Mission
The Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) is an interdisciplinary public policy institute with a mission to build bridges between scholars and policy makers. CSD is a non-partisan, independent organisation fostering the reform process in Bulgaria and in Europe through state-of-the-art research and advocacy. CSD is a public benefit research organisation registered in the Bulgarian Research Information System under the Law on Scientific Research Promotion.
Since its commencement over twenty five years ago, CSD has been known for combining research excellence with policy advocacy for piloting social innovation and institutional reforms in the areas of good governance and anti-corruption, organised and conventional crime. The organisation has gathered an unparalleled internal expertise, including close to 20 people with doctoral degrees in a range of disciplines related to good governance and anti-corruption, and with more than 10 years of relevant professional experience. During the years CSD positioned itself as the most prominent anti-corruption Think-tank in Bulgaria and Southeast Europe. This was achieved by successfully implementing a large number of initiatives, including full-scale evaluations of national anti-corruption policies, strategies and their Action Plans, strategic analyses and trainings for law enforcement and judicial bodies, as well as innovative corruption and anti-corruption monitoring tools on different levels of governance. CSD has been engaged in a number of international anti-corruption efforts, including UNCAC, EU Anti-corruption Report, etc.
CSD has a proven track record in managing multi-partner, multi-national and international projects by the European Commission, UNDP, the World Bank, among others. CSD has developed partnerships and is a representative of many international organisations. It acts or has acted as an Information Centre on the Council of Europe, as a Distance Learning Center of the World Bank’s Global Development Learning Network, as RAXEN National Focal Point for Bulgaria of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, as a member of the EU Fundamental Rights Platform. CSD has also formed research partnerships with numerous universities and research institutions from EU Member States and candidate countries. CSD serves as Executive Secretariat to the Southeast European Legal Development Initiative (SELDI, www.seldi.net), an effort of leading not-for-profit organisations, representatives of government institutions and experts from the countries of Southeast Europe aimed at public-private coalition building for legal development in those countries.
Research and Policy Impact: CSD’s considerable research capacity has been crucial in assisting reforms and influencing policy on national and on EU level.
