“Budgets for Citizens” project announces the launch of the 2nd stream of educational program aimed at developing skills of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Mass Media, which will help you gain a deeper understanding of budgetary processes.
Are you interested in state budget transparency and want to actively participate in budget decision-making? If yes, then this educational program is for you.
Who can apply:
- Representatives of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)
- Mass Media employees
What will the program provide:
- Fundamental knowledge about budgetary processes
- Skills for participating in inclusive and transparent budgetary processes
- Tools for making civil society’s voice heard in budget decisions
- Sub-grants for budget analysis, monitoring, and advocacy campaign implementation
Timeline:
- Start: December 2024
- Duration: 4-5 months
- Participation is FREE
The educational program will be implemented in the following three phases.
ONLINE LEARNING PHASE: Within the framework of this phase, representatives of CSOs will take online courses, which will consist of the following 4 modules:
- State budgets, budget analysis and monitoring.
- Advocacy implementation.
- Need-based related skills.
- Similar experience of EU/Czech Republic.
The training will be carried out through video classes and interactive materials of the Budget Knowledge Learning Platform (e-learning), developed by the Project experts. At the end of each topic, the participants must complete the knowledge test questionnaires.
FACE-TO-FACE (OFFLINE) TRAINING PHASE: At this stage, representatives of CSOs who have successfully completed the online phase will participate in an 12-day course (one day a week), during which they will listen to lectures (master classes) on the topics of the state budget, budget analysis, participation, monitoring, implementation and advocacy, as well as perform group and individual analytical work.
Mentoring and virtual study visits for EU experience exchange And development of practical skills Phase: During this phase, participants who have successfully finished the face-to-face phase will visit relevant bodies (such as, RA Government, Ministry of Finance, National Assembly, etc.), private, international and local civil society organizations representing the field, and will also participate in virtual training with the Czech experts of the Project in the field of exchange of Czech experience in order to get acquainted with the Czech and EU practical work.
SUB-GRANTS
CSOs and media that have successfully completed all 3 phases will be awarded sub-grants under the program on a competitive basis to analyze key performance indicators (KPI) of budgets, monitor budget programs and track expenditures in the areas of justice, education, social security and agriculture, as well as advocacy campaigns, and to carry out public debates.
CSOs and Mass Media that wish to participate in the educational program must nominate two representatives and fill out the application form by 30 November, 2024 inclusive.
SELECTION CRITERIA OF CSOs AND MASS MEDIA.
CSOs and Mass Media must either be active in at least one (1) target area of the Program or intend to be active in at least one of the target areas of the Program.
CSOs and media should have little or moderate capacity building experience in the project thematic areas.
In case of high competition, preference will be given to applicants who have not previously participated in a similar educational program.
It is envisaged that after completing the educational program, the participating CSOs and Media will share the knowledge gained with other employees of their organizations (through TOTs) and apply it in their work.
Advantage will be given to those CSOs and Mass Media that actively involve youth and women in their activities.
(1) The Project target areas include: justice, education, social security and agriculture.
For additional information, you can call the following phone number: 010 54-01-99 or visit www.budgets.am, the Budget Knowledge Sharing Platform.
The “Budgets 4 Citizens” (B4C) action (8 December, 2022 – 7 December, 2026) is being implemented with the financial support of the European Union by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, in cooperation with partners “Economic Development and Research Center” (EDRC) NGO and “Agora Central Europe” NGO (Czech Republic).
