U.S. Funds Pro-government Structures in Azerbaijan

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID, intends to implement development programs for 10 million dollars in Azerbaijan in 2013. In an interview with Voice of America, this was said by USAID Assistant Administrator for Eurasia Pace Alexander.

According to her, USAID has implemented programs in three areas, economic development, democratic governance, and health in Azerbaijan. However, Azerbaijan has challenges to cope with in the health sector, so cooperation in this field is discontinued.

Asked to comment on the view that the USAID funded largely pro-government organizations, she said, "Our aim is to achieve the participation of citizens in the legal process. It would be nice to reach a situation where the project will be divided into governmental and non-governmental, and to evaluate the results.

Often the implementation of projects is related to government cooperation. Sixty percent of our business is linked with democracy and self-government., and we realize many of them work together with the government. This allows you to see our work at the right level."

What are the benefits of this 1.5 million dollars project with the Confederation of Lawyers of Azerbaijan whose chairman, Ali Huseynli, is the head of the parliamentary committee on legal policy? On this question Pace Alexander said that the main objective is facilitating contacts between the government and the society.

"This program plays an important role in the adoption of the law on public legal aid. I was surprised that in Azerbaijan, the poor are not provided free legal aid. As far as I know, this bill has already passed through the first reading.

In addition, the Consortium through the University Khazar is preparing a new generation of human rights lawyers. For the country, it is important to train specialists in this sector. We control the activities of this group and we hope that it will be successful," said Alexander.

Speaking of liberalization in the field of democracy, human rights, fair elections, freedom of assembly and expression, Alexander said that the implementation of projects in these areas has been allocated $ 6 million.

"We have three main objectives: the participation of citizens in government, activity of society and citizens, and explanation of the independent media, justice and Parliament to people," said the representative of USAID.

The organization this year has also signed an agreement with the Council for State Support to NGOs under the President of Azerbaijan, and an agreement on the project in the field of socio-economic development.

The cost of the project, calculated for 5 years, is 14 million dollars. USAID, and the other half by the government of Azerbaijan allocate half of this amount. The aim of the project is implementation of specific community projects. In particular, an asphalt road was laid in Guba on this project.

This interview shows that American donors finance more projects of pro-government agencies than independent ones in Azerbaijan. Therefore, the charges by Azerbaijani authorities to NGOs who receive grants from the United States are demagoguery, designed to mislead the public. -06D-