In 1999, the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe launched an innovative program called “Working Together–Networking Women in the Caucasus.” “Networking Women” was designed in response to the needs of women NGO activists for greater cross-border networking and NGO development in an historically and ethnically divided region, and to the need for promoting and advancing women in societies where men have traditionally played dominant roles in the community.

Through a range of training, civic education, NGO development and cross-border networking activities, the program's first two years measurably enhanced the leadership and capacity of women leaders and their NGOs, advanced women's participation in public life, and created a strong regional network of women's organizations with valuable ties to NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as well as to IDEE's own Centers for Pluralism network. Now in its third year, "Networking Women in the Caucasus" will build on the program's earlier achievements by continuing to increase the capabilities of regional NGOs and women NGO leaders in the NGO sector, and to promote more effective cooperation across borders. IDEE will also continue to work closely with its regional NGO partners, Caucasus-based organizations with extensive grassroots experience, on identifying participants and organizing in-country activities. Through in-country and cross-border forums led by experienced NGO leaders, this year's program will focus on fostering greater citizen participation in community life and on conflict resolution and reconciliation. This year's program will include:

1.     Advanced Training of Trainers (ATOT)
IDEE will organize a five-day workshop to be taught by an international group of experienced trainers. The workshop will focus on giving additional skills to the team of nine trainers (three from each country) who carried out three training workshops for NGO activists during last year’s program. The advanced training topics will include communications, negotiations, planning, and adult learning techniques.  The workshop will also attempt to provide them with the basic capacity to train new, less experienced trainers. A number of trainers will be selected to assist in leading the subsequent Training of Trainers program.

2.    Training of Trainers (TOT)
As a follow-up to the ATOT, IDEE will organize a five-day workshop for 27 activists (nine from each country) on the facilitation skills for leading community forums as well as on basic training skills in their own communities and across borders.

3.    U.S.-based Study Tour on Conflict Resolution Techniques
Six women (two from each country) will be invited to Washington for an intensive two-week program entitled “Coalition-Building Through Conflict Resolution.” The program will consist of one- and two-day workshops, meetings, and site visits to organizations working on similar issues in the context of inter-ethnic and cross-border coalition-building, as well as meetings with funding organizations working in the Caucasus.

4.   Community Forums
In conjunction with its regional NGO partners, IDEE will arrange a series of six community forums (two in each country) based on the American town hall meeting model. Trainers from the TOT workshop will organize and lead forums involving community and NGO leaders. Trainers will facilitate public discussions on important issues affecting these communities, and assist community members in proposing solutions to these problems.

5.  Cross-Border Forums
Following the community forums, trainers will organize a series of three cross-border forums. These forums will be similar in format but will concentrate on issues requiring cross-border cooperation and coalition-building. Participants in the U.S.-based program on conflict resolution will take part in the cross-border community forums in order to apply the skills they developed in the U.S.

6.    NGO Newsletter
A quarterly NGO newsletter will be launched to encourage broader cooperation among NGOs in the region and promote the systematic sharing of information. All previous participants in the program will be invited to submit articles on their activities, allowing other NGOs to learn from their experiences and initiate similar programs in their own communities. The newsletter will be distributed primarily by e-mail and posted in Armenian, Azeri, Georgian, and Russian on the internet, but copies for each country will also be printed in the regional language and distributed to those without internet access.  IDEE and its NGO partners will select an editorial board that will eventually serve as a permanent coordinating structure for networking women in the Caucasus.

7.   Small Grants Program
In the small grants competitions offered in the program’s previous two years, IDEE provided financial and material assistance to NGOs for projects promoting greater cooperation among participants and the transfer of skills and knowledge to communities. The expanded small grants competition for 2001- 2002 will award monetary grants for twenty-five to thirty projects that promote cross-border or cross-regional cooperation. The grants will go towards organizational expenses and costs of travel, the exchange of information and experiences, and/or the development and translation of materials.

In the second year of the program, eight women participated in a training of trainers workshop held in Washington, D.C, focused on developing leadership and training skills. The program explored the characteristics of a good democratic leader, visions of leadership, effective communication with others, motivation, managing and leading a team, and making decisions.

Upon completion of the training of trainers, the participants formed multi-national training teams that led a series of workshops called the School of Democratic Leaders in each of the three countries. The workshops were held in March and April 2001, with the assistance of experienced trainers from Central and Eastern Europe.

During the first phase of the program, several issues common to the whole region were identified – e.g. civic education, reconciliation, working with refugees and internally displaced persons, and gender-based violence – that could be more effectively addressed by a regional coalition.  In the program's second phase, which culminated in an advanced training seminar and regional NGO assembly in July, sixty participants from the region came together to share experiences and make new contacts, suggest solutions to common problems, plan joint projects, and evaluate the program's second year.

The second year of Working Together: Networking Women in the Caucasus effectively promoted the role of women NGO leaders in the civic sector; provided NGO management, democratic and leadership skills to a wide range of women NGO activists and men and women in the local communities; strengthened regional and cross-border cooperation among NGOs in the Caucasus; created a lasting, cross-regional of women's NGOs by encouraging genuine multi-national programs that would mutually benefit participating NGOs; developed the first women's cross-border training team in the Caucasus and enabled eight women NGO activists to carry out training programs in their own countries; and established contacts among NGOs in the Caucasus, the United States, Central and Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union.