in February 2021 and generated a wide range of recommendations for the government from a representative microcosm of Finnish society.

This publication presents the work carried out in 2014 by the different bodies and sectors of the Council of Europe, highlighting its particular strengths and achievements.

Governments fail to provide the public goods needed for development when its leaders knowingly and deliberately ignore sound technical advice or are unable to follow it, despite the best of intentions, because of political constraints. This report focuses on two forces—citizen engagement and transparency—that hold the key to solving government failures by shaping how political markets function. Citizens are not only queueing at voting booths, but are also taking to the streets and using diverse media to pressure, sanction and select the leaders who wield power within government, including by entering as contenders for leadership. This political engagement can function in highly nuanced ways within the same formal institutional context and across the political spectrum, from autocracies to democracies. Unhealthy political engagement, when leaders are selected and sanctioned on the basis of their provision of private benefits rather than public goods, gives rise to government failures. The solutions to these failures lie in fostering healthy political engagement within any institutional context, and not in circumventing or suppressing it. Transparency, which is citizen access to publicly available information about the actions of those in government, and the consequences of these actions, can play a crucial role by nourishing political engagement.

The book provides an understanding of the three decades of Armenia’s young history – from the perspective of relations between civil society and government institutions. It explores the intricate dynamics between the two entities: by explaining the patterns of relations since 1991 to present. The book offers a comprehensive exploration for understanding the state-society relations, and also delves into the historical backdrop of the region. Drawing on the latest data, the author examines real-world practices exemplifying relational variations and the opportunity structures for Armenia to progress by means of its civil society.

The Black Sea region is a dynamic and complex area in which many national and international actors have key interests, including Russia and the US. The European Union stretches to the sea’s western coast where it meets former Soviet territory as well as EU candidate Turkey. Regional tensions include those over NATO enlargement, a US anti-ballistic missile system, access to the Black Sea, democratization, spheres of interest and the conflict zones of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria. In addition, the region’s close proximity to the Caspian basin offers the prospect of alternative energy resources and routes to western states. The Politics of the Black Sea Region: EU Neighbourhood, Conflict Zone or Future Security Community? explores and examines the many diverse political, security and economic interests that affect the region and the possible outcomes for it. By reviewing the wider history and examining the political systems and policies of the Black Sea nations and organizations as well as analyzing current tensions and future trends, it provides an invaluable, comprehensive and unique political guide to this fascinating area.

This volume presents the major outcomes of the third edition of the Future of Higher Education – Bologna Process Researchers Conference (FOHE-BPRC 3) which was held on 27-29 November 2017. It acknowledges the importance of a continued dialogue between researchers and decision-makers and benefits from the experience already acquired, this way enabling the higher education community to bring its input into the 2018-2020 European Higher Education Area (EHEA) priorities. The Future of Higher Education – Bologna Process Researchers Conference (FOHE-BPRC) has already established itself as a landmark in the European higher education environment. The two previous editions (17-19 October 2011, 24-26 November 2014), with approximately 200 European and international participants each, covering more than 50 countries each, were organized prior to the Ministerial Conferences, thus encouraging a consistent dialogue between researchers and policy makers. The main conclusions of the FOHE Conferences were presented at the EHEA Ministerial Conferences (2012 and 2015), in order to make the voice of researchers better heard by European policy and decision makers. This volume is dedicated to continuing the collection of evidence and research-based policymaking and further narrowing the gap between policy and research within the EHEA and broader global contexts. It aims to identify the research areas that require more attention prior to the anniversary 2020 EHEA Ministerial Conference, with an emphasis on the new issues on rise in the academic and educational community. This book gives a platform for discussion on key issues between researchers, various direct higher education actors, decision-makers, and the wider public. This book is published under an open access CC BY license.

This report aims to highlight the current strengths of the institutional DRR system for agriculture in Belarus as well as indicate existing gaps and capacity needs to further enhance it. A comprehensive assessment is conducted, which includes a general overview of the country’s agricultural sector and outlines the most frequent natural hazards that are impacting the sector. It is followed by an analysis of the existing legal, policy and institutional structure and discusses various components of the system, including e.g. the functioning of early warning systems, assessments of disaster risks, post-disaster needs assessments, including damages and losses assessments and the availability of agricultural insurance for farmers. It concludes by providing recommendations for capacity building interventions to strengthen the current system to reduce the adverse impacts of natural hazards, in particular, floods, landslides and droughts, and climate change on agriculture in Belarus.