An online awareness session with the program team within the framework of the “Budgets for Citizens” programme was held on 20 May, 2025, ahead of the 2nd round of the CSO/Media sub-grant competition. Representatives of CSOs/Media from the first stream of the training program aimed at developing the budgetary capacities of CSOs and Media launched within the framework of the programme participated in the meeting.
The meeting was aimed to present the details on the following three sub-grant competitions that will be launched in the near future:
- Second Phase of Sub-Grant Projects for Budget Monitoring and Analysis in Target Directions
https://budgets.am/en/5291.html
- Second Phase of Sub-Grant Projects to involve Young Specialists of Budget Sector in CSOs/Mass Media on Employment Basis
https://budgets.am/en/5308.html - First Phase of Sub-Grant Applications to conduct Advocacy Campaigns in Target Areas
https://budgets.am/en/5319.html
In the first part of the meeting, representatives of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association presented the main objectives of the sub-grant programmes, target sectors, and the areas of activity. The application procedure and deadlines were presented in detail as well.
The activities implemented in the first-phase sub-grant programme, their objectives, achieved results, and lessons learned were presented as examples.
In the second part of the meeting, Ms Lilit Hakobyan, a representative of the Economic Development and Research Center, provided a comprehensive overview of target sectors of the programmes, activity directions, and priorities. She also touched upon the process of developing sectoral simplified budgets, the methodology for budget monitoring and analysis, attaching special emphasis on the need to clearly define goals and expected results in sub-grant programmes.
The project team also discussed in detail the sub-grants announced for the implementation of advocacy campaigns, which are a follow-up to the sub-grants awarded for budget monitoring and analysis. Specifically, ALA representative Suzanna Solomonyan provided a detailed and systematic presentation on the strategic objectives and methodological approaches for implementing advocacy campaigns, explaining the fundamental connection that exists between the specific problems identified during budget monitoring and analysis and the targeted advocacy initiatives to be developed based on them. She also presented thorough and practical examples that demonstrated how budget monitoring results can be transformed into effective and targeted advocacy campaigns, and answered participants’ multifaceted questions about these crucial processes.
It was particularly emphasized that within the framework of budget monitoring, it is necessary to clearly identify the issues that will later serve as the basis for advocacy campaigns and focus on the development of specific programmatic solutions.
Participants expressed interest in issues related to the size of the sub-grant budget, deadlines, project duration and other important aspects of implementation.
At the end of the meeting, the program team expressed best wishes to the participants regarding the submission of sub-grant applications and further effective and continuous cooperation.
