The Government of the Republic of Armenia

Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister Arayik Harutyunyan participated in the kick-off meeting of the new initiative “Promoting Youth Involvement in Participatory Governance in Armenia”.

The initiative is implemented by the Government of the Republic of Armenia with the support of the Governments of Germany and Switzerland. It is aimed at increasing youth involvement in participatory budgeting processes. The goal of the kick-off meeting is to form a common understanding of the goals, scope and expected results of the initiative. It will serve as a platform for exchanging views, identifying key priorities and challenges, as well as ensuring institutional responsibility and engagement.

Arayik Harutyunyan delivered a welcoming speech, in which, in particular, he noted:

“Dear colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen, dear young people,

I am glad to welcome you to this hall. Today we have gathered not to start another program, to just announce it, but to form a new culture together.

I am very happy that this program is being implemented, because we have worked hard in this direction and attached great importance to it, and I want to note with satisfaction that we have reached this milestone.

Let's be honest: we often talk about reforms, but we must admit that they do not always give the result that citizens expect. Why? Because changing laws is easy, but changing thinking, culture and behavior is very difficult. We have understood one important thing: without real participation and involvement of people, even the best program can simply remain on paper.

This is where your role, dear young people, becomes key and decisive. We do not consider you as “the cadres of tomorrow,” I do not like this expression. You are the actors of today. Your education, innovative thinking, and even your critical outlook are what the state system needs to become more effective and purposeful.

And it is the mechanisms of participatory governance that are the tool through which this potential can be transformed into concrete results. For us, these mechanisms are not a supplementary tool, but an essential component of state governance. And I say this with all sincerity and confidence. It enables citizens to become real participants in decision-making, and state bodies to respond more accurately to public needs.

In communities, we have succeeded in participatory budgeting, which I think is one of our best achievements in recent years, and it is not just a financial tool. This is a bridge of trust between the citizen and the state. When you participate in making a decision, you become the owner of that decision. I want to remind you that a significant part, if not the majority, of these programs concerned young people and teenagers. I have learned that teenagers involved adults so that the projects they wanted were voted on and passed, and they did.

The role of participation is much broader for us. There are also important political events ahead - the elections, and for many of you this will be the first serious civic step. Our goal is that your participation is not limited to going to the polling station. We want you to be involved, but involved not in the elections themselves, but in the entire period between elections. In other words, the elections are over, and we don't need to wait for these important two or three months of the next five years, but we need to be involved so that the programs that you have in mind and the programs that the current government is proposing are implemented, implemented cooperatively and with quality.

Our progress in this direction has been achieved through the joint and dedicated efforts of various branches of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, communities, civil society and international partners. But our main goal is for these models to become sustainable and work both at the national level and in all communities of Armenia.

Dear young people, make use of this platform.

We are here to listen to you and turn your ideas into practical mechanisms. We want to create an Armenia where you do not just see the changes, but you are the authors of those changes.

Thank you and I hope that in a year we will gather here again, summarize, record the achievements, solve the problems, accept new proposals and move forward”.

This initiative aims to promote more inclusive and transparent participatory governance at the local level, ensuring that young people have meaningful participation in local decision-making processes, including participatory budgeting and other processes of civic participation. The initiative will be implemented through youth centers and high schools, combined with awareness-raising events, capacity-building training, and online engagement tools.