On 6 May, a three-day training course on “Development of Evidence based Public Policy” has been launched within the framework of the “Constructive Dialogue Network of Armenian CSOs” established in the scope of the EU funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project (CCD). The training was organised for the civil society organisations members of the “Constructive Dialogue Network of Armenian CSOs”

The training is organised in the scope of the “Budget for All” sub-grant project implemented by “WINNET Armenia” Network of Women Resource Centers in the scope of the CCD project

Mr. Karen Zadoyan, CCD Project Manager, President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, noted in his welcoming speech that at present, the main task is to have a real impact on public policies and to developing project budgeting is the best option to achieve it. “We have started a process with the Ministry of Finance in order to increase the role of civil society organisations in the budgeting process. During this three-day training we will train nearly 45 organisations,” Karen Zadoyan said.

Mr. Karen Brutyan, Deputy Minister of Finance welcomed the program, pointing out that the support of the civil sector in the sector can dramatically improve the budgetary process as there will be public, parliamentary and executive discussions, as a result of which it will be possible to have a qualitatively different budget in 2020.

“I believe that task number one for any budgetary program and event is identification of beneficiaries and connecting with the individual, secondly, the impact of the program on improving the quality of life of people. In the case of any budgetary program there is a problem of efficient use of resources. Any program that we would intend to implement, no matter in which area it is going to be implemented, we must be sure that there are no corruption risks,” the Deputy Minister said.

Mr. Hovhannes Avetisyan Public Finance Management Expert, who will introduce the participants the budgeting approaches and techniques, concepts and definitions of expenses, formation of the state budget, legislative basis for calculations of budget expenditure, etc., noted that budget resources are often simply dilapidated.

“When they say that there is no money, I say that there is money, it is wrongly spent. It’s just because the beneficiaries do not get the benefits they should have to get,” he said.