Record of relevant researches performed by ERC
The Economic Research Centre (ERC) is a policy-research oriented non-profit think tank with a mission to facilitate sustainable economic development and good governance in the new public management system of Azerbaijan. The ERC was established in 1999. ERC’s vision is of effective and sustainable civic engagement in all levels of public administration and thus more citizens’ access to the related information through building favorable interactions between the public, private and civil society. The Center’s major research dimensions cover the issues on popularizing the economic and business knowledge in the society, enhancing transparency and accountability, public participation and Decentralized Governance issues.
During last two years, ERC’s activities were fruitful and successful. In order to reach its strategy goals, the Center implemented more than 30 projects within last 2 years. New donors were involved to implement these projects and so there was achieved diversity of donors. The World Bank, USAID, Counterpart, CHF, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Azerbaijan, Fredrich Ebert Foundation, State Council for assistance to NGOs are in the list of donors that the Center was cooperating within last 2 years. Besides, the Center also continued its cooperation with its previous donors (USAID, OSI, Oxfam GB, ICCO, WLI, Counterpart International, Eurasia, Partnership Foundation, Council for Economic Education).
• “Budget Transparency and Budget Control” program (2004 - ongoing). The project is supported by Oxfam Great Britain and Open Society Institute’s Assistance Foundation. In the framework of the program monitoring of investment budget allocated to the infrastructure projects has been conducted.
• “Support to Economic Education” Program (2004 - ongoing). The project aims at promoting active economic education methods and increased teaching quality at schools. Financed by CEE and held in various regions across the country, the annual workshops involve teachers to develop their skills in teaching of economics.
• “Alternative Inflation Rate and Model Development” project has been launched since 2009. The project is financed by the Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Co-operation ( SECO). One of the main project directions is to build econometric model for forecasting of inflation and measuring impact level of factors influencing to inflation level in Azerbaijan. Nevertheless, carry out observations of changes occurred in consumer price index in 22 regions.
• “Strengthening Local Self-Governance in Azerbaijan” program. The project acquired financial support from Oxfam GB and ICCO (Netherlands) organizations. The aim of the project is raise trust of communities toward municipalities, improve the position of municipalities in dialogue with government and attain enhancement of municipalities through increasing financial resources in Azerbaijan.
• “The Azerbaijan Producers Survey: Dutch Disease and Financial Crisis” is a research based project financed by US Department of State. The project has been implemented by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA) and Economic Research Center. Moreover, a special survey has been conducted among business parties operating in Azerbaijan.The survey instrument was designed to address two important questions. First, has the recent increase in revenues to producers of Azerbaijani crude oil and natural gas led to changes in producer behaviour and performance consistent with the predictions of the Dutch Disease theory? Second, did the crisis of 2008-2009 that began in the US and European financial markets have a measurable effect on the activities of Azerbaijani businesses?
• “Agricultural Input Market” launched since 2009. The project has been financed by Oxfam Novib. Current condition of agricultural system of Azerbaijan has been researched through statistical analyses and economic-mathematic methods within the project.
• “Evaluation of Impact of State Budget Expenses On Social Field from Macroeconomic Equilibrium Perspective” project. It has been launched since 2009 and financed by the Civil Society Project of Counterpart Organization. It has been started to analyze social related state budget expenditures. Furthermore, impact of global financial crisis on the labor market; competitiveness of businesses has been researched.
• “Household Budget Survey Methodology Development” project (2008-2010) implements with financial assistance of USAID and organizational support of Counterpart and World Learning organizations. The main activity carried out within the project has been survey among 3000 households. The survey aimed evaluation of access possibilities of population to social services. The project will serve for strengthening of Azerbaijan state’s poverty reduction and regions development program strategy, as well as methodological development of household budget survey.
• “Mirror statistics” in Azerbaijan Republic and justification of foreign trade indicators” project (2010). The aim of the research is to provide assistance on increase the quality of foreign trade statistics in Azerbaijan Republic and fill the gaps exist in this area. The main obligation of the project is to attain the justification of statistical indicators characterizing foreign trade and achieve its correction.
ERC has implemented some project related to above proposal and some projects are still in progress. “Comparative analysis of problems and questions of joining Azerbaijan to World Trade Organization”, “Budget Transparency and Budget Control”,
”Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industry”, “The Role of Municipalities in Poverty Reduction”, ‘Public Awareness on Needs-based Social Assistance mechanism and monitoring of state allocation into this sphere” are still being carried out by the center.
1. «Transparent Budget » Program (2002-2003 years)
2. Program «Increasing Role of Local Governments in Poverty Reduction (2004-2006-year and still ongoing)
3. Program on “Budget Transparency and Budget Control” (2004-2006-year and it still continues)
4. Program on “Support to Economic Education” (2004-2006-year and still ongoing)
5. Program on participation in activities of NGOs Coalition on “Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industry” (2004-2006-year and still underway)
6. Program on «Support to Azerbaijan’s Accession to the WTO (2004-2006 years and still underway)
7. Program on «Monitoring and Audit of usage of local resources in the construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline” (2004-2005-year)
8. Program on «Monitoring which was carried out in pilot territories in connection with an establishment of the needs-based social assistance» (2006 –year and still ongoing)
9. “Increasing of institutional capacity of municipalities in order to support Poverty Reduction Strategy Program. (2007-2008)
10. “Capacity Building in Local Entrepreneurship so as to minimize negative impacts of WTO Accession” (2007)
11. “Monitoring carried out in pilot territories in connection with an establishment of the needs-based social assistance”(2006-2009)
12. “Alternative Calculation of Inflation” (2006-2012)
13. “Three Views of EITI Implementation in Azerbaijan.”(2006)