OSCE strengthens professional capacities of Yerevan municipal staff

YEREVAN, 27 December 2011 – Some 60 staff members of the Yerevan municipality and the city’s administrative districts received certificates today for completing a one-week intensive training course on planning and monitoring organized by the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

Four experts from Erasmus University Rotterdam’s Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies delivered the course in November and December. The aim of the course was to promote the increased transparency and efficiency of the city administration.

The training course participants learned about municipal management and planning; developing and managing investment programmes; strategic town planning; and monitoring, assessing and administrating local services, such as water and waste management, transport, health and education.

“By strengthening the professional capacities of Yerevan municipal staff and sharing best international practices, the OSCE seeks to contribute to enhancing good governance at the level of local administration in Armenia,” said Carel Hofstra, the Acting Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

As part of the project, the Office also hired an international urban management adviser who worked with the staff of the Mayor’s Office from April to June 2011 to improve internal management mechanisms.

The Office also supported a one-week study visit of six mid-level civil servants from the Yerevan municipality to Vienna to exchange experiences with their Austrian counterparts on the management of public transport and social housing as well as the development of city districts.

The Office launched the project to support capacity building in Yerevan Municipality in 2010, following the first City Council elections in Yerevan.