The American University of Armenia will conduct a special educational program for the representatives of Civil Society Organizations’ (CSO). Today a contract on the implementation of the educational programme was signed by Dr. Randall Rhodes, the Provost of the American University of Armenia (AUA), and Mr. Karen Zadoyan, the President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association.
The educational program will be implemented in the scope the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project, which is implemented by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association in cooperation with 5 partner organizations.
“This is a unique event for Armenia. For the first time ever in Armenia, a certified educational programme aimed at CSO capacity building will be implemented by a higher education institution, the American University of Armenia. I congratulate our CSO representatives on this occasion,” Karen Zadoyan said.
The peculiarity of these courses will be that they will not be temporary and will be implemented after the completion of the program as well. “Our expectations are great. The educational program will become a certified program and will be part of a CSOs’ continuing education curricula. Training programs on CSO capacity building of the curricula will be organized on a paid basis,” Dr. Sergey Tantushyan, the Director of Extension Programs at AUA said and assured that the best specialists will teach this program.
120 CSO representatives from Yerevan and marzes will be trained on public policy development; monitoring of public budget and policy, coalition building; and creating CSO-Government constructive dialogue issues. At the end of the training, CSO representatives will receive certificates of completion.
The graduates will be able to conduct monitoring in the field of the state budget allocations and policy implementation; identify key issues for the development of public policy; and develop constructive and strategic partnerships with partners from the central government and local government.
It should be mentioned that last month a tender of developing training modules for the civil society organizations and providing professional/training services according to the modules was announced. American University of Armenia was selected from the universities that submitted bids.
The fact that the institution possesses relevant professional experience and experts to develop the training modules provided by the program and organization of courses based on these modules was taken into account during the selection process.
The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project, which is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO in cooperation with its partners; Agora Central Europe o.p.s (an NGO from the Czech Republic), Armenian Center for Democratic Education-CIVITAS, “International Center for Human Development” Public Organization, SME Cooperation Association and Union of Communities of Armenia.
