Today, the working meeting of the members of “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project with the members of 5 working groups of EAP CSF Armenian National Platform was held in the office of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association.
The EAP working groups include a number of areas: democracy, economic integration, public relations and social dialogue, etc.
A lot of issues were raised during the discussions.
The civil society organizations consider that they need new tools to influence government decisions.
“Before 2008, a Social Partnership was established with Government, but it was forgotten during the implementation. We have created a vast network with the government but it is being forgotten,” representatives of EAP member NGOs said.
Such obstacles are rare while solving problems, they are due to objective and subjective factors.
In the interview with us representatives of EAP member NGOs explained that the dialogue established with the government is often suspended as a result of change of the executive. On the other hand they mentioned Armenia’s joining the Eurasian Economic Union as a negative phenomenon.
Civil society also has its share of fault: it is not consistent, and objective reasons are the lack of finances and capacity.
The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project is aimed to tackle these and other problems.
Notably, the mapping process carried out within the framework of the project launched on December 15 last year is already coming to an end.
The project management team, has organized 36 focus groups with the representatives of the civil society of Armenia on the initiative of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association. The focus groups were attended by more than 300 representatives of NGOs.
In addition, questionnaires were sent to around 1,000 CSOs. 200 organizations have provided replies. Questionnaires were also sent to coalitions and networks of non-governmental organizations. Cooperation has been established with Government and Local governments.
Three target areas have been selected in the scope of the project, 6 other areas shall be selected after summarizing the results of the preparatory period.
The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO in cooperation with its partners; Agora Central Europe o.p.s (an NGO from the Czech Republic), Armenian Center for Democratic Education-CIVITAS, “International Center for Human Development” Public Organization, SME Cooperation Association and Union of Communities of Armenia.
Gevorg Tosunyan
Aleksander Sargsyan
