Who collects which data in my country? How do I react if the institution does not publish? How can I read information from PDF documents? And which graphics do I use to clearly present the knowledge gained in this way? Nine civil society actors from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine dealt with such questions at our online seminar “Power of Data Supporting Women and Environment” from August 31 to September 6.
The basic idea of the program funded as part of #CivilSocietyCooperation is the finding that access to data is a key prerequisite for political participation. In the EaP countries, however, civil society (e.g. associations, foundations, non-governmental organizations, initiatives) often lacks the know-how to find such data, to link it and to prepare it in a way that is easy to understand. In addition, there are often administrative obstacles.
The participants work in their respective countries on two issues that are receiving increasing attention there: women’s/gender rights and environment/health. In order to further strengthen them for this work, we will provide them with additional know-how in our program this week, both in handling data and in organizing workshops.
In a second step, they will pass on these skills in workshops in Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine to participants from civil society institutes of information in the respective countries.