Advocacy and Assistance Centers (AACs)

The MAAC Project was designed with four principal components: 1: Establish a mechanism that addresses grievances and effects systems-level and procedural reforms. 2: Design and implement anti-corruption initiatives with targeted government agencies. 3. Provide grants to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to develop innovative approaches to combat corruption. 4.

Increase awareness among youth and adult against corruption.

The concept of a specific organization to accept and follow up on citizen grievances was not completely unfamiliar in Armenia.

Organizations such as the Armenian Young Lawyers Association (AYLA) and Transparency International already had assistance centers as did the American Bar Assn. through its Central European & Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA-CEELI), funded by USAID.

The AACs were perhaps unique in that they were to be entirely focused on receiving reports of alleged corruption, were to be in every county (marz), and form a network.