Support to Consolidating Local Democracy in Armenia
Start date: October 2013
Duration: 36 months
Budget: 1.8 million EUR
Donor: Government of Denmark
Partners: Ministry of Territorial Administration, Ministry of Finance, National Assembly, local authorities in Armenia, associations representing LSG bodies, NGOs involved in citizen participation, ALDA.
The Project aimed to provide Council of Europe legal expertise, policy advice and support to the process of local self-government reform, including the preparation of the administrative-territorial reform, and to strengthen the capacities of local authorities. The first component (Support to Local Government Reform) aimed to bring Armenian legislation in the field of local self-government in line with European standards. The second component (Capacity Building of Local Authorities) targeted the institutional capacities and service-delivery means of local authorities. And finally the third component (Strengthening Leadership by Local Elected Representatives) aimed at improving leadership capacities of local elected representatives and generating a spirit of co-operation among Local Government Units.
The Council of Europe has launched the 2015 Best Practice Programme for local authorities in Armenia
The Programme, elaborated by the Council of Europe’s Centre of Expertise on Local Government Reform, has already been implemented successfully in Armenia in 2014, as well as in a number of European countries. The second round of the programme in Armenia was implemented as part of the capacity building components of the Council of Europe’s “Support to Consolidating Local Democracy in Armenia” project, funded by the Government of Denmark.
The Best Practice Programme (BPP) is aimed at identifying, publicly recognizing and disseminating best practices among local authorities in Armenia. For this year, the project’s Steering Committee has identified three main themes in which communities throughout Armenia may submit applications for a best practice status. Those are:
- citizen participation,
- practices of community councils,
- partnership /cooperation practices
The detailed prospectus and application form of the Best Practice Programme were forwarded to all communities, while the prospectus is available at http://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=090000168058f385 and the application form is also available at: http://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=090000168058f37e (Armenian only)
The Council of Europe organized meetings in Goris, Gavar, Gyumry, Vanadzor and Ijevan to present the Best Practice Programme to central, northern and southern communities of Armenia between 14-23 December.