transparency

The lady at the Khan-Uul District Citizen’s Hall, a “Senior Specialist Citizen’s Representative,” was supposed to be showing us around the building. We had an appointment all set up and we were on time. She, however, was blabbing with some locals while we cooled our heels on hard chairs in the Hall for maybe half an hour. I was annoyed -- until I understood what was really happening -- but I am getting way ahead of the story.

I recently traveled to Luhansk, Ukraine, to witness alumni of the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program in action. In a region filled with challenges—lagging industry, political division, and unemployment—one alumnus I met with is offering hope and driving positive change. Meet Volodymyr Shcherbachenko , who started a local NGO, the East Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives (EUCCI), which currently works to protect homeowner’s rights and open spaces like parks, forests, and neighborhoods.

On behalf of IREX, I am pleased to announce that 22 diligent Azerbaijani students and their mentors won netbooks and flipcameras in a recent national contest for the ‘Best Research Essays Using Internet.' One hundred and sixty nine candidates entered from all over the country, notably Sumgait, Guba, Shirvan, Imishli, Ganja, Gazakh, Sheki, Zagatala, Ismayilli and Mingachevir. Plagiarism was penalised, with positive results.

Building on the momentum from the first day of IREX and IWPR's “Emerging Technologies, Emerging Democracies” conference in Erbil, Dr. Dr Adil Matloob, Advisor to Minister of Science and Technology, announced the details of Iraq's groundbreaking e-governance plan, saying that Iraq needs to address critical areas "to bring to light the transformational impact of information, communication and technology tools."