On March 23, a training on “Public Participation in Local Self-Government: Peculiarities of Enlarged Communities” was organised in the scope of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project for the representatives of civil society (CSOs).
Mr. Arshavir Ghukasyan, expert of the “Union of Communities of Armenia” conducted the training.
The Armenian Association of Young Doctors NGO is operating both in Yerevan and in the regions. Ms Ani Yeremyan, representative of the Association told us that the regional representatives help to realize a number of functions that cannot be performed from Yerevan and in these cases the cooperation with the Local Self-Government bodies is of great importance.
“We have not yet faced problems with local governments, but being informed and educated is of great importance, because solutions can be more correct and competent in case you know what kind of problem you can face. We have good relations with local self-governing bodies and almost in all cases when we have come up with a question, we received support, either just as advice or actions,’ Ani Yeranyan also said that last year the Armenian Association of Young Doctors held a conference in Tsakhkadzor, which was supported by the police and the Mayor.
Mr. Arman Marukhyan, Director of “New Bayazet Community Development Benevolent Foundation” stated that close cooperation between any structure and the local self-government body in their community has been established. “Our organisation has been cooperating with the community for a long time, we have no internal problems,” he said and added that he cannot say what kind of relationships will be between CSOs and LSGs in the case of enlarged community
It should be noted that 8 CSO representatives attended the training. The majority of the participants were women and young activists.
If you also are a civic activist and want to receive legal support, please contact us at [email protected], register for the upcoming training to receive legal advice.
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, education and business.
