June 2013In this editionWelcome to the CSO Newsletter 32In this issue we report back from the Civil Society Programme 2013, held on 9-11 May in Istanbul at the EBRD Annual Meeting and Business Forum.

Also, you can learn more about the meetings between the EBRD President, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, and civil society in Romania and the EBRD Board Directors’ meetings with civil society in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia.

As always, we keep you up to date with the Bank’s latest policy and country strategy dialogue with CSOs, recent projects and events.

EBRD-CSO NewsletterKeeping you up to date with the EBRD

June 2013 EBRD-CSO Newsletter 1

The Civil Society Engagement Unit organised the Programme on 9-11 May in Istanbul in close cooperation with colleagues from several departments including Banking, Environment and Sustainability, Office of the Chief Compliance Officer, Evaluation, Communications and the Office of the Secretary General.

As in previous years, the Civil Society Programme was held in parallel with the EBRD Annual Meeting and Business Forum. EBRD staff, senior management, the President and the Board of Directors exchanged views with civil society representatives, reviewed lessons learned from the previous year of operations in the EBRD’s traditional and southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region and discussed ways forward in 2013-14.

The dialogue between the Bank and civil society has traditionally been characterised by environmental and social issues associated with the EBRD’s investment operations but this year a number of new issues related to democracy and sustainability in the energy

sector were brought to the table. In particular, CSOs from both our existing countries of operations and our potential recipient countries in SEMED shared their expectations regarding the EBRD’s role in addressing the issue of democratic development.

Meetings with the EBRD President, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, and the Board of Directors attracted the largest civil society audience. The discussions focused on key strategic issues as seen by participating CSOs, including Article 1 issues in SEMED, Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan; the Bank’s operations in the energy sector and the Energy Operations Policy Review; as well as the EBRD’s good governance policies that are currently under review (Environmental and Social Policy, Public Information Policy Project Complaint Mechanism).

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Civil Society Programme at the EBRD’s Annual Meeting in IstanbulDuring the two-and-a-half days of the Civil Society Programme 2013, 107 CSO representatives from 31 countries participated in 10 sessions of the official programme with 11 parallel sessions organised at the request of CSO’s.

EBRD President meets with civil society in Romania On 18 June, on the occasion of his official visit to Romania, the EBRD President, Suma Chakrabarti, met in Bucharest with representatives from the civil society sector. The meeting was attended by the European Institute of Romania, the Foundation Partnerships for Local Development, the Romanian Academic Society, the Foundation for the Development of Civil Society and CEE Bankwatch. The Bank reiterated the importance of extensively engaging with civil society on its investment projects, periodic reviews of policies, strategies and other institutional documents.

The President discussed participants’ concerns about governance in the post-EU-accession phase, the low level of EU fund absorption and the need to increase administrative capacity, fight corruption, as well as to improve the business climate in order to increase local investment and attract foreign direct investment. Other factors vital to growth were discussed in the context of infrastructure and energy investments, including the EBRD’s involvement in power generation in Romania, alongside environmental challenges, issues concerning privatisation/public-private partnerships and knowledge transfer. Participants also had a chance to engage in dialogue about new prospects related to regional development, the social economy and social entrepreneurship.

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EBRD and social media: opportunities and limitations

Since 2012, the EBRD has increased its use of social media to reach out to a broad range of civil society stakeholders in its countries of operations. This includes social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn, as well as the EBRD blog. At the Civil Society Programme 2013 in Istanbul, a roundtable discussion looked at the role of social media in fostering EBRD-CSO dialogue and at the challenges involved in building a community of followers and pursuing an interactive dialogue.

Erik Grigoryan, the president of an environmental organisation in Armenia, shared the story of the establishment of a Facebook group with over 5,200 members from civil society and the private and public sectors aimed at discussing environmental issues in Armenia. Building CSO capacity with regard to social media is fundamental both for advocacy and fundraising purposes, said Neslihan Özgüneş, the Resident Coordinator of an EU project aimed at providing Technical Assistance to Civil Society Organisations (TACSO). Haluk Yalinkaya, Turkey’s Country Director of Socialbakers, a company engaged in social media marketing and analytics, highlighted the importance of responsiveness, quality of content and geo-tagging in improving the dialogue of IFIs with civil society.

Bearing in mind that IFIs are not expected to interact on social media platforms as individuals would, the roundtable discussion highlighted the substantial benefits of social media participation in terms of enhanced transparency and scaled-up consultation, while opting out may mean losing touch with civil society stakeholders across the EBRD region. The development and implementation of a social media approach targeted at civil society should be based on content optimisation, differentiation of social media tools according to communication objectives and openness to criticism. In this context, managing expectations of the EBRD engagement on social networks will represent a key aspect of the shift in the use of social media: from access to information to consultations.

Economic opportunities and inclusive growth

The special discussion panel of the Civil Society Programme “Expanding economic opportunities and promoting inclusive growth” took place on Saturday 11 May. The panel featured Jackie Kameel, Managing Director of Nahdet El Mahrousa NGO, Egypt; Kacem Bennani Smirès, CEO, Groupe Delassus and President, Sanady Foundation, Morocco; Michaela Bergman, EBRD Chief Social Counsellor and Barbara Rambousek, EBRD Senior Inclusion Specialist. It was moderated by Yörük Kurtaran, General Manager, Community Volunteers Foundation, Turkey. The Panel was open to all Annual Meeting participants.

The panellists explored different ways in which civil society, businesses and international financial institutions (IFIs) can each address the underlying challenges of broad-based inclusive growth and work together to expand the economic opportunities for different groups of society. They emphasised the importance they attach to issues of social justice and economic inclusion and agreed that creating economic opportunities for wide sections within a society clearly requires the active forging of partnerships between IFIs, the private sector and civil society.

To learn more about the panel discussion and watch the video, visit: http://ebrd2013.com/features/ignore-society-at-your-peril/

Civil Society Programme

For more information on EBRD social media visit our Facebook and Twitter accounts: www.facebook.com/ebrdhq www.twitter.com/ebrd

For more information visit: www.ebrd.com/pages/about/workwith/civil/am.shtmlà

June 2013 EBRD-CSO Newsletter 3

Training for compliance officers in Tbilisi and Dushanbe To support international efforts to fight organised crime, money laundering and terrorism financing, the EBRD organised workshops in Tbilisi, Georgia on 4-6 June and in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on 10-12 June. More than 50 legal and compliance officers working for various financial institutions attended the event aimed at assisting business, risk and compliance officers in Georgia and Tajikistan in establishing and upgrading their organisations’ procedures and measures. The participants discussed, reviewed and promoted solutions to the challenges relevant to those countries and within a wider international context. The current series of seminars is part of an EBRD initiative consisting of workshops in Central Asia, the Western Balkans, the Caucasus, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria. Since the early 2000s, the EBRD has organised more than 25 anti-money laundering seminars and trained over 600 participants from across its countries of operations.

Azerbaijan On 8 April, the Board of Directors met with the representatives of Transparency Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan’s Association for the Protection of Women’s Rights, Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Organization and Yuva Humanitarian Center. CSO participants brought to the Directors’ attention issues related to the government’s anti-corruption reforms and the need to tackle petty corruption in the country as well as key gender issues, such as a large gender pay gap, a low representation of women in national politics and low access to finance for women-led businesses. Social and labour issues in the context of the transport infrastructure development in Azerbaijan were also raised.

Russia On 6 June, the Board of Directors met with representatives of the civil society sector in Russia, namely Human Rights Watch, Agency for Social Information, Institute for Comparative Social Research and WWF Russia. At the meeting participants

exchanged their views and concerns regarding the recent trends in civil society development in Russia as well as discussing the role of civil society in the G-20 process. Participants also addressed the key challenges and opportunities in promoting the principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Global Reporting Initiative and the Aarhus Convention in Russia.

Georgia On 12 April, the Board Directors met with the representatives of local CSOs, namely Green Alternative, Georgian Society of Nature Explorers Orchis, Transparency Georgia and Human Rights Center. The participants addressed the key human rights issues, issues of fiscal transparency and public access to information. CSOs also highlighted the deficiencies in the public consultation process associated with investments in the power and energy sector.

Board Consultation Visits In April and June 2013, the delegation of EBRD Board Directors visited Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia to learn more about the key issues that are vital for improving the work of the Bank in each country. Meetings with CSOs were held in Baku, Moscow and Tbilisi to seek the views of the third sector on the Bank’s operations and discuss the recent political, economic, social and environmental developments in each particular country.

EBRD associated petroleum gas flaring utilisationUnder the Global Gas Flaring Partnership, the EBRD and the World Bank are promoting active dialogue and collaboration of all involved stakeholders to secure a more productive, efficient and environmentally friendly method of gas production.

The EBRD organised a series of workshops in Azerbaijan (23 May), Kazakhstan (28 May) and Russia (18 June) to present the recent study on associated petroleum gas (APG) flaring to a wide range of interested stakeholders. The study, commissioned by the EBRD and the World Bank, looks into ways of reducing gas flaring and how to develop sustainable business practices in the oil and gas sectors of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.

At the workshops, government representatives, technical and financial representatives from oil companies and the business community as well as representatives of civil society had the opportunity to discuss developments in the sector and how to overcome barriers that currently delay the implementation of available solutions.

The EBRD/World Bank report for each country will be publicly available on the EBRD’s web site in late July 2013.

For more information visit: www.ebrd.com/pages/news/events/gas-flaring-conferences.shtml

Dialogue

www.ebrd.com/pages/news/press/2013/130617a.shtmlà

For more information visit:www.ebrd.com/civilsocietyIn brief

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For general information about the EBRD visit: www.ebrd.com/aboutà

Recent projectsDriving innovation in regional agriculture in Turkey: A €75 million financing to TürkTraktör was arranged by the EBRD to support its modernisation and expansion as well as further research and development. The development of new environmentally friendly technology will help the manufacturer of

agricultural machinery grow and increase exports and the country better utilise its agricultural potential.

€10.3 million extra for Shymkent wastewater modernisation in Kazakhstan: The EBRD has increased its financing to Vodnye Resursy Marketing, a private water utility company in Shymkent for the extension of wastewater services. The new customers are up to 3,500 private household (members) who are not currently connected to a wastewater network.

The Russian Sustainable Energy Financing Facility (RuSEFF): Promoting energy efficiency is at the top of the EBRD’s agenda in Russia. The EBRD’s US$ 300 million RuSEFF credit line contributes to this priority by supporting modernisation, reducing CO2 emissions and energy costs. RuSEFF builds capacity of local financial institutions to market and finance sustainable energy. Since spring 2013, the facility is also mainstreaming sustainable energy and energy efficient technologies in the energy intensive residential sector, which is supported through technical cooperation funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance, while the Bank is also assisting the government to improve the regulatory architecture.

For more information visit: www.ebrd.com/pages/project

Key dates and contactsPublic comments period

Country strategies

Georgia 11/06/2013 - 26/07/2013

Montenegro 24/07/2013 - 06/09/2013

Turkmenistan 16/07/2013 - 30/08/2013

Sectoral strategies and policies

Energy Strategy Third quarter 2013

Project Complaint Mechanism Fourth quarter 2013

Environmental and Social Policy Fourth quarter 2013

Public Information Policy Fourth quarter 2013

Board Consultation Visits

Russia June 2013

Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan July 2013

Morocco September 2013

ContactsCivil Society Engagement Unit

Biljana Radonjic Ker-Lindsay Head of Civil Society Engagement Unit

Olga Filippova Principal Civil Society Manager (Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, Baltic states)

Luisa Balbi Civil Society Manager (Western Balkans, Central Europe, SEMED)

Aiko Kado Civil Society Manager (Civil Society Capacity Enhancement Framework)

Fax: +44 20 7338 6102 / Tel: +44 20 7338 6000 Email: cso@ebrd.com

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development One Exchange Square London EC2A 2JN United Kingdom Web site: www.ebrd.com

At a glanceWorking with the EBRD: A Guide for Civil Society Organisations

What are CSOs for the EBRD? How does the EBRD engage with CSOs? How can CSOs work with us?

Civil society plays a pivotal role in enhancing the Bank’s accountability and transparency and enables us to deliver better projects and policies. The new Guide for civil society organisations aims to help

answer your questions on when and how to engage with us. Please see our latest publication available to download at:

www.ebrd.com/pages/research/publications/guides/civil-society-guide