Media Support State Fund is prepared to provide grants

A press conference on funding for NGOs in the first half of 2013 was held on Friday in the International Media Center by the executive director of the NGO State Support Council, Farasat Gurbanov.

He called on the leaders of NGOs to familiarize themselves with the terms of the competition, to pay serious attention to preparing the statement of the problem, and to justify the project and its budget. Possible errors can cause rejection of the project financing.

For an application to be adopted, it must pass a three-stage examination. In the first stage each application will be examined by official experts; in the second stage - independent experts, in the third stage -  members of the NGO State Support  Council -  a total of 24 experts.

An Appeal Commission to deal with complaints will be created for those projects that do not pass the competition.

Gurbanov also said that the State Council intends to determine the coefficient of public activity of NGOs, and therefore, the preparation of standards has begun. 

According to these standards, the NGOs will be classified as developed, developing, and newly created.

The Executive Director also voiced complaints against NGOs. In particular, he complained of negligence in reporting. Finally, Gurbanov noted that applications must be submitted by December 28 of this year.

Note that most of these funds are for pro-government media. In addition, the State Fund does not support projects that criticize government, and those which note the violations of democracy norms, and political rights and freedoms.

For the first half of next year, the State Fund will allocate 1,200,000 manat in 11 directions. For each area 10 grants will be approved; of them  240,000 manat  are allocated to regional NGOs. The funds for the foundation, established in 2007, are allocated from the state budget. -05C04-