On 8 December, representatives of the civil society organisations (CSOs) received certificates of completion certifying that they have participated in the training program conducted by the American University of Armenia, which is aimed at developing of CSOs’ capacity. Representative from 15 CSOs from seven marzes of Armenia graduated from the training program.
The educational program is implemented within the framework of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project, which aims at making the voice of civil society heard at public discussions in Armenia.
“This program will have a great impact on our future activities. The knowledge that we have gained will help us to cooperate with other CSOs, create CSO networks, and build coalitions to achieve tangible results,” graduate of the training program Levon Igityan, President of “Akhuryan” Youth NGO of Shirak marz said.
Representative of the “Human Capital Development Center” of Artik region Melsida Kikoyan also spoke about the importance of the knowledge gained. “Now I have the knowledge, which will enable to cooperate more efficiently with local self-government and public administration bodies, participate in the discussions of public policies that they elaborate and even to influence on making decisions.”
Notably, 120 CSO representatives from Yerevan and marzes will be trained on the issues of public policy development, monitoring of public budgets and public policies, coalition building and developing CSO-government constructive dialogue.
The educational program will continue after the completion of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project as well. CSO representatives will have a continuous opportunity to gain new knowledge and skills in the above areas.
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 encourage 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, education and business.
