On 15 August, training on the “Current State of Advocacy and Prospects for its development” for CSO incubators group was held in Vanadzor. The training was organised in the scope of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project.

Arthur Sukiasyan, Coordinator of the Vanadzor Incubator of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project conducted the training. He talked about the activities of the Chamber of Advocates, presented its structure, the residences in the provinces, as well as the functions of the public defender and the scope of the persons applying to the public defender’s office. The facilitator also spoke about the possibilities of cooperation between NGOs and advocates, about the strategic litigation conducted by NGOs and funding of such trials. The issue of the independence of advocates, the remuneration, the differentiation of the lawyer and the advocate were also discussed.

11 out of 13 CSOs involved in the 1st and 2nd Phase of Vanadzor Incubators participated in the event.

Civil society organizations (CSO) incubators are aimed at promoting CSO capacity building and enhancing productivity.

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 will provide sub-grants to CSOs and CSO coalitions for developing public policies and bringing significant changes in the 9 target sectors selected within the project, including those of justice, education and business.