Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

On November  22, 2010 the Freedom of Information non-formal educational Center was launched officially. Supported by the USAID/Armenia the Center will provide continuous trainings for public officials and civil servants on freedom of information, Integrity and Moral Ethics. With this initiative the FOICA and its partners the State Council of Civil Service and Union of Armenian Government Employees (UAGE) intend to institutionalize the practice that ensures the sustainability of the trainings of officials.

The established non-educational center will become a sustainable source for providing ongoing trainings for officials in the filed of FOI.  The participant officials will gain better understanding of the advantages of transparency, in the context of possessing knowledgeable and skilled staff and officials, improved management systems, greater efficiency, reduced corruption and greater public trust.  The non-formal Educational Center will provide trainings for public officials for two levels, which are state service and municipal service. Selected public officials/institutions will gain knowledge on how to comply with the FOI law, including Electronic Access to Information for those officials responsible for maintaining official websites. Another topic for trainings is moral ethics in the system of civil service.The trainings in the NFEC will be conducted based on the training modules developed by the Freedom of Information Center of Armenia (FOICA) and Union of Armenian Government Employees (UAGE). These modules are: “Freedom of Information” and “Integrity and Moral Ethics in Civil Service”. They have been approved by the Council of Civil Service as per its decisions . According to the above mentioned decisions all information officers of government agencies are obliged to be trained according to the endorsed training Curriculum on FOI. The mission of conducting regular trainings on FOI for civil servants was officially granted to the FOI Center, NGO. A similar decision was made by CSC to delegate conduct of trainings on Moral Ethics in Civil Service to UAGE, NGO. See more in the section Trainings.