Strengthening the Communities Association of Armenia and Transparent, Participatory Local Governance in Armenia

Start date: 15 July 2019

Duration: 36 months

Budget: 900 000 EUR

Donor: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

Partners: Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, Communities Association of Armenia

The aim of the Project is to improve the quality of local democracy in Armenia and enhance citizen’s confidence and trust in local authorities through greater voice, accountability, effectiveness and inclusiveness of the local self-government bodies. The Project has two main lines of actions:

• on national level the Project focuses on supporting institutional strengthening of the Communities Association of Armenia (CAA) for representation of the interests of its member local authorities and establishing a formal, effective consultation mechanism between the Government and the local authorities.
• on local level the Project focuses on raising the awareness on the Council of Europe standards on political integrity, ethics, transparent and open local governance and supporting the local authorities to develop, adopt and implement local codes of conduct and local anti-corruption strategies.

The expected results of the Project are:

1. Local authorities represented by the CAA are empowered in local self-government related matters, in particular

• local authorities are duly consulted through their national associations on matters which concern them directly;
• CAA is strengthened to perform as a formal, credible and sustainable body.

2. Local authorities in Armenia foster citizen participation in local decision making and implement accountability instruments and European standards of local democracy, transparency, open government, political integrity and ethics through their policies and practices, in particular

• Council of Europe recommendations on combating corruption at local level are integrated into local legal frameworks;
• citizens are enabled to participate in democratic decision-making processes at local level.