Armen Harutyunyan, Executive Director of the Union of Communities of Armenia, will participate in the regional workshop titled "Dialogue with Communities of Armenia: Fiscal Decentralization and Policy Reform." The event is jointly organized by the Union of Communities of Armenia and SALAR International within the framework of the "Support to Decentralization and Local Self-Government Reforms in Armenia" (DeaLoG) project.

The workshop will take place on August 18 and will last for 5 days. The main goal is to discuss, validate, and supplement the current situation analysis and gap assessment of fiscal decentralization—which has already been developed within the framework of the DeaLoG project—through direct dialogue with Armenian communities and the Union of Communities. The discussions will rely on participants' direct experience regarding local taxes, transfers, public financial management at the local level, and the execution of various functions and powers.

This workshop is an important platform for forming joint "bottom-up" priorities for reforms over the short, medium, and long terms. This will help strengthen community participation and responsibility in the development and implementation of the concept for the Fiscal Decentralization Roadmap and Action Plan. The finalized roadmap is expected to be submitted for government consideration as early as September of this year.

All communities of Armenia will participate in the conference.