On October 24, 2014 a workshop entitled “Open Government Partnership Initiative” was conducted in Goris press club. The event was organized by efforts of “Journalists for the Future” NGO (JFF), with the financial support of the USA Embassy in Armenia.
The event was aimed at increasing the level of awareness of local CSOs on the “Open Government Partnership” (OGP) international initiative and providing their active engagement in the OGP/Armenia process.
Suren Deheryan, JFF president and workshop trainer, stated that although Armenia joined the OGP initiative 3 months after its creation, it is necessary to mention that nowadays the civil society is not actively involved in the process of developing and discussing the OGP Action Plan for local activities.
“Similar discussions show that regional NGOs are basically unaware of the OGP initiative or heard quite little about it. Whereas the OGP principles are designed to provide the civil society’s active participation both in developing and discussing the OGP Action Plan and in implementing it,” Deheryan noted.
The workshop in Goris was attended by 25 representatives of local CSOs, who were introduced the background and international experience of the OGP initiative, as well as issues concerning the participation of Armenia in this process. All of the 11 obligations involved in the OGP/Armenia Action Plan 2014-2016, their strong and weak sides, their importance and effectiveness, and the ways regional NGOs can monitor the realization of the OGP/Armenia Action Plan were discussed with the participants.
Within the framework of the workshop the participants were provided with necessary online literature to learn more about this initiative and to get involved in this process, as well as they agreed to create contact database for providing more effective collaboration between NGOs.
Worth mentioning that JFF have launched a range of workshops entitled “Open Government Partnership Initiative” in the regions of Armenia since September, 2014. It is planned to organize 7 more similar workshops in different cities of Armenia to provide the CSOs’ representatives with necessary knowledge and literature on the OGP international initiative, the obligations undertaken by the Armenian Government and the process of its implementation, to evoke interest among regional NGOs to implement monitoring regarding realization of the OGP Action Plan, as well as to support representatives of regional CSOs to come up with proposals consistent with OGP principles.
OGP initiative was created in 2011 by joint efforts of 8 countries: USA, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, South Africa and UK. It is aimed at increasing the publicity of the governors’ activities, promoting the society’s participation in managing the public life, forming more transparent and accountable authorities.
