Yerevan Deputy Mayor Levon Hovhannisyan had a meeting with the regional coordinators of the Open Government Partnership initiative of the Eastern Partnership civil society dialogue. Highly appreciating joint efforts put into making city governance more effective and participatory, the deputy Mayor marked that within a short period Yerevan has been able to develop and accomplish the one-year action plan benefitting to increasing the accountability, transparency of the city authorities’ activity and their collaboration with the civil society.

“In near future Yerevan plans to carry on active involvement in the formation of the OGP agenda developing a four-year Action Plan with more ambitious commitment”, stressed Levon Hovhannisyan. Presenting more details of the new program during the meeting, it was noted that the full digitization of services provided by the community is planned. In this regard, Yerevan is working with partners of the World Bank.

The municipality is also launching the "Participatory Decision Making" initiative, the goal of which will be participatory program-based budgeting. Yerevan sees the future development of this initiative in introduction of "Citizen Lab". It is also planned to introduce a systemic toolkit aimed at strengthening the community-civil society dialogue.

Levon Hovhannisyan attached importance to recently modernized “Active Citizen” mobile app operation, which opens new possibilities for involvement of more citizens in making decisions of public importance and in development of participatory decision making.

Expressing gratitude for the meeting and presenting the program, the OGP representatives outlined their willingness to carry on their supporting Yerevan, being certain that the city will be getting more and more achievements.

"The Open Government Partnership initiative not only creates an important dialogue between interested parties, but also provides a process for raising and discussing regional issues with the member countries of the initiative. It was also exciting for us that Yerevan received the "Inspiring Reforms" award at the OGP Global Summit last year," noted Peter Varga, regional coordinator of the Open Government Eastern Partnership.

"Yerevan really inspires local communities in different corners of the world with its active participation and success. I am sure that our ongoing cooperation should be expanded," said Jose Maria Marin, head of the "Local Open Government Partnership" initiative.

The parties will continue cooperation and teamwork with the belief of achieving new results.