Four Armenian communities – Urtsadzor, Ararat Marz, Vardenik, Gegharkunuk Marz, Akhtala, Lori Marz, and Artik, Shirak Marz signed agreements, on 3 June 2015, with the Council of Europe to receive grants for implementing citizen participation initiatives in their communities.
The four communities have been selected through a competitive process and will receive coaching and expert support from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
“This is the first time that the Council of Europe will provide grants to its partners in Armenia,” stated Natalia Voutova, the Head of Council of Europe Office in Yerevan, congratulating partner municipalities.
Starting from June 2015, the four communities will launch citizen participation processes by involving their residents in identifying, prioritising and finding shared solutions to urgent community problems, which will then be included in the following community annual budget.
“These are actually participatory budgeting pilot initiatives, which as a process, practically doesn’t exist in Armenia. We are confident that these “pilots” will be successful. We will assist the dissemination of results and lessons learnt to other local governments throughout Armenia,” concluded Ms Voutova.
This initiative is implemented by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe as part of the project “Support to consolidating local democracy in Armenia”, which is funded by the Government of Denmark.