The educational certification program for civil society organizations organized in the framework of the EU funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project is continued at the American University of Armenia.
The participants of the third group, who are from Yerevan and 5 marzes of Armenia, will develop their skills to initiate a constructive and productive dialogue with government and local self-government bodies as well as the skills for writing strategic projects.
Ms Eleonora Begoyan, representative of the “Open Borders” Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development notes that such trainings are an exchange of experience, and the NGOs that are working to some extent in the same direction, but they are not informed about each other. They solve some minor problems separately, but thanks to the program, they are given the opportunity to join, create networks and solve larger problems.
“We are discussing topics where we encountered obstacles during a dialogue with the government or local governments. Here they provide us mechanisms, skills, how to create a dialogue, not a formal dialogue, but the ones that will enable to succeed, to be effective in solving the problem,” Ms Begoyan said.
“Progressive Youth for Community Development” NGO, which has been established in Gyumri already operates in Yerevan and Vayk. In the upcoming two months they will also be engaged in social entrepreneurship in Artsakh, Stepanakert.
NGO representative Georges Seiradaryan notes that this program developed for CSOs developed is good for NGOs wishing to work. “More than 5,000 non-governmental organizations are registered in the RA State Register, most of which are not working or are single person organizations. Such programs allow understanding how to organize their activities and what partner organizations to choose,” he said.
The training course is organized within the framework of The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project implemented with the financial support of the European Union by a Consortium of civil society organisations, which are the Armenian Lawyers’ Association (lead organization), 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.
