Azerbaijani Communities Seek Partners to Sustain Development Progress
Now in its second year, USAID’s Community Development Activity (CDA) program is engaging Azerbaijan’s citizens and communities in identifying and addressing local needs. Not only are CDA communities promoting successful cooperation with local government bodies, they are now moving toward the next level of sustainability by seeking partnerships to leverage resources and deepen impact. Partnerships with other community stakeholders, such as CBOs, NGOs, the private sector, and other donors, will complement the CDA program and bring greater benefits to the communities themselves.
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| AZRIP trainer provides procurement and contract training session for Privolnoye CDC members |
One such partnership has been established between CHF and the Azerbaijan Rural Investment Project (AzRIP) to share best-practices and implement complementary projects in the Jalilabad region, Mugan-Salyan zone. AzRIP promotes community project investments to improve the living standards and increase the use of infrastructure services and plans to implement about 450 community projects over four years. CDA and AzRIP's shared objectives and common target communities in the Mugan-Salyan zone create an excellent opportunity to work collaboratively to benefit rural Azerbaijan and expand participation in community issues and local government.
In December 2006, AzRIP and its local NGO partner, ELAT Agro-Consulting Center, conducted informational sessions and procurement and contract training workshops for CDA communities in Uzuntepe, Guneshli, Babakhanly, and Privolnoye. During a recent follow up visit, AzRIP Deputy Program Director Gulbaniz Ganbarova spoke to the CDA communities about previous projects completed by the Jalilabad villages. She also expressed enthusiasm about working cooperatively with CHF to train, develop, and implement joint projects.
Currently, the communities are in the process of identifying, prioritizing, and preparing project proposals. One proposal is for an irrigation system for Uzuntepe. A partnership is proposed in which the government will construct the main channel and CHF/AzRIP will work with the community to create a network of distribution channels to the village's agricultural plots. Both AzRIP and CHF will provide shared technical-assistance to targeted communities in project design and management, procurement of permits and services, maintenance, and sustainability.
With the CDA and AzRIP partnership on the road to success and other alliances in the works, CHF is paving the way towards creating enduring stakeholder linkages. The long-term sustainability and benefits of the CDA program will long be felt by the people and Azerbaijani society who are increasing their capacity to build community bridges to address local needs.
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