Rawest Research Will Contribute to Civil Society with Field and Data Support

Rawest Research is a company which aims to produce objective information for the sake of reality, not for the expectation of an ideology in Kurdish cities.

Talking about their aims for civil society, General Manager Roj Esir Girasun said “We will contribute to the building capacity for civil society by providing field and data support when needed.”

Could you tell us about the start-up process of Rawest?

Rawest was founded from the idea that any work about the region should be carried out without an ideological custody or propaganda and worked as a civil initiative at the beginning. It was founded in April 2018 in Diyarbakır by a group of human rights activists who have field and civil society experience in the region and who feel responsible to be fair witnesses of the process. Because we are interested in social, political and economic issues, we founded it as a research center, not as a CSO.

What are your aims regarding civil society?

We are aware of many CSOs in the region; we worked for them and that’s why we know what kind of problems they face and what can be done to solve those. We desire to help them when they are in need and contribute to their capacity building. There are many studies we believe that should be carried out in the region such as Kurdish issue, employment, religious changes, use of mother language and etc. We aim to carry all these studies together with CSOs and help them to build up their capacities; aim to satisfy curiosities regarding sociological structure and demography of the region. We have studies in our agenda which would help Kurdish people in Iraq and Turkey to know each other and their concerns, expectations better. Our goal is to inform the South and the North about each other and both of them about the world.

Why do you think it is important to produce information and bring it forward among the civil society?

There are many research institutions and centers in Turkey, and we should admit that they carry out very important researches in the region. However, it is hard to say that all of those researches are born out of the region’s needs. We believe a research to meet the needs of the region would contribute much more to the civil society. So, we think that CSOs would evaluate the information we produce much quicker because of its locality and authenticity. Another thing is that this region is exposed to manipulations regarding researches. We focus on producing objective information for the sake of reality, not for the expectation of an ideology. We know for sure that it will meet some needs. And the reactions we got so far reaffirm it.

How will you produce and transmit this information?

There are steps to produce info, such as; design, field study, data analysis and reporting. All of those steps are very valuable and as Rawest, we test and control each of them. We collect information by house-based works and control it afterwards. We evaluate the final report both with our consultants and as Rawest team and prepare the strategy for the emergent information. We share it with the public as Rawest or sometimes through our stakeholders. The information we produce avoids wishes and desires, it is based on authenticity. It means that it is produced to help real actors of the process, not as a means of marketing expectations.

What is Rawest’s mission in civil society field?

Rawest is a research and consultancy center founded by civil society workers. We aim to analyze and reveal some certain institutions’ -CSOs’ on top- needs, opportunities, deficiency and potential. We plan to help civil society to gather speed by forming strong partnerships. This would help CSOs’ to solve their time and opportunity problems and help Rawest to work with civil society in conducting studies regarding public interest. We will contribute to the building capacity for civil society by providing field and data support when needed. Our works are not limited to civil society, we also carry political and economic researches, but due to the frame of our interview, I put more emphasis on our works regarding civil society.