On May 17 May, Ms Margarita Hakobyan, Director of “Oxfam in Armenia” conducted the 3rd training on “CSOs Public Policy Monitoring Experience” for the participants of CSOs’ incubator in Yerevan in the scope of the EU funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project.

She replied to participants’ questions on how to write a monitoring plan, how to draft the project budget, conduct fundraising and how to register positive results in the course of the project and after its implementation.

Ms Nelly Grigoryan, representative of “Civic Initiatives Platform” NGO noted the importance of providing practical knowledge during the training in CSO incubators. “Exchange of experience is of great importance;’ sometimes they seem to be trifles, but serious issues hidden in them are just coming out during the exchange of experience.”

“We are a new organization and we need such meetings. They are also effective because you meet representatives from other organizations with whom you can find ways to collaborate. The idea of ​​incubators is good, we have great hopes to record results,” Ms Karine Davtyan, founder of the “Women’s Rights House” NGO in Gyumri said.

CSO incubators’ mission is to provide professional and technical assistance to Armenian CSOs to develop their capacities in 9 target sectors.

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.

Within the framework of the project, trainings will be organised for CSOs operating in 9 targeted areas, including  monitoring of allocations of the state budget and policy implementation, identifying key issues for public policy development, including analysis and elaboration of public policies, coalition building and policymaking strategies, interaction with central authorities and partners in local self-governance bodies.