Focus

Amplify, Verify, Engage

The Amplify, Verify, Engage project promotes democratic growth, participatory governance, and cross-border cooperation, by strengthening civil society and independent media across Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus.

Years active: 2021-2023

The Amplify, Verify, Engage: Information for Democratisation and Good Governance in Eurasia project builds on IWPR's previous Norwegian-supported initiatives, including the Giving Voice, Driving Change project. AVE will continue to promote democratic growth, participatory governance, and cross-border cooperation, by strengthening civil society and independent media across Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus.

Amplify, Verify, Engage (AVE) has three key objectives, through which IWPR will:

Amplify journalists and independent media voices producing verified, evidence-based reporting;
Verify reliable information by strengthening the capacity of civil society and independent media to counter misinformation and disinformation;
Engage civil society, independent media, public officials and the general public to foster increased dialogue and cooperation.

Established in collaboration with and funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the project directly supports Norwegian priorities and values, builds on long-standing Norwegian supported programming in the region, and expands on IWPR’s extensive local and regional networks of independent media and civic groups.

Latest from the project

Armenia’s Russia Challenge

The limits of Moscow’s security promises now clearly demonstrates that Yerevan must adjust to a dangerous new reality of standing alone.

Moldovan oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc. © Graphic by Alex Burets

Special Investigation

The Cashier in Dubai

Investigative report tracks tangled route for money flowing to offshore companies from Moldova.

A woman takes part in a Women's March on August 13, 2020 in Minsk, Belarus. There have been nightly protests since the presidential election, in which President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory and another term in his 26-year rule of the country. Preliminary results gave him 80% of the vote, which opposition candidates alleged is a rigged count. © Misha Friedman/Getty Images

Flower Power: Women Prisoners in Belarus

The combined sentences of those jailed in demonstrations amount to nearly 500 years.

Supporters of former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili gather outside court in Tbilisi, Georgia. Photo from 2021. © Daro Sulakauri/Getty Images

Georgia: Fate of Ailing Saakashvili Remains Unclear

Tbilisi has refused to acknowledge medical needs as genuine or to release jailed former leader for treatment.

A mosque in the village of Karakemer, in Kazakstan’s south-eastern Jambyl province. Kazakstans laws foresee that citizens can be punished for dissemination of religious materials, even if they are of a non-extremist nature. This even extends to selling a copy of the Quran or the New Testament on classified sites. © Petr Trotsenko RFE/RL

Kazakstan: Fined for a Book of Bible Stories

Citizens can be punished for dissemination of religious materials, even if of a non-extremist nature.

On December 23, 2022, Kazak President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev inaugurated the Tagzym memorial in the country's largest city of Almaty. Meaning bowing in Kazak, the Tagzym honour the 238 victims of the unrest that swept Kazakstan in early January 2022. © Kazakhstan's presidential office

A Year on From Kazakstan’s Bloody January

Murky investigation and lack of accountability followed violence that scarred a nation.

Hundreds of mourners gather for the funeral of a Georgian volunteer fighter who was killed in Ukraine, on March 26, 2022 in Tbilisi. Davit Ratiani, 53 years old, died under artillery fire on March 18th at the Irpin front, northwest of Kyiv. © Daro Sulakauri/Getty Images

The Georgians Killed Fighting in Ukraine

The conflict has deep resonance in Georgia - but Tbilisi’s attitude remains ambiguous.

Demonstrators face Russian peacekeepers in Ivanyan, a town about 10 kilometres from Stepanakert, where Karabakh’s airport is located. The airfield was renovated in the late 2000s and due to open for commercial flights in 2012 but remained closed due to security reasons, as Azerbaijan has threatened to shoot down flights. As the blockade continued, on January 5 Karabakh authorities called for support for operations of an air bridge “to prevent an urgent humanitarian crisis”. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

Photo Essay

Supplies Dwindle as Karabakh Siege Continues

Since December 12, the sole road to Armenia has been closed off, leaving as many as 120,000 people living under blockade.

Women demonstrate against the rising rate of gender-based violence in Georgia. According to law enforcement agencies, since 2014 186 women were killed by their former partners; in 2022 alone 16 women were murdered. Human rights groups blame authorities' ineffective preventive measures and inadequate prosecution actions. © Gvantsa Seturidze/IWPR

Fears Rise Over Gender Violence in Georgia

Legal experts warn that the judicial system is not doing enough to convict perpetrators.

IWPR ACADEMY

Newsrooms Countering Disinformation

IWPR film and online course available in seven languages is supporting young journalists across the Eastern Partnership region and Central Asia to detect and combat disinformation in their daily work.

Related Social Media pages

The Amplify, Verify, Engage (AVE) project builds on IWPR's previous Norwegian-supported initiatives, including the Giving Voice, Driving Change - from the Borderland to the Steppes project. AVE will continue to promote democratic growth, participatory governance, and cross-border cooperation, by strengthening civil society and independent media across Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus.