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Institute for Public
Affairs (also known as IVO, the acronym of its Slovak name, Inštitút
pre verejné otázky), is an independent public policy
research institute founded in February 1997. It is located in Bratislava,
Slovakia.
The Institute’s mission is: a) to analyze social, political,
economic, foreign policy, legal, cultural, and other issues of public interest,
b) to conduct research on public policies and their consequences, to publish
and to disseminate widely its findings, and to make practical recommendations
for improved government policy; c) to study, document, and help to promote
Slovakia’s transition to a free, democratic, and open society; d)
to stimulate public debate on important issues through lectures, seminars,
workshops, and roundtables; and e) to promote the active involvement of
informed citizens in public life.
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Foundation for
a Civil Society, New York, USA. The Foundation was founded in
1990, as the Charter 77 Foundation — New York. In 1992 it changed
its name to The Foundation for a Civil Society. At the height of FCS programming
in 1996-97, FCS had a staff of 42. On July 31, 1999 the Foundation assumed
a new form: smaller, with fewer staff and lower overhead with a major focus
on the transfer of “lessons learned” by Czechs and Slovaks to other coutnries
— particularly, but not limited to, the Balkans. The launch of The
Project on Justice in Times of Transition, the Foundation’s highly successful
global conflict resolution and reconciliation program, as an inter-faculty
program of Harvard University under the auspices of the Harvard Law School,
the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Weatherhead Center for
International Affairs of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The Foundation
has continued to fulfill its function in New York as facilitator and liaison
for the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the United States. Over the
past several months, the Foundation has been involved in, inter alia,
the “New Slovakia” initiative designed to ensure that the new governments
in the Slovak Republic move toward European integration, and the foreign
investment is properly publicized and adequately funded during this difficult
transition period.