Electoral Support Project in Armenia (ESPA and ESPA-2) Minutes Of
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Electoral Support Project in Armenia (ESPA and ESPA-2) Minutes of Steering Committee Meeting N3 Location: Government Building #1 Date: 26 June 2019 Time: 11.00 am Attendees: # Organization Name Title 1. Government Mher Grigoryan Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia 2. Government Sedrak Barseghyan Head of Deputy Prime Minister’s Office 3. EU Gonzalo Serrano de la Rosa Head of Cooperation Section 4. EU Line Urban International Aid/Cooperation Officer 5. UK H.E. Judith Farnworth Ambassador 6. Sweden Maria Ermanno Faldner Chargé D’affaires 7. Japan H.E. Jun Yamada Ambassador 8. Japan Megumi Maekawa Second Secretary 9. UNDP Dmitry Mariyasin UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia 10. UNDP Alla Bakunts UNDP Democratic Governance Portfolio Analyst 11. UNDP Armen Harutyunyan Cooperation and Partnerships Officer 12. UNDP Shalva Kipshidze ESPA Chief Technical Adviser 13. UNDP Davit Khachatryan ESPA IT Expert 14. UNDP Araks Babayan ESPA Associate Project Coordinator 15. UNDP Sona Mirzoyan ESPA Project Associate for Training and Events Agenda ✓ Welcoming Remarks by: Mher Grigoryan, Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Dmitry Mariyasin, UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia ✓ Update on ESPA and ESPA-2 activities by Shalva Kipshidze, ESPA Chief Technical Advisor and outline of the activities for the upcoming months ✓ Questions and answers from the Steering Committee members Wrap-up ✓ Signature of equipment transfer documents by Chief of Staff of Prime Minister of Armenia and UNDP Resident Representative 14, Petros Adamyan St. Yerevan 0010 - Armenia – Telephone +374 60 530000 - htt://www.undp.org.am United Nations Development Program 2 Welcoming Remarks Mher Grigoryan, Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) of Armenia, welcomed all the stakeholders with a brief welcome notice, underlining the importance of credible elections and effective electoral processes in democratic governance. Dmitry Mariyasin, UNDP Resident Representative (RR) in Armenia, cordially greeted everyone and mentioned that at the current stage the Project’s main focus will be sustainability, setting 2019-2020 goal the preparedness to hold a referendum at full national capacity without the major support of international partners. The RR also thanked the Government of Armenia for the continuous support and effective day- to-day partnership, and the Government of Japan for the willingness to provide a generous support to the Project after the pre-term Parliamentary Elections 2018 aimed at strengthening the institutional and technical capacities of the CEC and serving as a cornerstone of the continued work to assure sustainability. Furthermore, the RR stressed the importance of having a coordinated approach among all the stakeholders and partners and mentioned the perspective of joining forces with the USAID and IFES. The DPM reiterated the significance of holding credible and transparent elections and expressed the Government and National Assembly’s strong wish and objective to make the electoral processes perfect, highlighting the interesting nature of the upcoming works and the important role that the international donors and partners can play through continuous support. Update on ESPA and ESPA-2 activities and outline of the activities for the upcoming months Shalva Kipshidze, the ESPA CTA went on updating the Steering Committee on the progress of the key activities envisaged in the Project: UNDP Electoral Support Projects in Armenia in Post-Election period are focused on increasing capacity of the CEC in main aspects of electoral pillars. While considering long-term impact in all of its activities, the focus of both ESPA and ESPA 2 is to support the CEC to: ✓ establish a fully sustainable nationally owned electoral process; ✓ enhance its operational and ICT capacity up to nowadays standards and according to the recognized best practices; ✓ ensure the long-term vision of the CEC and establish proper planning and reporting practices; ✓ establish the Strategic Planning process as the key for fully locally owned, self-driven and self- determined institution; ✓ establish Institutional strengthening priorities and develop the roadmap for the necessary internal reforms. Immediately following the December 09, 2018 pre-term Elections, ESPA and ESPA 2 concentrated on capacity building activities pre-established in the workplans. The projects, within its established framework and capabilities, also continue to support Local Elections conducted and planned by the CEC. The key achievements in the last 6 months have been: ✓ Development of the e-Learning platform for the training and certification process of the Poll workers and VAD operators. Such platform will ease the process of the certification of the temporary Electoral staff and introduce them to online learning modules. In the future the CEC will be able to develop additional modules using the existing platform targeting variety of stakeholders (such as Polling Agents, Observers, etc.). 14 Petros Adamyan st., 0010 Yerevan, Armenia – Telephone +374 60 530000 - http://am.www.undp.org United Nations Development Program 3 ✓ Development of the CEC inventory software and system for the VAD’s procured by the previous SEPA and current ESPA projects. This system will help the CEC to establish the regular checkup of the electronic devices using local human resources and ensure full operational readiness of the CEC to prepare for any upcoming Elections swiftly and uninterruptedly. ✓ Development of the online application and certification system for the Precinct Electoral Commission (PEC) Members. This tool will ease the process of recruitment and certification and significantly reduce the time and resources spent in pre-Election period. ✓ Conduct of the hardware readiness assessment of the CEC ICT capacity and capabilities and initiation of the hardware procurement process. The CEC Server Room, Data Center and network hardware has not been updated since 2011. This process of significantly upgrading ICT capacities will enable the CEC to enhance its hardware and software capabilities and ensure the readiness for upcoming Electoral cycle and beyond. ✓ Support to the CEC for the first time to establish and equip its own Resource and Training Center. This will ensure that the CEC has dedicated facilities for training, usage of newly established e-Learning and online tools and will be the first step in initiation of the professional Training Department. Visibility: ✓ UNDP Armenia regularly publishes the ESPA event stories on its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/UNDPArmenia/posts/2074672995947292?__tn__=-R https://www.facebook.com/UNDPArmenia/posts/2105643206183604?__tn__=-R https://www.facebook.com/UNDPArmenia/posts/2133200273427897?__tn__=K-R ✓ EC-UNDP Joint Task Force publishes monthly reports of all UNDP EU funded Electoral Projects around the world, including Armenia: https://www.ec-undp-electoralassistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ec-undp-jtf-MR- April2019.pdf Dedicated website for the Project is under development and will be published shortly. ESPA - Output 1: Credibility of the electoral process improved ✓ The Project supports CEC with development and implementation of various Electronic tools and Information Systems to improve the management processes. These systems include VAD inventory software and PEC candidate online registration system. These components will be part of the CEC Electoral Management System (EMS) – comprehensive Electoral ICT platform gradually developing within the CEC Armenia and will help the process of planning and monitoring of Electoral operational processes. (ESPA) ESPA - Output 2: Inclusive Participation in the Elections Increased ✓ External Relations and Strategic Communications Workshop held at the CEC – April 2019. Gender Assessment of the CEC is conducted and report along with draft gender policy is being finalized. Workshops dedicated to women's participation in electoral process have been conducted for the CEC and TEC’s in February-May 2019. ESPA - Output 3: Capacity of the election management bodies augmented ✓ E-Learning Platform concept has been developed and implemented – March-June 2019 (ESPA and ESPA 2) ✓ Strategic planning process has been initiated and inception work is planned with the CEC to take place on July 08-12, 2019 (ESPA and ESPA 2) ✓ The Project is supporting the CEC to establish the dedicated Resource and Training Center. Tender was announced for equipping the Center to make it fully functional. (ESPA) 14 Petros Adamyan st., 0010 Yerevan, Armenia – Telephone +374 60 530000 - http://am.www.undp.org United Nations Development Program 4 ✓ Capacity building exercises including dedicated professional BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections) trainings have been planned with the CEC during the year 2019. (ESPA and ESPA 2) ✓ The Project continues to support the CEC with dedicated professional trainings provided to the ICT staff. (ESPA and ESPA 2) ✓ Electoral Campaign Finance Training was delivered by UNDP ESPA in collaboration with IFES on June 20-21, 2019. (ESPA) ✓ BRIDGE training on Legal and Electoral Dispute Resolution is planned to take place for the CEC on July 15-19, 2019. (ESPA) ✓ The Project supports the CEC with proper inventory and the regular maintenance of the electoral hardware. This will ensure that the equipment is operational at all times and ready for instant deployment, as necessary. (ESPA) ESPA 2 – Activity 2.2: Procurement and Customization of the software, development of the system ✓ The Project has initiated hardware procurement for the CEC