On 23 and 24 August, individual consultations were held for 5 Civil Society Organisations involved in CSO Incubators in Yerevan that operate in the scope of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project.
President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association Mr. Karen Zadoyan, the Project Manager provided the consultation. Representatives of the Consortium implementing the project Mr. Khachik Gevorgyan, President of the the Armenian Centre for Democratic Education-CIVITAS, Mr. Tigran Gasparyan, Head of the SME Cooperation Association, Mr. Marat Atovmyan, Mentors’ Group Coordinator/Justice and Related Sectors Mentor of the Project and Ms Lusine Nalbandyan, Expert Lawyer of the Project attended the consultation session as well.
The objective of individual advice provision was to support CSO incubator member CSOs in designing their organisations’ public policy monitoring and improvement programmes (plans) in order for them to later choose the public policy that needs monitoring and improvement, based on that plan, and apply with a proposal for the small grants allocated to CSOs in the framework of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project.
Thus, on August 23, a meeting was held with Ms Aida Stepanyan, the representative of “Civic Conscience” Liberal NGO, and on August 24, with Mr Armen Petrosyan, the representative of the “Development Principles” NGO, and Mr Karen Mkhoyan, the President of the “Urban Development and Economy” NGO, Ms Yeva Chichoyan, the representative of the “Armenian Association of Young Doctors” NGO, and Ms Anna Galstyan, the Project Coordinator of the “Audio-Visual Journalists’ Association” NGO.
Karen Zadoyan mentioned in his speech that small grants will be provided to 33 CSOs operating in Yerevan and provinces, according to the integrity of the presented project, the priority problems, and the compatibility of the targeted sector with the project target sectors.
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, human rights, public finance management, business, education, and the social sphere: social inclusion of children with disabilities, agriculture, economy, and energy.
