A consortium of UN Agencies, including UNICEF, UNDP and UNFPA, is implementing a three-year action towards empowerment of women, youth and children for deepening democracy in Armenia, with financial support from the European Union in Armenia. As part of the Action UNDP, through its Kolba Lab, will be responsible for design and deployment of innovative mechanisms towards promotion of direct democracy and open governance in Armenia. UNDP’s Kolba Lab is the dedicated unit for development experiments. Since 2012, Kolba Lab has been testing and deploying innovative solutions in public service, civil society and private sector. In 2019, Kolba has officially started a new phase by focusing on citizen engagement initiatives. Kolba currently has two dimensions of programming: Future Modeling and Open Governance. The projects we currently work on are future oriented and contain experimentation and foresight ‘inside the lab’ to prepare for the upcoming changes for youth specifically in the education and job fields. The Open Governance direction strives to design solutions towards a more accountable and participatory public sector. Civic activism in the country has created a window of opportunity for democratic change and greater accountability, transparency in functioning of the Government and civic participation. The growth of citizen journalism and eye-witness culture in Armenia is reflected in the number of new information platforms, popularity of video blogging and social network channels. Citizens also complement the traditionally institutionalised monitoring and oversight functions of civil society, by holding a spotlight over government operations through mobile applications, self-organised civil actions and citizen scrutiny of policy decisions. ICT platforms, including e-participation tools enabled by the government (e-draft, e-request, interactive budget), remain the main framework for communicating feedback to the decision makers. In order to address these challenges, UNDP jointly with UNICEF and UNFPA has designed a strategic intervention with the financial support of European Union in Armenia. The project aims to build on the unique momentum of the emerged citizenry and to nudge new quality and value of participatory governance - the right of every woman and man, as well as marginalized groups, to participate in the democratic decision-making process both at local and national levels, towards good governance and equitable development. This project is relevant for the Agenda 2030. It contributes primarily to the progressive achievement of SDG 16 “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”. UNDP Project “Future Today: Empowering women, youth and children for deepening Democracy in Armenia” consists of two components. The first component "Increased trust in Government" will support the Open Government Initiatives with the aim to enhance open governance and broader civic participation. The component will build on the history of open government reforms in Armenia, expanding the accountability movement to the regions of Armenia and engaging new actors. The project will make sure that OGP initiatives are inclusive and available for all segments of the society. The project will help to implement the OGP Action Plan 2020-2022, as well as to ensure strong oversight over its implementation from Armenian women and men and civil society organizations. This will be done through introduction of online feedback loops for public services, as well as empowerment of all segments of citizenry to act proactively. In order to reach its objectives, project seeks to recruit a Trainer to provide Digital Management and E-Governance related workshops to the project beneficiaries.
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