Fighting corruption

Corruption is a major obstacle to economic, political and social development of Armenia. The Armenian Government's five-year programme (2007-2012) contains a commitment to fight corruption as part of its overall objective to advance good governance and promote public administration reform. The OSCE Office in Yerevan assists the Armenian authorities and civil society in their efforts to combat this phenomenon.

The Office supports the development of a new three-year Anti-Corruption Strategy to replace the previous government strategy, which expired in 2007. The Office facilitates co-ordination between the Anti-Corruption Monitoring Commission (which is responsible for drafting the strategy), the international community and civil society in order to ensure the maximum possible participation by international and domestic stakeholders in the development of the strategy.

 In order to mobilize civil society to the fight against corruption, the Office also supports non-governmental organizations. In 2009 the Office supported several projects implemented by civil society organizations, such as anti-corruption educational summer camp in Syunik by "Future is Yours" NGO; monitoring the work of the notaries offices in Armenia by the Armenian Young Lawyers Association NGO; and fighting corruption in traffic regulation by "Achilles" Centre of Protection of Drivers' Rights NGO.

The Office works closely with international donors to coordinate anti-corruption initiatives through an International Working Group on Anti-Corruption which it chairs. By avoiding duplication of activities, it helps to enhance the effectiveness of the international community's anti-corruption assistance. It is also involved in raising awareness and educating the public on corruption issues through publications, studies, presentations and monitoring activities.

Capacity building for civil servants

National Assembly

Since 2004, the Office has supported a variety of activities aimed at improving the professional skills of Armenian civil servants in the legislative and executive branches of government. Advanced training sessions have been organized for the staff of the National Assembly's departments and standing committees. The training focused on legal drafting and analysis of various policy issues, e.g. social policy, environmental protection, economic regulation, human rights and other. In addition, experience exchange visits to the parliaments of Hungary, Slovenia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania and the Austria were held in co-operation with the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

In 2009, the Office signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Assembly, which defines the scope and the substance of the co-operation between the two institutions. In particular, it is envisaged to continue and expand the capacity building activities for the parliamentary staff. Thus, in 2009 the Office renewed its training and experience exchange project for the Standing Committees and Departments of the National Assembly and continued this activity in 2010. In addition, in 2010 the Office has announced a competition for research papers devoted to comparative analysis of various policy issues aiming to encourage and support research capacities within the National Assembly.

The Office plans to continue its close co-operation with the Parliament of the fifth convocation after May 2012 Parliamentary elections. In particular it will aim at enhancing legislative drafting skills of the newly elected Members of Parliament through a series of induction seminars.

Armenian Foreign Ministry

Since 2006, short courses and training sessions on foreign policy analysis were delivered by domestic and international experts to the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These series has brought up an idea of establishing the Diplomatic School of Armenia - an initiative raised and supported by the Office since 2007. The School was launched in February 2010 (Also see the feature story on the School http://www.osce.org/yerevan/item_2_43223.html).

Yerevan Municipality

As a new direction of its capacity building activities, in 2010 the Office embarked on supporting professional strengthening for the staff of the newly elected Yerevan City Council and of the Municipality. An advanced and comprehensive training programme of various aspects of urban planning and management were held in 2010 and 2011 for some 50-60 municipal staffers. An international experience exchange visit to Vienna, Austria has supplemented this endeavour.