On 26 July 2024, the official opening ceremony of the learning playground at Kindergarten No. 5 was held in the Abovyan Municipality. The playground, which was established as a result of the participatory budgeting initiative, was financed by the Abovyan Municipality and co-financed by the German and Swiss governments within the framework of the “Good Governance for Local Development in the South Caucasus" programme, implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
The event was attended by Vache Terteryan, Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of the Republic of Armenia; Vahan Sirunyan, Deputy Minister of Finance of the Republic of Armenia; Lukas Rosenkranz, Ambassador of Switzerland to Armenia; Katrin Buder- Pelz, Head of Development Cooperation at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Armenia; Davit Zaroyan, First Deputy Mayor of Abovyan Municipality, and other representatives.
The playground serves as an interactive space for children to learn about road traffic rules through installed road signs, crossings, intersections, and small vehicles. The guests were welcomed by the kindergarteners, who demonstrated their knowledge and skills related to road traffic rules on the learning playground. Since 2023, the programme has been supporting the implementation of participatory budgeting in Armenian municipalities. Abovyan is one of the pilot municipalities for the "Introduction of Participatory Budgeting at the Local Level" commitment of the Armenian OPG Action for 2022- 2024.
The “Good Governance for Local Development in the South Caucasus" programme is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH through financial support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of the Republic of Armenia.
