On 17 December, an online discussion in the format of a public-private dialogue on the development of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) National Action Plan 5 on the Social sector was held.
The event was organized in the framework of the “Co-creation Support for the 2020-2022 OGP National Action Plan” project implemented by a consortium of 3 Non-Governmental Organizations “Armavir Development Center”, “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” and “Freedom of Information Center” with the support of the “OGP” Support Unit.
The aim of the initiative is to improve the governance system through the active involvement of civil society, to promote its efficiency, by increasing the level of transparency, credibility and accountability of state-citizen relations. In order to do this, government and civil society representatives develop action plans, setting out clear measures to achieve the goals of the Initiative.
Ms Ani Harutyunyan, the representative of “Armavir Development Center” NGO, said in her opening remarks that the Armavir Development Center NGO had formed a consortium with the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, and the Freedom of Information Center, to support the 5th OGP Action Plan to make the government more accountable.
She said that in 2018 “Armavir Development Center” with the support of the World Bank implemented a program dedicated to the joint development and implementation of the 4th Open Government Partnership National Action Plan. The objective of the project was to create a package of commitments at the local-national level, which would promote the openness, transparency and participation of the Government. She noted that at the launch of the 5th plan, they considered it necessary to improve the process of joint development of the plan, to ensure a comprehensive, dialogue of all stakeholders, and later the feedback, to raise the level of awareness on OGP issues.
Ms Marina Mkhitaryan, OGP Regional Program Manager, informed that OGP is launching a new program for the Eastern Partnership countries. In the past, Armenia was included in the Asia-Pacific countries, but in terms of culture and management experience, it was closer to European countries. That is why at present Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova are included in the new EaP framework. Azerbaijan’s membership is suspended; Belarus is not a member yet.
She noted that she personally will head the office of this platform, the OGP support office, from January. They will have grant programs for non-governmental organizations. In other words, commitment monitoring tools will be provided to NGOs. Grant applications for this will be distributed in the spring.
The second direction is research. Within this framework, research on different areas of OGP related to Armenia will be encouraged. A platform for dialogue between governments to exchange experience will be initiated as well.
Ms Lilia Afrikyan presented the fulfillment of the OGP social sphere commitment by Armenia. According to her one social commitment of the fourth plan was transferred to them from the previous third plan. The reason for the non-fulfillment was financial, which was accompanied by changes in the government and new challenges. The Director of the National Institute for Labor and Social Research who was responsible for this commitment was changed in 2020.
The commitment referred to the support of 80 social programs implemented in the system of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The programs are diverse, involving business processes about which information is not available to the public. There is a need to provide stable, comprehensive information on social security within the public, which will reduce the risks of corruption and abuse by government officials.
“With the help of the introduced tools, individuals can independently manage the index of access to their social services, independently calculate their social status, get acquainted with the conditions for receiving various benefits. The system had to be implemented in an accessible structure. Quite extensive work had to be done here and the most important thing was to have a feedback tool through which the beneficiary could assess and present the problem he/she encountered while applying for or using the service, and/or after that.
The “open & social” section was to be introduced in the existing e-social.am system, where service providers would have a rating based on citizens’ assessments. Services based on ratings would have been reviewed,” she noted.
Ms. Syuzanna Soghomonyan, the program expert at the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, presented OGP commitments in the social sector undertaken by the Republic of Armenia”.
She presented the results of the qualitative-quantitative monitoring of the first half of the Human Rights Protection Strategy, emphasizing the performance of the social sector. According to her, two actions in this sphere were assessed as partially implemented, as the expected result was not achieved, as well as the relevant legislative changes were not implemented.
“The monitoring of qualitative and quantitative results carried out by ALA in 2020, it found out that three actions were envisaged in this sphere, two of which were intended for the second half of 2020, which were partially implemented, the other action should be carried out regularly.
Thus, the first action was to provide legislatively the procedure, conditions and mechanisms for supporting young families with children. According to the information provided by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the “2020-2023 State Housing Assistance Program for Families with Children” was approved in May 2020, and the model form of the contract to be signed was approved in July.”
According to Ms Soghomonyan, it is possible to “develop” the subsystem ensuring the recalculation of the pension of the working pensioner on the basis of an online application. “The implementation of the action in this part has been postponed.
The third increase the amount of state pensions. As a result of the changes made in this part, the average pension has increased by 10%. As this action was also expected to launch the subsystem for recalculating the pension of a working pensioner on the basis of an online application, the action was assessed as partially completed.”
Lilia Afrikyan mentioned that a system will be created where it will be possible to find out automatically what organizations providing social services exist; how to apply; what documents are needed; and so on.
Mr. Movses Aristakesyan, President of the “Centre of Economic Right” NGO and a member of the Governing Board of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia said that in terms of accountability it is important that beneficiaries provide an assessment of service performance. No such tool has been developed either.
“In terms of monitoring, it is important to understand that CSOs, when communicating with stakeholders, understand through research how stakeholders evaluate the services they receive and provide summary information that already has a high level of evidence,” he said.
According to Aristakesyan, the realization of the right to a pension is not ensured. In the age of e-government, it is necessary to develop a system so that the citizen does not submit his documents in person.
“For example, under Covid19, a person remaining in the United States will be able to send documents electronically and exercise their right,” he said.
Ms Manush Maralchyan, President of the “Young Tavush” NGO, proposes to create an electronic database, which will record information about each family and the work done for that family, including the support provided.
“The database will be operated by the community administration and will be accountable to the regional administration, which will allow to find out the work done with socially vulnerable families and their effectiveness, as well as to keep statistics, which will facilitate the evaluation of the work done,” she said.
Maralchyan suggested adjusting the scope of responsibilities of social workers and the financial and material-technical resources provided for them by law.
“We propose to provide ongoing training for social workers and introduce licensing of social workers, as qualified professionals must work with the beneficiary families, especially in the case of home visits,” she said.
The participants of the discussion reached agreements on further work.