Final report to United States Agency for International Development on small grants program to strengthen democratic practice and citizen participation in Central and Eastern Europe

Report covers the period 3/92-6/95. In all, 14 grants were made, ranging from $1,131 to $24,500. Ten grants were made in the area of democratic practice to strengthen political advocacy NGOs, principally human rights groups, such as the Romanian Helsinki Committee"s Legislative Advocacy Program and the Bulgarian Children at Risk project; and to improve journalism skills through efforts such as those of the Polish Helsinki Foundation"s Human Rights Press Center. Four grants were made in the area of citizen participation to help citizens cooperate with each other and with local government to identify and solve community-wide problems. Grants in this area include those made to support DIALOG, a community mobilization process in Poland and Romania. The grantees have managed to block repressive legislation, and helped to open a closed Parliament to the public; brought the hidden topic of child abuse into public debate and created mechanisms to assist abused and at-risk children; broadly increased the technical understanding of journalists and judges to interpret human rights instruments and issues; and lessened the mistrust between citizens and local officials by opening channels of communication for citizens to engage in public policy decision making.