The majority of citizens are not involved in the decision making processes of local self government bodies in Armenia; many of them are not aware of their rights in this issue as well. Petr Mikyska, Charge d’Affaires of the Czech Republic has come to such conclusion.
“The Czech Republic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs fill proud of being part of this project and being a partner of it. I think that your project, which we are starting today matches perfectly with other activities the Czech Republic is developing not only in Armenia, but in Eastern Partnership Countries, and especially in the field of public administration reforms,” Petr Mikyska, Charge d’Affaires of the Czech Republic said
Citizens’ Participation in the Decision Making Processes of Local Self-Governance Bodies: Introduction of EU Experience; “Armenian Young Lawyers Association” NGO in cooperation with the “Georgian Young Lawyers Association” NGO, and “Agora Central Europe” NGO from Czech Republic will implement this. The project implementation started on 1 May 2014 and will be accomplished on 31 August 2014.
“I would like to mention that AYLA attaches much importance to the partnership of Armenian, Georgian and Czech Civil Society Organizations’ in such format in the framework of the Eastern Partnership. I believe, this trilateral program will be a step forward to ensure further development of our partnership and cooperation,” Karen Zadoyan, President of the Armenian Young Lawyers Association said in his speech.
“This program is very important for Georgia, as currently a great wave of reforms in the locals self government sphere has started. The citizens’’ influence in solving local problems is very important for us,” Ketevan Bebiashvili, Representative of the “Georgian Young Lawyers Association” NGO mentioned.
The project’s main objective is to study the level of citizens’ participation in decision making processes of the local self government bodies, as well as the best practices of public control of Czech Republic in the field.
During the two days training, the European experts of the project, Pavel Mička, Deputy Director of “Agora Central Europe NGO and Jakub Nekolny, Mayor of city Cesky Brod, spoke about the advantages and limitations of the citizens’ participation in decision making processes, clarified the criteria of citizens participation in local self government projects and tried to develop and present programs.
“What we mainly try to do is that we try to show the municipalities, the public officials that participation is something what can help everybody to find, or to grow, or to develop better atmosphere and generate, general developments in the municipality. It means not something what can help only certain group, interests group, but something what can really be used by everybody and it’s for everybody,” Pavel Mička, Deputy Director of “Agora Central Europe” NGO said.
“We are responsible to ensure the citizens’ and CSOs involvement in the decision making process. However it is possible in some spheres only: like education or social,” Jakub Nekolny, Mayor of city Cesky Brod said in his speech.
“Everyone obtained such important practical skills that can help us during implementation of projects in both countries, in Georgia and in Armenia,” Ketevan Bebiashvili, Representative of the “Georgian Young Lawyers Association” NGO noted.
Soon, the Armenian Young Lawyers Association in Lori marz of Armenia, and Georgian Young Lawyers Association in Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia will organize community discussions in facilitated World Café format in one urban and one rural community respectively. The main objective of these meetings is to reveal the problems of citizen’s participation in decision making processes of local self government bodies and try to solve them through implementation of legislative reforms.
A Concluding Conference of the project will be organized in Lori marz or the RA, where the representatives of project implementing organizations will summarize the project results.
