Study on CSO Communication and Trust Narratives

In Armenia’s community-based environment, civil society organizations (CSOs) continue to occupy a key and multi-layered role. In the fields of local social services, humanitarian assistance, educational and inclusive interventions, as well as the protection of vulnerable groups, CSOs create additional capacities that the state system, particularly under crisis situations, is not able to fully ensure. At the same time, their activities are currently at a point of transformation, where not only the consolidation of previous successes of fragmented cooperation becomes evident, but also the need to reach a new level of cooperation within the community-state-civil society triangle.

This analysis aims to synthesize the results of focus group discussions, community meetings, and online anonymous surveys conducted in three regions, including Lori, Shirak, and Syunik, in order to reveal how CSOs perceive their own role and how this perception is reflected and, at times, reinterpreted by other actors within the community ecosystem, including local self-government bodies (LGAs), regional state authorities, social services, the private sector, the media, representatives of the academic and expert community, and community residents, including vulnerable groups.

The research is built on a methodological approach aimed not only at collecting opinions, but also at identifying systemic patterns, strengths and weaknesses, gaps in cooperation mechanisms, and the frameworks of the “architecture of trust” within communities. The research incorporates both discourse and narrative analysis and a method of juxtaposing the positions of community actors, allowing for the identification not only of immediate responses but also of their underlying logic.

The picture formed during the regional meetings is both diverse and interconnected: it shows that CSOs view themselves as “coordinating, complementary, and supportive” actors within the community social environment, yet often operate under conditions of resource constraints, project-based instability, and “fragile” trust. On the other hand, community and state actors perceive CSOs as necessary, but not always systematized partners, whose engagement, according to their assessment, may at times be situational, intermittent, or insufficiently localized.

This analysis seeks to decode this dual perception by demonstrating where the successes of cooperation are more visibly layered, where institutional and communicative limitations persist, what risks arise from gaps in data exchange, and why it is important to reconsider the culture of state-CSO-LGA relations by situating it not within a logic of control or unilateral and non-objective criticism, but within a framework of shared responsibility on certain issues, mutually constructive criticism, and partnership-based interaction.

Finally, the study also aims to bridge the observations recorded at the community level with a broader strategic context, highlighting the opportunities through which CSOs can become not only service providers, but also systemic actors shaping community development, social protection and inclusion, as well as overall stability and resilience. The presented analysis simultaneously maps existing challenges and emphasizes those directions of cooperation that can transform the current logic of the community environment by strengthening the unity, impact, and public trust of civil society.

The Study on CSO Communication and Trust Narratives was conducted within the framework of the “Advancing Media Literacy through Armenian Civil Society Actors” project, implemented by People in Need with the support of the Transition Promotion Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic (2024-2025).