On 25 September 2018, a meeting with CSO (civil society organisations) representatives working in the Gegharkunik Region, Tigran Gasparyan, the Executive Director of the “SME Cooperation Association” NGO, and Satik Badeyan, the President of the Association of Social Enterprises of Armenia, took place in the scope of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project funded by the European Union.
At first, Tigran Gasparyan attached importance to full command of the sector’s legislation as it would enable one to avoid mistakes that might happen both in CSOs’ general and entrepreneurial activities. He noted that it is also very important to have cooperative relations with local government, commence with mutually beneficial cooperation which would contribute both to community development and reaching the goals of the CSOs.
Gayane Khachatryan, the President of the “Areguni” Social NGO, noted how hard it is to start dialogue at times because of the local government body not being ready to see the CSO as a full cooperator. However, Arman Marukhyan, the Director of the “New Bayazet” Community Development Charitable Foundation, noted that every community has its peculiarities and that there are communities open to dialogue. Due to that cooperation, many initiatives are implemented.
Later, Tigran Gasparyan presented the general provisions of the RA draft Law on Business Ombudsman. According to the draft, the state will open a business ombudsman office which will work mainly in 2 directions: 1. Discussion of the issues emerging between state bodies and organisations doing entrepreneurship, drawing conclusions, 2. Identifying issues in the business sector and coming forward with legislative reform initiatives.
It is important to know that the subjects of law cannot immediately apply to the Business Ombudsman but only after appealing to the administrative body.
A discussion on the draft followed, and CSO representatives came up with a number of questions to be clarified.
Satik Badeyan, the President of the “Association of Social Enterprises of Armenia” NGO, presented the social entrepreneurship development concept. At first, she asked whether CSO representatives comprehend what social entrepreneurship is. CSO representatives mainly presented opinions normally spread in the society, those that are erroneously identified with social responsibility.
Satik Badeyan spoke about the current situation, the problems in the sector and the steps necessary to be made to overcome them. As this sector gains new development momentum in Armenia, CSO representatives found it important to discuss this topic once again.
The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by a Consortium of civil society organisations, which are the Armenian Lawyers’ Association (lead organisation), Agora Central Europe (NGO based in the Czech Republic), the Armenian Centre for Democratic Education-CIVITAS, the International Centre for Human Development, the SME Cooperation Association and the Union of Communities of Armenia.
The project aims to enhance the influence of civil society organisations (CSOs) and CSO coalitions/networks on public policies in Armenia. This will allow organisations that are already working in sectoral coalitions to access additional resources, new groups of civil society experts to come together and to encourage them to place their causes on the local and national policy agenda, to identify common concerns and priorities and approach government bodies with constructive and strategic policy engagement initiatives.
The project will provide sub-grants to CSOs and CSO coalitions for developing public policies and bringing significant changes in the 9 target sectors selected within the project, including those of justice, human rights, public finance management, business, education, and the social sector: social inclusion of children with disabilities, agriculture, economy, and energy.
