The regular meeting of the Board of Constructive Dialogue Network of Armenian CSOs was held today, on 24 December. The Network was created on 16 February by 10 coalitions of civil society organizations in the framework of the European Union-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” (CCD) Project. It operates based on the Declaration on the Creation of the “Constructive Dialogue Network of Armenian CSOs”.
The agenda of the meeting included 3 issues: discussion of applications for membership of other CSO coalitions/networks established within the CCD project; introduction of the new e-learning platform for capacity building of the Network members; and submission of summary presentations of the current year’s activities of the Network members.
Guided by the provisions of the Network Declaration, which provides that each session of the board is presided by the head of one of CSO coalitions, on rotation basis according to the alphabetical order of names of coalitions, this meeting was chaired by Mr. Artur Gomktsyan, representative of the “Oxygen” Foundation for Protection of Youth and Women Rights, which is Coordinator of the Secretariat of the “Armenian Agricultural Alliance” Coalition
As a result of the decision on the first issue on the agenda, the following four coalitions joined the Network:
- Multi-Stakeholder Social Protection Network,
- Public Coalition for the Protection of Workers’ Rights
- Coalition for the Development of Local Self-Government System and Strengthening of Local Democracy in the Republic of Armenia;
- Coalition of Civil Society Organizations for the Development of Institutionalization of Social Advertising in Armenia.
As a result of joining of the new coalitions, the Constructive Dialogue Network of Armenian CSOs is currently comprised of 14 coalitions of civil society organizations that unite around 251 CSOs.
Further, Mr. Karen Zadoyan, Coordinator of the Secretariat of CSOs Constructive Dialogue Network of Armenia, presented the new e-learning platform for capacity building of the Network members, which is currently being tested.
Welcoming the creation of such a platform and its importance in developing the capacities of coalitions and NGOs in general, Network members came up with a number of suggestions that will help to make the e-learning platform more accessible and more effective before it is fully operational.
The results of CSOs activities in the process of public policy development, their improvement and the implementation of public oversight, the realities and obstacles encountered were mentioned as well.
Further, the Network member coalitions presented their annual reports, discussed further planning of network activity, deepening cross-sectoral cooperation among CSOs, developing public policy, implementation and public oversight of strategic partnerships with the Government, National Assembly and local self-government bodies.
