Wednesday, 30 October 2019
Eduard Aghajanyan: “RA Government highlights effective cooperation with civil society”
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) - Armenia Working Group met today in the Office of Government to discuss progress in the implementation of the fourth OGP Armenia Action Plan.
Welcoming the meeting participants, OGP Working Group Coordinator, Chief of Prime Minister’s Staff Eduard Aghajanyan noted: “In the face of new economic challenges and emerging complex social processes, the Executive has to address a major task by developing decision-making models based on active participation of civil society in public governance and the use of modern oversight mechanisms.
It is no secret that the Government of Armenia is strongly committed to finding more effective forms of government-civil society cooperation. I am pleased to note that the cooperation underway in the frame of the Open Government Partnership Initiative has become a tradition and a reality. This is crucial, since it is impossible to succeed in the reform process without inclusive processes.”
Stressing the importance of the meeting held in Armenia, OGP Chief Executive Director Sanjay Pradhan said Armenia is viewed as a bright spot for democracy within 79 OGP-member States. “The non-violent velvet revolution was a strong signal coming from Armenia’s citizens and expressed the people’s will to bring about effective changes in the country,” Sanjay Pradhan said, noting that the next step for Armenia should be to enhance citizens’ trust in the government in order to implement tangible economic and legal reforms in the country.
According to the OGP Chief Executive Officer, our country is exemplary in terms of its compliance with the OGP commitments, which is a good basis for expanding the scope of Armenia’s commitments in the next action plan. Sanjay Pradhan expressed readiness to assist Armenia with the implementation of judicial, anticorruption and economic reforms.
During the meeting, representatives of public agencies reported progress in the implementation of OGP commitments. The Fourth Action Plan for 2018-2020 features 11 commitments: official Open Data declaration, transparency and accountability of RA State budget grants, introduction of the Open Owners’ Public Register, updating of community websites; at a local level: access to the unified water resource management information system, Open Healthcare, online registration for treatment and diagnosis under the State order facility, etc. The report on the Independent Reporting Mechanism was presented during the meeting.
Summing up the meeting, Eduard Aghajanyan noted that all those issues and suggestions raised during the working group meeting will be further discussed. “The Republic of Armenia honors its commitments in a timely manner, which is what matters most at the moment, and we must indeed continue the process of implementing our further commitments in the same spirit. It is important for us to fully comply with the OGP agenda at the stage of such important reforms for the country,” the Chief of Prime Minister’s Staff said. Eduard Aghajanyan attached special importance to the strengthening of citizen-state cooperation, which should be upgraded to institutional level.
“I would like to avail myself of the opportunity and, as all stakeholders are here, I should ask civil society partners and the international partner organizations to support the introduction of new tools and technologies. We hope that Armenia’s experience will be exemplary at least for the countries of our region and that the Government of Armenia will make every effort to bring the reforms to successful completion,” he said.
A memorandum was signed yesterday between the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and the Open Owners cross-country initiative as part of the ongoing partnership to implement the Real Owners process.
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The Open Government Partnership Initiative was established in 2011 on the initiative of governments of 8 countries: USA, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The OGP Initiative is currently adhered to by over 75 governments.
Each participating country must formulate its National Action Plan for a two-year period according to the rules set by the Coordination Council. Armenia has been a member of the OGP process since 2012.
