On 28 September 2018, the Czech experience of evidence-based public policy development was presented to Gavar CSO Incubator participants in the scope of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project funded by the European Union. The meeting was conducted by ALA regional lawyer in Gegharkunik and Gavar CSO Incubator Coordinator Liana Makvetsyan.
During the meeting, Liana Makvetsyan spoke about communication as the most important question in evidence-based policy development. Ms. Makvetsyan discussed with the CSO representatives how open CSOs are for communication, whether all the stakeholders of the sector become communication parties during policy making. After that the tools for making public policy development more efficient were presented. The participants got familiar with the Czech housing programme in Brno, an example of evidence-based public policy.
At the end of the meeting, an agreement was reached to unite and create a regional coalition which would develop and enforce evidence-based public policies in the marz.
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 to encourage them to 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.
