Methodology 2022

CSO Meter process

The CSO Meter supports regular and consistent monitoring of the environment in which CSOs operate in the EaP countries. It consists of a set of standards and indicators in eleven different areas to measure both Law and Practice. It is based on international standards and best practices. The CSO Meter monitoring framework was developed by a core group of experts from ECNL and partners from the six EaP countries.

Through assessment and consultation with the core group of CSOs, in 2020, ECNL identified several emerging trends relevant to monitor in the EaP region, including digital rights, online assemblies, digital fundraising, climate activism, collective claims, strategic litigation against public participation and attacks against activists. As a result, in 2021, ECNL worked with partners to incorporate these trends into the CSO Meter. The major change was the development of a new Area 11 (Digital Rights) covering the legal framework for digital rights, the practice related to their exercise (including attempts to limit digital rights through internet and communication shutdowns, pressure on bloggers and online activists, etc.) and the need to ensure that any digital technologies developed and used are human rights compliant. Another notable change was adding new indicators under Area 4 (Freedom of Peaceful Assembly) to reflect the new international protections and practices of digitally-mediated assemblies.

ECNL has worked with the methodology experts from the Research Institute on Social Development (RESIS) since 2020 on adapting the CSO Meter methodology package to enable both qualitative and quantitative comparisons of the different areas of the enabling environment across the EaP countries and relevant years. The proposal for the scoring model was consulted on and tested with the extended regional CSO Meter Hub via email and online events. With it, we aim to:

1. assess the environment for civil society in each of the eleven areas;
2. enable tracking of developments/progress throughout the relevant years country by country; and
3. regionally compare the CSO environments.

The country partners, which, together with other CSOs, are part of the CSO Meter Hub, conducted the monitoring process and drafted the narrative country report. They also established an Advisory Board in each country composed of expert representatives of key local stakeholders. The members of the boards have two main tasks: to review the narrative reports and to assign scores for every Standard based on the narrative reports.

Based on the expanded CSO Meter tool and updated Methodology package, the partners, together with CSO Meter Hub members, implemented the monitoring and scoring process in a collaborative way and started the preparation of the country reports. Based on the country reports, ECNL prepared the regional report.

Monitoring and preparation of reports  

The country partners with ECNL's support prepare the country reports in several key stages:

Data collection and analysis

All six partners conducted extensive desk research and reviewed numerous relevant legal acts, amendments, reports, and articles. In addition, they implemented other data collection methods:

• Request for access to information: Partners in the EaP region (except for Belarus partners) submitted a total of 43 requests to access information on relevant areas of the CSO Meter to different state institutions, such as the State Registry, State Revenue Committee, the Police, and the Investigative Committee, in Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, Youth Foundation and NGO Support Agency; State Fiscal Service, Public Services Agency, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Education, President`s Office, National Bank, etc.
• Interviews with relevant stakeholders: Partners conducted a total of 82 interviews with mainly CSOs, and few different stakeholders (state institutions representatives and international organisations).
• Focus group discussions: The partners organised a total of 22 focus group discussions with 185 CSO participants coming from both the capital cities and from different regions in the countries.
• Brief consultative exchanges: The partners conducted brief consultative exchanges with 33 CSO experts and policy makers to clarify isolated aspects of a certain issue.

Drafting country reports and validation process

The partners prepared draft narrative reports based on the data analysis under each Standard within Law and Practice of the 11 areas that are subject to monitoring.

• ECNL reviewed the draft narrative reports in several rounds in terms of completeness, accuracy, logic of argumentation and quality of findings. The researchers implemented ECNL’s suggestions and instructions and revised the report. Afterwards, ECNL organised an online meeting to harmonise the reports between the countries, to ensure the comparability and regional validity of data for the later scoring stage.
• After this review process, the country partners sent the narrative reports to the Advisory Board members in their country for review. The individual feedback and subsequent discussion were organised by these countries with total feedback received from a total of 37 Advisory Board members. The partners finalised the reports and shared them with ECNL upon the received feedback and discussion on the narrative reports and their recommendations with the Advisory Board members.

Limitations of the country and regional reports:

• The reports cover the period of January-November 2022. The important developments for civil society that occurred between the period of data collection and finalisation of the report were included in the executive summary of the report but were not considered when assigning scores.
• The report does not explicitly cover the environment of CSOs in the breakaway regions (for example, the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova). These territories are outside of the control of the constitutional authorities of the respective countries.

Scoring process

Measurement tool for the scoring process

For the scoring process a 7-point scale is used. The researchers and Advisory Board members assigned scores for each specific standard (separately for Law and for Practice). The score was assigned based on the research findings on the quality of legislation and the application of the specific standard in practice.

The extreme values of the scale are conceived as the extreme/ideal situation or environment. For example, (1) is an extremely unfavourable (authoritarian) environment, while (7) is an extremely favourable (ideal democratic) environment for CSOs. The scores in 2022 are compared against the 2021 scores in this regional report which serves as baseline year.

Stages of the scoring process

The scoring process was conducted in three main stages:

1. Country researchers assigned scores. In each country, country researchers provided the scores for each standard in each area of the narrative country report, taking into consideration the country context and the regional perspective.
2. Advisory Board members in each country assigned scores. 52 Advisory Board members assigned scores, and the country partners collected, checked for completeness, and organised the scores in an Excel template.
3. Preparation of final scores. ECNL, together with the methodology experts, applied the following calculation method:

• An arithmetic average is calculated from the Advisory Board members’ scores for each standard.
• The final value of each standard is then calculated according to a formula in which the reference score participates with 50 per cent, and the Advisory Board members’ average score with 50 per cent.
• The value of each area is then calculated as the average value of the final values of each standard.