From Energy Sector to Environment and Local Government: Focus Groups in the Scope of “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project

The EU funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project is aimed at serving the needs of public, identification of problems and strengthening the capacity of civil society organizations.

“The main objective of the project is to strengthen the impact of civil society organizations and coalitions in the development process of projects and public policies. We shall also distinguish strengthening of the CSOs and their coalitions as separate objectives. This means provide them skills and why not to give them funds to ensure their capacities, and even stronger on the development of sectoral policies,” Mr. Vahram Vardanyan, representative of the Union of Communities of Armenia said at the focus group meeting today.

The regular focus groups were organized to identify the issues that exist in 5 sectors: environment, energy, transport and regional governance.

Despite the fact that Armenia has a progressive legislation in the energy industry sphere, but there is yet much to do here, believe the experts of the sphere and mentioned that the energy consumption can be reduced up to 16 percent in Yerevan.

In the environmental sector, especially in terms of protecting public health the primary issues i9s the problem of waste.

Issues are many and various in the local governments’ sphere. The transport issue is dominating, which exists in Yerevan as well.

Representatives of a dozen of CSOs that attended the meeting considered important the efforts aimed at the development of the civil society sector. They stressed that the initiative was timely and extremely topical in our reality.

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.

Details in the video.

G.T.

A. S.