Commitment to Constructive Dialogue

CSOs for Sustainable and Transparent Energy Development 

Project title – CSOs for Sustainable and Transparent Energy Development 

Coalition title – CSOs for Sustainable and Transparent Energy Development 

Coalition Members – “Energy Saving Fund” NGO (ESF) (coalition lead), “Women in Energy and Climate” NGO,  “Assistance to Reform” NGO, “Center for Human Capital Development” NGO 

Sector – energy 

Project duration – 12 months

Total project budget – AMD 25 000 000, funding requested from the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project – AMD 22 500 000, amount of co-funding by the applicant – AMD 2 500 000.

Implementation location – Yerevan, Aparan, Aragatsotn Region, Artik, Shirak Region. 

Issues addressed:

    Barriers in renewable energy investments field; 

    Lack of methodological platform, monitoring and project development capacities within the framework of Armenian communities’ liabilities within the Covenant of Mayors; 

    Limited involvement of women in community energy and climate change mitigation and adaptation policy. 

Activities: 

Activity 1. Monitoring and improvement of local governments’ actions in energy efficiency and climate change mitigation and adaptation:

    Development of national Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan – SECAP – template (in Armenian)

    Development of SECAP Monitoring and reporting package

    Establishment of a Unified, online electronic reporting and monitoring Platform

    Populating the Online Platform and establishment of regular data collection and entry

Activity 2. Development regulations or sub-legislative acts for promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energy development with application of international best practices:

    Forming a working group comprising government institutions, private sector, communities and experts.

   Conducting discussions and stocktaking consultations with the stakeholder institutions, agencies, private entities, local government and experts.

    Development of regulatory reform package with contributions from relevant experts.

Activity 3․ Enhance the role of women in the oversight and public monitoring of communities’ activities in energy efficiency, renewable energy and climate change mitigation:

    Stocktaking and solicitation endorsed to relevant women experts for potential inclusion in the oversight

    Training and capacity building of selected women experts in public oversight

    Development of a database of relevant women experts for potential expansion of the coalition and networking

    Population of the Monitoring platform by selected women experts

Primary Target: Covenant of Mayors Signatory communities including Yerevan, Aparan and Artik. Secondary target: all other active communities/signatories, pending local resource access.

Duration: 12 months.

Second Project – “Strengthening the Capacities of the Coalition of CSOs for Sustainable and Transparent Energy Development”

Main goal: To strengthen the capacities of the Coalition of CSOs for Sustainable and Transparent Energy Development established within the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project and institutionalisation of the coalition. 

The specific objectives (SO) of the project are: 
SO 1  creation of a secretariat for the CSO coalition; 
SO 2  capacity building of the governing bodies of the CSO coalition;
SO 3  formation of state-CSO sustainable sectoral dialogue through the CSO coalition. 

The establishment of the CSO coalition in the field of sustainable energy gave an opportunity to reveal the real state of capacities of the CSOs of the sector. A number of issues often occur among CSOs:

 Poor, not updated information on the sectoral issues;
 Poor awareness of sectoral policy developments; 
 Poor institutional capacities;
 Poor representation on public platforms; 
 Poor use of contemporary information technologies;
 Poor fundraising opportunities;
 Limited governance skills. 

In such conditions, it is necessary for the establishment of the CSO coalition in the sector of energy that the balanced development of the capacities of all coalition members is ensured.