2018թ. հուլիսի 25-ին a lecture titled “The Systems of Territorial Administration and Local Government in the Light of the Changed Constitution: Existing Challenges, Development Prospects” was held at the Vanadzor CSO incubator in the scope of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project. The lecture was followed by provision of personal advice to the Gavar incubator CSOs working in the fields of local government/economy, energy, justice, human rights, public finance management, and other fields not included in the 9 project target sectors.
The training was delivered by Emin Yeritsyan, the President of the Union of Communities of Armenia. After delivering the material, he spoke about the existing and expected legislative changes in the sector, the peculiarities of working with LSGs, the community enlargement which had taken place in Armenia recently, the existing situation related to that process, the positive and negative sides, risks of the enlargements. He also brought examples from the international experience, as well as the post-revolution situation and developments.
10 of the 13 CSOs participating in the Vanadzor CSO incubator attended the training.
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 sector: social inclusion of children with disabilities, agriculture, economy, and energy.