The 7th phase of the Civil Society Organizations Capacity Building Educational Program is continued at the American University of Armenia.
There are 20 participants from Yerevan and 6 regions in this phase. It should be noted that the educational program is implemented within the framework of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project. The objective is to develop sustainable and effective skills among the civil society to start a dialogue with government and local self-government bodies.
On January 30, the participants with support of the trainer Areg Tadevosyan got acquainted with the different mechanisms for the formation of evidence-based public policies.
Mr. Yeghiazar Davtyan representative of “Martuni Women’s Community Council” NGO of Gegharkunik Marz mentioned in the conversation with us that such trainings are important especially for organizations from marzes, as they provide opportunity to establish new contacts, as well as to contact with other CSOs operating in Armenia, forming coalitions, to raise and to solve problems. “This course touches the public policy development issues. Our organization has experience in this area, but definitely obtaining extra knowledge is always necessary, we need to be educated, obtain knowledge, which will enable us to appear with more effective and strategic approaches in promoting processes in the field of public policy in the future. I hope that after the training, the organization will have opportunity to show its influence independently, as well as in the scope of a coalition in the process of realization of public policies.”
According to Ms Nare Hovhannisyan, from Center for Legal Initiatives NGO, the first important aspect of the training is that CSOs working in the same field gather around one table and share their concerns. “The course also gives an opportunity to make new contacts, and at the same time get acquainted with a wider circle of issues that may have been left out of your attention. And here it is important to learn what solutions they offer, based on their experience. It is very important to meet the field experts who present their expert opinion on the sphere,” Nare Hovhannisyan said. She also notes that the title of the project “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” was inspiring as well. This according to the representative of the civil society is important to undertake both by the state and the society and to realize the role of the main role player in this area.
The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by a Consortium of civil society organizations, which are the Armenian Lawyers’ Association (lead organization), 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․
