On 27 December, 36 sub-grant agreements were signed with the Civil Society Organisations (CSO) and CSO Coalitions in the framework of the EU Funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” (CCD) Project

In his speech Mr. Karen Zadoyan, the CCD Project Manager and President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association mentioned that 29 sub-grants worth up to 5.5 million drams are being awarded to CSOs that have participated in CSO Incubators established within the framework of the project, for the implementation of community projects. And sub-grants worth up to 8.5 million drams are awarded to 7 CSO Coalition that the CCD project, and these sub-grants are aimed at capacity building of the coalitions.

“The 29 sub-grants are directed mainly to implementation of projects in different communities of the republic. We anticipate changes that will be achieved through your work, through cooperation with government and local governments, and thus influencing on public policies. Whereas sub-grants provided to coalition will allow strengthening the capacities of the newly formed already operating CSO Coalitions so that they will become more influential in the issues of policy development and initiating constructive dialogue with the government,” Mr. Zadoyan said.

In his welcoming speech, Mr. Paulius Strelciunas, International Aid/Cooperation Officer of the Delegation of the European Union to Armenia said:

“We understand that the big job has been done by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association and I would like to seize the opportunity and thank ALA for the great job in 2018. Of course, I would like to express our gratitude to all of you who are working on the field. According to us, you are making the biggest difference. We are very happy to have this support scheme in Armenia. The EU strongly believes that all the change cannot happen without strong involvement of civil society organisations. And we are more than happy to support you.”

The total amount of sub-grants that were provided today is about 220 million drams.  It is anticipated to provide two more sub-grants to the CSO Coalition at the beginning of the next year (in total 17 million drams).

Notably, on 31 May this year, 9 sub-grants, worth up to 25 million drams each (about 225 million drams), were provided to 9 CSO Coalitions for the implementation of projects in 9 target sectors of CCD Project.

The list of CSOs that were awarded sub-grants today is available here.

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 has provided sub-grants to 9 CSO coalitions that will be directed to the development of public policies and will have tangible results in the 9 target sectors selected within the project, which are: Justice, Human Rights, Public Finance Management, Business, Education, Social Sector (social inclusion of children with disabilities), Agriculture, Economy and Energy.