Between July 17 and 18 CRD/TI Armenia Chairwoman Amalia Kostanyan participated in a workshop on Access to Information/Anti-Corruption. Held in Navacerrada, Spain, the workshop and the community brought together a broad spectrum of diverse NGOs with a few common links. In some way supported by OSI, they all promote public access to state held information, and they all have demonstrated a commitment to curbing corruption in the countries in which they work.

The participants included organizations working specifically on promoting freedom of information laws and their implementation, environmental NGOs, policy centers, and national Soros Foundations. Given that there are relatively few success stories of actually reducing corruption in a sustained way, the impact that the groups participating in workshops have had was remarkable. The workshop was an effort to try to replicate the good practices with a focus on what civil society can do to combat corruption that disproportionately impacts vulnerable populations.