Open Society Foundations

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Open Society Foundations

Founder(s)	George Soros
Founded	1993
Location	New York, New York
Key people	George Soros, Chairman Aryeh Neier, President Stewart J. Paperin, Executive Vice President
Website	soros.org

The network of Open Society Foundations or OSF (named Open Society Institute or OSI until 2011), is a grantmaking operation started by George Soros, aimed to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. On a local level, OSF implements a range of initiatives to support the rule of law, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, OSF works to build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as combating corruption and rights abuses.

One of the aims of the OSF is the development of civil society organizations (e.g., charities, community groups and trade unions) to encourage participation in democracy and society.

History

Open Society Institute was created in 1993 by investor George Soros to support his foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. On May 28, 1984 Soros signed the contract between the Soros Foundation (New York) and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the founding document of the Soros Foundation Budapest.^[1]This was followed by several foundations in the region to help countries move away from communism. In August 2010, Open Society Initiative changed its name to Open Society Foundations to better reflect its role as funder for civil society groups around the world. OSF has expanded the activities of the Soros Foundations network to other areas of the world where the transition to democracy is of particular concern. The Soros Foundations network has nodes in more than 60 countries, including the United States. OSF projects include the National Security and Human Rights Campaign that opposes detention of unprivileged combatants and the Lindesmith Center and others dealing with drug reform.

Initiatives

Related initiatives include the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA). Recent efforts have included those that have met with controversy, including an effort in East Africa aimed at spreading human rights awareness among prostitutes in Uganda and other East African nations, which was not received well by the Ugandan authorities, who considered it an effort to legalize and legitimize prostitution.^[2] Other initiatives includes: AfriMAP; Arts & Culture Program; Americas Quarterly; Burma Project/Southeast Asia Initiative; Central Eurasia Project; Central Eurasia Project; Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap; Documentary Photography Project; Soros Documentary Fund (SDF);^[3] Early Childhood Program; East East Program: Partnership Beyond Borders; Education Support Program; EUMAP; Global Drug Policy Program; Information Program; International Higher Education Support Program; Latin America Program; Local Government & Public Service Reform Initiative; Media Program; Middle East & North Africa Initiative; Open Society Fellowship; OSI-Baltimore; OSI-Brussels; OSI-Washington, D.C.; Public Health Program; Roma Initiatives; Scholarship Programs; Special Initiatives; Think Tank Fund^[4]; Turkmenistan Project; U.S. Programs; International Women’s Program; the Youth Initiative^[5]; the International Migration Initiative; Policy Matters Ohio and the Open Society Justice Initiative.

Activities by regions

According to the 2009 OSF expenditures report^[6], Africa region (outside of the South Africa) was the key area of funded activities: about $51,000,000 were spent on civil society support, human rights, education, justice, media, public health, transparency, and other activities there.

Among other regions, activities in five counties received the most funding (excluding funds provided by non-OSI parties): Ukraine ($8.47M; mostly in civil society support, human rights, public health), South Africa ($7.23M; human rights, civil society, information and media and other), Russia ($6,29M; almost solely civil society support), Serbia ($5,04M; mostly civil society, education and youth, human rights, transparency), Georgia ($4.84M; media, human rights, civil society, administration, transparency, public health and other).

6 out of 10 countries with most activities of the Institute in 2009 are post-Soviet states. Another 3 are situated Eastern Europe.

See also

• Soros Foundation
• Open Society
• Central European University
• Transparency International
• Colour revolution
• Budapest Open Access Initiative
• DOAJ

References

1. ^ Nóvé Béla TÉNY/SOROS http://www.kka.hu/_Kozossegi_Adattar/Azadatt.nsf/02001425b1246fe38525664000665c75/560c780eb85cfd4ac12571aa0042dd56/$FILE/T%C3%A9ny_soros.pdf
2. ^ "Africa | Uganda prostitute workshop banned". BBC News. 2008-03-25. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7313310.stm. Retrieved 2012-03-12. 
3. ^ Coe, Michelle (October 1st, 1999). "Funder FAQ: Soros Documentary Fund". The Independent. http://www.independent-magazine.org/99/10/funder-faq-soros-documentary-fund. Retrieved April 16, 2012. 
4. ^ "Think Tank Fund | Open Society Foundations - OSF". Soros.org. http://www.soros.org/initiatives/thinktank/. Retrieved 2012-03-12. 
5. ^ "Initiatives | Open Society Foundations - OSF". Soros.org. http://www.soros.org/initiatives/. Retrieved 2012-03-12. 
6. ^ [1]

Further reading

• Thomas Carothers (1999) Aiding Democracy Abroad: The Learning Curve, Washington DC., Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1999.
• Nicolas Guilhot, ‘Reforming the World: George Soros, ‘Global capitalism and the philanthropic management of the social sciences’, Critical Sociology, 2007.
• Andrea Krizsán and Viola Zentai (eds) Reshaping Globalization: Multilateral Dialogues and New Policy Initiatives, Budapest, Central European University Press, 2003.
• Thomas Palley, ‘The Open Institute and Global Social Policy’, Global Social Policy, 3(1) 2003: 17-18.
• Joan Roelofs, Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism, Albany, SUNY, 2003.
• Diane Stone • ‘Transnational Philanthropy or Policy Transfer? The Transnational Norms of the Open Society Institute, Policy and Politics, 38(2), 2010: 269-87
• Diane Stone, “Market Principles, Philanthropic Ideals and Public Service Values: The Public Policy Program at the Central European University”, PS: Political Science and Politics, July 2007: 545—551
• [2] Soros, through foundations and his Open Society Institutes, pours some $500 million per year into organizations in the former Soviet world...And Soros gets results. Through strategic donations, Soros helped bring down the communist government in Poland, toppled Serbia’s bloodstained strongman Slobodan Milosevic, and fueled the “Rose Revolution” in Georgia. Soros has also funded opposition parties in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia, Georgia, and Macedonia, helping them into either power or prominence. All of these countries were once Russian allies.

External links

• Official website
• Open Society Institute 2004 Annual Report
• Iraq Revenue Watch, a project of the Open Society Institute
• Open Society Archives - an OSI project in Budapest.
• "A Letter to the OSI U.S. Programs Community and Friends" Gara LaMarche, OSI, May 23, 2002