Civil society has played a leading, often pivotal, role in fostering democratic change across Europe and Eurasia over the last decade and a half. Civic organizations have stood on the ‘front lines’ of democratization: as key protagonists in democratic breakthroughs; taking on new, expanded roles in advocacy, oversight, and serving citizens; and in some countries responding to more restrictive laws and political environments.

CDPF has organized a launch event for CSO Sustainability Index 2011, Armenia on 13 July, 2012, at Congress Hotel, Yerevan.
The opening speeches included speeches by Nick Stokes, USAID Governance and Democracy Officer, and Alex Sardar, Chief of Party at Counterpart International Armenia. They noted about the challenges and successes that Armenian civil society had in 2011 and previous years and appreciated the work done by CSOs in Armenia that contribute to the democratic advancement. Afterwards, Tatevik Margaryan presented the methodology of CSO Sustainability Index, and Armenian CSO 2011 Index in seven dimensions, including the main achievements and issues CSOs faced in each aspect.

In 2011 Armenia CSO Sustainability Index is 4.0, which is an average indicator in the scale 1-7. The lowest indicator is the financial sustainability indicator (5.2), which shows the CSOs’ vulnarable financial sustainability and dependence from donor funds. In contrary, advocacy field was marked with CSO achievements (with indicator equal to 3.4) including successes in different ecological and legal initiatives. In the regional scale, CSO Sustainability index sets Armenia in the second place right after Ukraine, though in legal framework dimension Armenia is behind Georgia as well, and in the financial sustainability dimension Armenia is in 5th place, after Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and Moldova. The full report on CSO Sustainability Index 2011 Armenia can be found HERE.

After the presentation of CSO Sustainability Index 2011 results, the floor was given to participants for question-answers and discussion. The questions concentrated on the Index methodology and comparative assessments.

The event was attended by 41 participants, including local and international organizations, government, business and donor community representatives, as well as media.

The event was widely covered by  TV and radio channels,  newspapers and online media. Below see the links of the online media coverage: http://www.nt.am/en/news/168922/
http://www.nt.am/am/news/168922///?hayworld
http://www.aravot.am/en/2012/07/13/90449/
http://www.aravot.am/2012/07/13/90449/
http://www.arka.am/ru/news/society/organizatsii_grazhdanskogo_obshchestva_armenii_v_2011_godu_stolknulis_s_trudnostyami_v_pravovoy_i_ob/ http://arka.am/am/news/society/_2011_ՀՀ+քաղաքացիական+հասարակության+կազմակերպությունները+2011թ.ին+դժվարությունների+են+հանդիպել+իրավական+և+հասարակական+ոլորտներում.+հետազոտություն/ http://www.7or.am/am/news/view/37882/
http://www.haynews.am/hy/1342081799
http://www.aysor.am/am/news/2012/07/13/tatevik-margaryan/
http://www.panorama.am/am/society/2012/07/13/report/

The photos from the event can be found here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/110190565932688201307/CSOSustainabilityIndex2011ArmeniaLaunchEvent http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151289500307796.565374.160841667795&type=3