OSCE Office in Baku awards civil society projects addressing environment and security issues

The OSCE Office in Baku announced results of the second round of Call for Proposals within the Civic Action for Security and Environment (CASE) initiative, a small grants programme supporting civil society organizations to become strong partners, to the Government as well as to other stakeholders, in jointly addressing environmental and security challenges.

Grant recipients were identified by the CASE National Screening Board comprised of representatives from the UNDP, Statoil, the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry of Azerbaijan and the OSCE Office in Baku.

The Screening Board confirmed grant awards to the following NGOs in the second round: “Yaddash” Educational Youth Public Union, Ganja Regional Economic Advice Centre, "Ecoleks” Ecologic Legal Centre and “Energy and Ecology” Public Union. Their projects focus on capacity building, awareness-raising and networking in areas such as mitigation of landslide risks, hazardous waste management, and strengthening the youth participation in environmental protection.

“We congratulate the four winners of the second call for proposals and hope their projects will contribute to an increased understanding of environmental security risks, their causes and ways to mitigate them” said Jan Olsson, Head of Economic and Environmental Unit of the OSCE Office in Baku.

“The CASE-Azerbaijan Programme empowers ordinary citizens and civil society organizations to be more environmentally conscious and take on a more active role in protecting their local environment. It also provides a new platform for exchange of information and debate on environmental security between local communities, industry and Government officials” Olsson concluded.

The CASE programme is part of the Environment and Security (ENVSEC) initiative for the South Caucasus region. ENVSEC is a joint partnership between the OSCE, the UN Development Programme, the UN Environment Programme, the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe, as well as NATO as an associate member.

The CASE programme in Azerbaijan is funded by Statoil and the Government of Austria.


/APA/