On October 8, for the first time in Azerbaijan, a single online platform for Public Councils - publicishura.az - was presented.

The moderator of the event, project expert Jasarat Huseynzadeh, noted that the platform is part of the USAID-funded Civil Society for Transparency (ECSOFT) program in partnership with FHI 360, ICNL and MG Consulting. Creating an online portal for Public Councils ”project.

Jasarat Huseynzadeh said that various steps have been taken recently to create and develop mechanisms for public participation and public control in our country. It was noted that the establishment and expansion of the activities of Public Councils under the central and local executive authorities to increase the role of civil society organizations in this process is one of the important requirements of the day. President Ilham Aliyev's decree dated February 27, 2020 approved the "National Action Plan for 2020-2022 to promote open government." The Action Plan states that "increasing the importance of Public Councils, increasing the number of Public Councils established in government agencies, expanding the scope of issues discussed in the Councils, strengthening awareness and advocacy on the activities of Public Councils and their coverage on government websites."

Jay Singh, USAID Mission Director for Azerbaijan, said similar platforms exist in some countries. The head of the USAID mission noted that his organization is pleased to contribute to the development of public participation in Azerbaijan and one of its main mechanisms, Public Councils. Jay Singh stressed that USAID is ready to support Azerbaijan's efforts in this direction.

Speaking about the ECSOFT program, the director of MG Consulting LLC, an expert on NGO legislation, Mohammad Guluzadeh, said that the communityishura.az website is the second platform developed under this program. Earlier, the E-Control Platform (www.enezaret.az) was launched. Mohammad Guluzadeh said that extensive cooperation has been established with government agencies within the ECSOFT program and trainings have been organized for employees of those agencies. Extensive cooperation has been established with NGOs in various areas of the program.

Then, Jasarat Huseynzadeh, a project expert and head of the publicishura.az website, made a visual presentation of the site and informed about the work done.

It was noted that until the end of last year, there were public councils under 12 central executive authorities. As a result of the measures taken under the "National Action Plan", the number of Public Councils under the central executive power has reached 20. Elections to Public Councils under 14 ministries, state committees and services were held during the first 9 months of this year. In this regard, the creation of the "publicishura.az" platform was launched in early 2021 in order to contribute to the "National Action Plan".

.

The main goal of the project is to increase public awareness of Public Councils and increase transparency in the work of government agencies by interacting with them. The platform covers 30 Public Councils under the central and local executive authorities. As the number of Public Councils increases, so will the number of councils on the platform. The site consists of news, announcements, elections, legislation, publications, reports, multimedia and Public Councils sections. The Public Councils section has a catalog of Public Councils under the central executive power, local executive power and other bodies. A database on Public Councils created for these sections has been formed. In order to ensure functionality and accessibility, sub-sites for Public Councils have been created through the platform. The site also has technical capabilities for Public Councils, such as managing its own subsites. These sub-sites have opportunities to form the base of the Public Council by sections.

At the same time, the project carried out information, awareness and monitoring activities related to the elections to the Public Council under 14 central executive authorities and 3 other bodies during the first 9 months of this year. The Public Councils were informed about the elections on the website, social networks and an electronic poster was published. The monitoring took into account 13 proposals on legislative issues related to the elections to the Public Councils under various agencies.

Alimammad Nuriyev, Coordinator of the Open Government Platform, Zaur Ibrahimov, Member of the Supervisory Board of the State Support Agency for NGOs, Aynur Sabitova, Head of the Human Rights and Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Justice, Elshad Mammadov, Chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection and the chairmen of the Public Councils noted the importance of this project in terms of expanding the capacity of the Public Councils for information exchange and interaction, informing the public and increasing control over the activities of the Public Councils, including elections.