The CSO Meter monitors and advocates for the improvement of the environment in which civil society organisations (CSOs) operate in the Eastern Partnership countries. It measures law and practice in 11 key areas that affect civil society, from freedom of association and assembly, through participation to access to funding and digital rights, and assesses the countries’ compliance under each. Its scoring allows for a nuanced comparison between countries, areas and years.
The CSO Meter’s strength lies in the fact that it has been developed through a highly consultative and collaborative process. As such, is a result of a true local effort that covers issues that are indeed relevant in the country contexts. We seek to empower a broader group of CSOs and activists to exchange strategies, use the CSO Meter for monitoring and apply its evidence for advocacy in their countries.

- The overall objective of the project is to support monitoring and advocacy for a conducive environment for civil society that incorporates international standards, best practices and that responds to the needs and priorities of organisations, activists and society.
- The first specific objective is to widen and empower a critical mass of CSOs that can use the monitoring tool, exchange strategies and expertise and advocate for improving the environment in each country and across the region.
- The second specific objective is to support CSOs to regularly generate evidence on the state of the environment where they operate through active monitoring, to identify emerging trends and propose solutions that are based on international standards and national realities.

- There is a core group of CSOs that actively use the monitoring tool and advocate for improvements in the environment for civil society. The tool will be shaped in such a way that it can provide meaningful input for EU policy dialogue with the Eastern Partnership countries.
- CSOs regularly monitor the civil society environment at national and regional level, publish findings and recommendations relying on a monitoring tool that is timely and relevant to the issues and helps identify positive practices, threats and restrictions.