What is the aim of the CSO Meter?

The CSO Meter supports regular and consistent monitoring of the environment in which civil society organizations (CSOs) operate in the Eastern Partnership countries. It consists of a set of standards and indicators in 11 different areas to measure both law and practice. It is based on international standards and best practices.

How to use it?

The CSO Meter provides a holistic picture that helps understand the context and identify priorities. The country reports allow partners and the civil society sector to have a clear plan of progressive law reforms needed. The reports so far have formulated over 569 recommendations for future advocacy to improve civic space, many of which partners have already started implementing. The partners have engaged in 36 advocacy actions and ECNL provided technical assistance to 12 initiatives. As a result, from 2017 until the end of 2021 at least 9 CSO laws and policies were adopted or initiated based on issues identified by the CSO Meter.

 

With the CSO Meter and its country and regional reports, you can:

  • Compare findings under each area year by year and track progress or regression.

  • Compare achievements or obstacles in one country to those in another.

  • Propose evidence-based solutions for advocacy and policy-making and organize debates on challenges and proposed recommendations.

  • Prepare infographics or other promotional materials.

  • Assess proposed legislation affecting the environment for CSOs.

  • Develop more detailed thematic reports based on the information collected.

What areas does it cover?

The 11 areas of the CSO Meter are split in two parts:

  • Fundamental rights and freedoms that are essential for the existence of civil society: freedom of association, equal treatment, access to funding, freedom of peaceful assembly, right to participation in decision-making, freedom of expression, right to privacy, state duty to protect and digital rights.

  • Necessary conditions that ensure additional support for the development of civil society (though their existence without fundamental rights and freedoms is not sufficient to ensure an enabling environment), including: state support and state-CSO cooperation.

Read more about the areas in this briefer.

How was it developed?

The CSO Meter was developed through a highly consultative and collaborative process, supported by the European Center for Not-for-Proft Law Stichting (ECNL). It was co-drafted by a core group of experts from partners in each of the six Eastern Partnership countries:

Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center (Armenia)   |   MG Consulting LLC      (Azerbaijan)   |  Civil Society Institute (Georgia)   |   Promo-Lex Association (Moldova)    |   Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research (Ukraine)

It was consulted in 3 rounds with more than 807 CSOs across the region. As such, the CSO Meter is a result of a true local effort and covers issues that partners identified as relevant for their country contexts.

 

In 2020 and 2021, we adjusted the CSO Meter to reflect the lessons learned from the practical implementation and address latest trends, with special focus on emergency measures that restrict fundamental freedoms. We also added a new area on digital rights as well as new protections in the area of freedom of peaceful assembly, concerning digitally-mediated assemblies. The scoring model introduced first in the 2021 reports allow for a more nuanced comparison between countries, areas and years.

 

CSO Meter Hub

We seek to reach out to more organisations and empower a broader group of CSOs and activists to exchange strategies, use the CSO Meter for monitoring and use its evidence for advocacy in their countries. Currently the following organisations are members of the CSO Meter Hub:
Armenia: Eurasia Partnership Foundation | NGO Center CSD NGO | Open Society Foundations-Armenia
Azerbaijan: “Citizen” Research and Development Public Union | SOS Children’s Villages
Georgia: Institute for Development of Freedom of Information - IDFI | Georgian Young Lawyers' Association - GYLA
Moldova: Legal Resources Centre | Independent Journalism Center

Learn more about the details and discover the methodology underpinning the 2023 CSO Meter research here.

 

To see what the CSO Meter has achieved until 2020 and what's next, check out this video:

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funded by the EU logo

The "CSO Meter: Empowered for Action" project is funded by the European Union.