On 28 December, the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project team and Member Organisations of the Project Consortium held their annual meeting.
Mr. Karen Zadoyan, President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project Manager; Mr. Emin Yeritsyan, President of the Union of Communities of Armenia; Mr. Tigran Gasparyan, Executive Director of the Project Partner SME Partnership Association of Armenia; Mr. Khachik Gevorgyan, Executive Director of the Armenian Centre for Democratic Education-CIVITAS; Mr. Tevan Poghosyan, President of the International Centre for Human Development and the CCD Project team members attended the meeting.
On 29 December 2017, the Armenian Lawyers’ Association summed up the results of the year with its members and partners. The annual activities, achievements and challenges that the Association faced when conducting its activities were presented. The forthcoming tasks and priority targets were also outlined.
During the meeting, the results of the 2nd year (2018) of the CCD Project were presented and summarized.
It should be noted that on 31 May, 2018, 9 sub-grants worth 25 million AMD each, were provided within the framework of the 9 CSO coalition programs for implementation of projects in the target sector of the CCD project (about 225 million AMD).
7 CSO coalitions, which have already been awarded sub-grants by CCD, were also awarded with sub-grants of up to 8.5 million AMD each for their capacity development.
2 more sub-grants will be provided to the CSO Coalitions (about 17 million drams) at the beginning of next year.
It was also mentioned that civil society organizations (CSO) incubators were formed in Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor, Gavar and Kapan within the framework of the project aimed at promoting the capacity building of CSOs and enhancing their effectiveness.
In 2018, the CSO incubators member organizations were provided on a competitive basis with a total of 29 sub-grants of up to 5.5 million AMD each.
The activities planned for the third year of the project were presented at the annual meeting as well.
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 has provided sub-grants to 9 CSO coalitions that will be directed to the development of public policies and will have tangible results in the 9 target sectors selected within the project, which are: Justice, Human Rights, Public Finance Management, Business, Education, Social Sector (social inclusion of children with disabilities), Agriculture, Economy and Energy.
