Capacity Building of Armenian Advocacy
This EPD-supported project comprised
three partner organizations, the "NGO Center" Civil Society Development
Organization, the Civic Development and Partnership Foundation (CDPF),
and the "Partnership and Teaching" (GUM) NGO. The project partners were
pursuing of a mission of "capacity-building of advocacy-oriented
Armenian NGOs to increase dialogue among civil society and governmental
bodies." The main strategy of the project was to improve the
capacity-building of selected civil society organizations (CSOs) through
the institutionalization of advocacy capacities, the establishment of
advocacy resource centers, the launch of a dialogue among CSOs and the
government, and an "experience exchange" between local CSOs with
European organizations.
The
project's aim was thus to provide for a platform for exchanges of
experience between organizations working in Advocacy field and for
institutional assistance to meet the development needs of CSOs working
in Advocacy field. It created an encouraging environment for networking
and experience exchange among CSOs and initiated peer
education/development process, which was a very innovative approach in
Armenia.
Thanks to this project
NGOs got united around existing problems (for example, during the
campaign against the new „NGO law") and the Civil Society as a whole got
mobilized. Working groups were formed in different regions of Armenia.
With the ARC structure Armenian NGOs had the opportunity to socialize,
network and cooperate with each other. Member NGOs became more active in
their initiatives and were informed about the challenges and
difficulties NGOs face in other regions. Many young NGOs joined ARRCA,
which helped them building their capacities in different fields,
primarily in advocacy, through different trainings and consultations.
In the last one and a half years the following capacity-building activities were implemented:
-
5 new Advocacy Resource Centers opened in the second half of 2009 in
three regions of Armenia (Northern-Vanadzor, Southern-Goris,
Central-Yerevan)
- An ARC webpage www.arc.am was created and fully functional as of December 2009.
-
4 issues of "Kamk +" newspaper have been published. Each newspaper
issue aims at encouraging CSOs in promoting civil society development
through the dissemination of information about initiatives implemented
by local CSOs, success stories of CSOs, advocacy teaching materials,
announcements of CSOs activities etc.
- 19 different trainings were provided in 3 ARCs for ARC member NGOs.
- An Advocacy Handbook (manual) was published in 500 copies.
- A range of thematic meetings
-
A big advocacy campaign was started in October 2009 by NGOC, CDPF,
P&T together with ARCCA member CSOs to prevent the adoption of new
"law on NGOs".