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Sustainability of achieved results is will be ensured by direct involvement and effective participation of community residents in all envisaged activities and will be provided through the following: ? the sense of personal responsibility of residents for the vision of community development perspective, ? the self-governance ability of community, ? the awareness of the civil ownership right and responsibilities, ? the capacity to employ the ecosystem approach to the investment projects, ? the atmosphere of unity and solidarity concerning the common problems, ? the inter-community cooperation.

Taking into consideration that the issues addressed by the Project are typical for majority of communities in Armenia and that this initiative is in line with the national environmental and sustainable development agenda, it has a great potential for replication. The project team will widely disseminate results obtained through piloting a new financing mechanism for investment projects. The gained experience, lessons learnt, project results and outcomes will be shared and discussed with stakeholders at national, regional and local levels and thus will promote replication of successful approaches and strategies throughout Armenia. Project results will be accompanied by the following valuable co-benefits, which have additional potential for replication: ? Creation of new jobs ? Reducing health risks due to clean energy use and reduction of air pollution; ? Strengthening local capacities for governance, ? Recognizing the right of ownership, ? Strengthening solidarity through equal participation of all citizens in the community, ? Developing inter-community cooperation.

The establishing of appropriate conditions for creation, management, and oversight of the Climate Revolving Investment Civil Fund operation because of its multi-faceted nature requires the application of the variety of capacities such as awareness raising, building of knowledge and mobilization of community residents, CSOs, community of experts, and building constructive communication and cooperation with authorities of different level. We find it very important and useful and intend the wide dissemination and sharing of gained rich experience and lessons learned among local, national and international level partners, counterparts and stakeholders.

The project envisages to significantly influence both national and local policy-making processes, as it aims at introducing innovative, sustainable, decentralized, community-based/-owned financial mechanism ? the Climate Revolving Investment Civil Fund. It is believed that this model will contribute to the mitigation targets of Armenia?s INDC and will result in changes in the policy of local investment projects? funding.

The proposed initiative fully conforms with the GEF SGP OP6 Country Program Strategy and the SGP?s strategic initiatives. It originates from ?Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)? of Armenia adopted on 10 September, 2015 by the Government in anticipation of The Paris Agreement. It is envisaged to employ the new type of financial instrument for projects addressing climate change mitigation in the form of Climate Revolving Investment Civil Fund. There are some important features of Climate Revolving Investment Civil Fund which result in real impact on human behaviors and lead to the improvement of the environment: ? It is community-based and owned, belonging to all residents as the inalienable property; ? It is established for financing/co-funding environmental projects of community concern; ? The exclusive right to be involved in decision-making belongs to community members; and ? Community residents bear the responsibility for these decisions. Thus the new financial instrument is able to strengthen the financial capacity of communities, to ensure initiation and participation of community residents in environment- and socially-oriented projects, to create a real and effective base for consistently developing trust of public-private partnership and to ensure a natural right of future generations "to use climate resources". The raised environmental awareness of community members, the enhanced capacities of local authorities, the improved access to financial resources will provide the communities with real opportunity to implement projects addressing climate mitigation and improving their environment.

The target audience of project communication strategy will include CSOs and communities within and outside of the project targets, national and local government counterparts, private sector, donor community, direct beneficiaries and public at large. To enhance communications the above-listed target audiences will be provided with up-to-date information on best practices, community innovations and lessons learned that may contribute towards decision-making. In all beneficiary communities the implemented activities will target to raise awareness of community members on the project objectives, activities and results. Thus, it is planned to post announcement on upcoming meetings, discussions or workshops in municipalities, schools, cultural centers, so that wider audience is aware about the project and has a chance to participate. In order to disseminate the project related information for broader audience, it is planned to involve regional and national mass media (TV and newspapers).

Through a large awareness raising campaigns 3-4 communities in each of regions will be selected, where projects aimed at mitigating climate change through innovative financial mechanism-revolving investment civil funds will be developed to be financed at the expense of this project funds. Competitively selected projects will be implemented in account of grant funds provided for this purpose, as well as co-financing of member organizations of the specially established consortium. These activities must be transparent and demonstrative, supplemented by involvement of other communities. Simultaneously, recommendations on creating preconditions for institutional and legal framework to promote this process in Armenia will be developed.

To raise basic awareness and knowledge of communities on the newly introduced Climate Revolving Investment Civil Fund concept, as well as its creation and operation principles, a special booklet will be designed, published and disseminated among the population. It is also envisaged to develop, design, publish, and disseminate a guiding manual for local authorities on ?How to establish and operate the Climate Revolving Investment Civil Fund?. In order to increase awareness and share knowledge on the project objectives, it is envisaged to unite initiative working groups into a network to ensure their participation in joint workshops and seminars. Within the project activities it is also planned to create an electronic interactive information platform for online consultations and coaching of all stakeholders. The idea of Climate Revolving Investment Civil Fund will be advertised and advocated through an animated documentary.

Women and men equally have a vital role in achieving sustainable community development. However, women?s involvement in local decision making is considerably low. That is why the mechanism of project implementation will provide women with equitable access and representation in decision making. Project team will also pay the special attention to ensure equal participation of women and men in meetings, discussions and workshops, and will promote equal involvement in team of regional commissioners and initiative-groups. It is worth mentioning that ?Khazer? NGO is a women-led NGO with 60% of key staff and experts comprising of females.