ACTIVITIES REPORT: March 2003 - March 2004

March, 2003

1. Participation in March seminar in Budapest – in policy-writing process seminars for all fellows,

2. Participation in working groups for The Policy Process fellows.

3. Private meetings and consultations with WG mentor Dr Julius Horvath, Department Head, CEU.

4. Consultations with my three mentors: shaping and narrowing the objectives of the research.

5. Analyzing books and similar researches and methods for research in the CEU library.

April, 2003

1. Analyzing current legislation governing procedures and powers for the National Assembly.

2. Setting up and moderating a discussion/debate of elections topic in the Momentum network of professionals.

3. Participation in the seminar "Media and Elections: Impact on public choice" organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Council of Europe. I was the only participant from the NGO sector while all others were from authority or media circles.

4. Reviewing the experience of the Greece in policy making process. Several meetings in Athens. The most remarkable is a meeting with Mr Theodossis Georgiou, a former parliamentarian, chairman of ATA.

May, 2003

1. Interviewing with several members of the National assembly for finding out / mapping the difficulties they face with constituency relations. These interviews are important as May was an election period for the parliament.

2. Participation during several party meetings and assembling the link between platform strategy with actual possibilities of actions.

3. Analyzing literature re finding links between contemporary power theories and current democracy oriented reforms.

4. Acting as a proxy during elections. Analyzing / expirencing drawbacks and opprtunities of the election legislation.

June, 2003

1. June OSI seminar in Budapest

2. WG meeting, sharing with findings and ideas.

3. Final preparation and downloading of the site at the policy.hu address.

4. Analyzing Russian experience in policy making process. How does St. Petersburg affect Moscow?

5. Writing reserach paper.

6. Participation at the seminar "Developement of State-Society Relations" organized by the Council of Europe / European Commission.

July, 2003

1. In depth inteviews with key decision makers.

2. Meeting and consulattions with an international mentor Mr. Arthur Martirosyan of CMG.

3. Writing down reserach paper.

4. Interviews with different lobbyst groups' representatives.

5. Systemic approach analyses to the lobbying processes.

6. A policy paper may dramatically change his face after full research. The reason is power network analyses which came out during research.

August, 2003

1. Meetings with NA accredited journalists. Interviewing journalists helped me finding media access mechanisms, issues and sensitive aspects.

2. Assessing several international and bilateral financed projects aimed at strengthening decision making process.

3. An informal discussion with public sector reforms committee members about findings and future steps.

4. Selection of a specific policy area to make a case study of affecting decision making process. Taking into consideration the urgency of education rationalization process in secondary education that particular policy area has been chosen.

5. Starting collecting information of prior reforms as well as streamlining a systemic concept between actions planned and taken.

6. Developing a training module and materials based on NA staff needs.

September, 2003

1. Meeting with NA head of staff, NA staff reps and several heads of departments and setting up a training time schedule and participants.

2. Holding a training session on budget oversight principles, medium term expenditure framework and program budgeting. Also themes on effective communication were included as a skills training aimed at outreach and media access issues.

3. Monitoring Q&A sessions of National Assembly. Tracking law making process inside NA.

October, 2003

1. Travel to Gyumri and Kapan cities of Armenia. Meetings with schools directors and teachers. Discussing lobbying issues with local NGOs and the problems of local channels to “republican level” decision making process.

2. Participating in discussions of corruption issues in decision making process and particularly in relation with education rationalization process with professionals. Meetings with Transparency Internationl, Armenia specialists working on corruption issues in schools in Gyumri, Shirak region.

3. Meeting with international mentor. Discussing the politically sensitive aspects of education policy.

November, 2003

1. I’ve been appointed in Strengthening and Streamlining the System for External and Internal Control and Audit Working Group under the Government of Armenia. As a member of that working group the outcomes of research have been incorporated into NA oversight functions to strengthen NA chamber of control.

2. Analyses of international practices of anticorruption activities as hampering factors in decision making process. Meetings with specialists working on new anticorruption campaign in Ukraine.

3. A round table discussion with MPs and policy researchers. Discussing education rationalization issues and signaling first findings.

4. Revisiting research paper, including feedbacks received from main stakeholders.

December, 2003-January, 2004

1. Translating research and policy papers into Armenian.

2. Finalizing both papers, editing and translation works.

March, 2004

1. Printing policy paper on a decision making process case study of education rationalization process, its dissemination and presentation.
2. Participation in last seminar in Budapest – advocacy,
3. Participation in working groups for The Policy Process fellows. Presentation of policy papers, discussions and recommendations.