On 18 February, the face-to-face (offline) training phases of Budget Training Program of the second stream of CSO/Media representatives and the advanced and practical skills development phase for young professionals took place.

Expert on the budget component of the program Ms Lilit Hakobyan, representative of the “Center for Economic Development and Research” NGO, conducted two separate training sessions for both groups. The analysis of public budgets was the key topic of the training sessions.

At the beginning of the training sessions, the expert expressed her interest to hearing opinions of the trainees about the training process.

Further, during individual work with each group, the participants discussed with the expert, the objectives of budget analysis, areas of its application, planning of the financial volumes, methods for calculating expenses and revenues. After the theoretical part, they made a transition to the development of practical skills through practical work.

In order to measure the effectiveness of the training sessions, CSO/Media representatives and young professionals completed initial and final knowledge evaluation tests developed by the expert, which will allow to assess the dynamics of the growth of participants’ knowledge.

Considering the importance of participation of representatives from the regions, the training is being conducted in a hybrid format, combining the opportunities for offline (face-to-face) and online (remote) participation. Such an approach allows young professionals and CSO/Media representatives from remote regions to be actively involved in the processes of improving the sector.

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).