North Caucasus NGO Public Advocacy Project

The specific purpose of the North Caucasus NGO Public Advocacy Project is to empower selected NC communities to more effectively advocate for - and participate in - public interest projects. Fostering conditions for better governance and citizen satisfaction will be sought through development, dissemination and implementation of public interest advocacy mechanisms enabling more meaningful civic participation in local governance decision making. The project hypothesis incorporates the assumption that an informed and active citizenry, one linked to effective public interest NGOs, will enable NC populations to more effectively articulate community needs and seek redress of grievances. By increasing the satisfaction of local populations with their own governments, the subsurface community tensions that motivate violence and separatism, and which tear at the fabric of peace, social cohesion and economic prosperity, are expected to be reduced.