Winners of an OSCE-supported policy research contest for the Armenian National Assembly staff were announced in Yerevan today. The contest organized jointly by the OSCE Office in Yerevan and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) aimed to strengthen the capacities of the Armenian National Assembly staff in policy research and comparative analysis and promote better understanding of modern regulatory practices and international models. Ambassador Sergey Kapinos, the Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan said at the award ceremony: “This contest is an entirely new endeavor which offered the Assembly staff an opportunity of innovative learning and applying their research skills.” Luiza Charkhchyan with her research paper Optimal Model for Assessing Consumer Basket, and Armen Torosyan, Emil Gevorgyan, Ani Sargsyan, co-authors of a research paper Comparative Analysis of Political Minority Protection Models in Legislation shared the 1st prize. Hayk Hovhannisyan won the second prize for his research on models of corruption risks assessment in legislative drafts. Marusya Asatryan, Stepan Ohanjanyan and Armine Zakharyan were awarded the third prize for their analysis of successful models of parliamentary code of conduct. Several contest participants also received special prizes from the OSCE PA. “Conducting policy research is an indispensible element of the work of legislators. Capacity-building activities, such as this OSCE-sponsored contest, offer our staff an opportunity to develop their analytical abilities. We are looking forward to continuing the co-operation with the OSCE in the future,” said Gegham Gharibjanyan, Chief of Staff at the National Assembly of Armenia. The winners were selected by an international jury comprised of experts from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Secretariat. Diana Digol, an expert from the Centre for OSCE Research of the University of Hamburg provided a detailed review of the submitted entries. The contest was organized as a part of the OSCE Office project on capacity building support to the National Assembly of Armenia.

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