Examining the Use of Informal Networks by NGOs in Azerbaijan and Georgia

To date little is known about the non-governmental organizations' (NGOs) use of informal networks, contacts and connections, as well as about the 'informalization' of postcommunist civil society in the former Soviet Union. Research on the subject has been mostly restricted to the study of civil society organizations in Central Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Russia, leaving the use and significance of informality among the South Caucasus's NGOs largely ignored. Drawing on qualitative in-depth elite interviews, this study examines the importance of informal networking within the NGO sectors of post-Soviet-rule Azerbaijan and Georgia. The findings of this study document that in Azerbaijan and Georgia the practices of using informal networks of relying on patron-client relations with donors and of individuals using their positions within organizations for profit-making are widespread among the NGOs included in this research.