Open Government Partnership - Armenia

In the framework of the program “Support to Participation and Co-creation of National/Local OGP Action Plan” of the Trust Fund WB, “Armavir development Center” NGO (ADC) together with the Government of RA and Civil Society organizations launched a competition of ideas for the 4th Open Government Partnership Action Plan. During these months the ADC set up the following actions and meetings:

Crowdsourcing of ideas: has gathered - 90 ideas in total. From State agencies and citizens. Public engagement meetings: ADC organized 10 public engagement meetings in all 10 regions in Armenia, with 15-20 participants in each. Participants included representatives of non-profit sector, CSOs, active local people. The meetings aimed at familiarizing the public with OGP agenda in Armenia, as well as new opportunities for contributing to the OGP program by submitting citizen suggestions.

Internal competition among public servants on national/municipal level: ADC has approached a number of Ministries to nudge internal ideas among public servants. The Ministries included Ministry of Health, Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development, Ministry of Education and Science, State Revenue Committee, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. Additionally, bilateral consultations have been conducted with the management of Water Resource Management Agency, State Cadaster Committee (Land Registry) of Armenia, Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Agriculture and Ethics Commission of High Ranking Officials

Idea Validation Meeting with the Working Group: ADC has organized consultations with the extended OGP Working Group to discuss the bulk of submitted ideas. The meetings aimed at familiarizing the Working Group members with the submissions, collecting feedback on each, grouped similar ideas and discussed controversial submissions. Apart from the full working group meetings, ADC has also organized additional targeted consultations on specific commitments, where expertise and ministry validation was needed, in particular on water management, land registry, beneficiary ownership, declaration of assets, state-subsidized CSO activities and local self-governance.

Town Hall meeting: ADC has screened the long list of ideas identified by the Working Group and separated 4 which could be relevant for a town hall meeting format. The town hall meeting was organized with 70 participants, including local people, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, CSOs, representatives from the local self-government bodies from 4 regions, national government, including different Ministry representatives.