Autumn Meetings and Workshop Within Opening Extractives Program
The Opening Extractives program, officially launched in Armenia in May 2022, entered its regular autumn phase including work meetings and a workshop with the participation of representatives of state bodies, non-governmental organizations, and mass media. Louise Russell-Prywata, Policy & Advocacy Director at Open Ownership, Olesia Nekhoroshko, Country Officer for Eurasia at EITI International Secretariat, and Nyashadzamvari Vera, Communications professional, were visiting Armenia on October 17-22, 2022.
During the first three days of the visit, meetings were held with officials of the authorized state bodies - the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Environment; the teams of the EITI National Secretariat, Ernst & Young consulting company, which is developing the National EITI Report; the World Bank Coordinator for the mining industry; as well as the members of the civil society faction of the Multi-Stakeholder Group.
In the meetings, the guests discussed with their Armenian partners the current state of the implementation of the Opening Extractives program in Armenia, the possibilities of providing the necessary technical and legal support, the process of 2020-2021 EITI National Report preparations, the activities of the MSG in the direction of implementing the EITI requirements, as well as the planned activities for the coming year.
On October 19, the Freedom of Information Center organized a panel discussion in an "open talk" format under the title "Women in the Process of Transparency in Beneficial Ownership" with the participation of women implementing Beneficial Ownership (BO) reforms. The panel discussion guests were Shushan Doydoyan, President of Freedom of Information Center, Kristinne Grigoryan, RA Human Rights Defender, Tatevik Mkrtchyan, Head of the Agency of the State Register of Legal Entities of the RA Ministry of Justice, Nyasha Vera, Communications Specialist of the Opening Extractives, Lusine Tovmasyan, Head of the EITI National Secretariat, Lilya Afrikyan, Secretary of Open Government Partnership (OGP) of Armenia, and the Armenian contact person, Ani Varderesyan, expert in the field of beneficial ownership.
On October 21-22, within the framework of the program, the Freedom of Information Center, with the support of Open Ownership and EITI organized a workshop in Aghveran for the representatives of mass media and non-governmental organizations on the topic "The Usage of Beneficial Ownership Data in Armenia".
Educational materials were presented at the two-day workshop by Louise Russell-Prywata, Policy & Advocacy Director at Open Ownership, Lusine Tovmasyan, Head of the EITI National Secretariat, Lala Nersisyan, Deputy Head of the Agency of the State Register of Legal Entities of the RA Ministry of Justice, Mkrtich Karapetyan and Ani Grigoryan, Investigative journalists of Civilnet independent media platform, and Kristine Aghalaryan, investigative journalist of Hetq News Agency.
The workshop provided an opportunity for all participants to develop their skills in using beneficial owners' data in ongoing journalistic investigations, as well as it served as an awareness event in its nature to understand the progress of the implementation of EITI in Armenia and the data it discloses about the metal mining industry in Armenia.
