Mayis Vanoyan is Local Government Service Delivery Expert in USAID-funded Decentralization Program implemented by the Global Communities in Ukraine. He received his Masters Degree in Yerevan State University in 1977 and his Ph.D. from St. Petersburg Mine Institute in 1986. Since independence, Mayis has taken lead positions with a number of international NGOs, including Save the Children, Urban Institute, Research Triangle Institute, MSI, DAI, IBTCI. As part of his tenure at these institutions, he has built an extensive record of dealing with decentralization and civil society issues, leading directions on citizen participation, citizen awareness, youth involvement, capital investment and strategic planning, public service delivery of local governments including housing, waste, water management. He has an experience working in Central Asia countries, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Armenia. While with the Government of Armenia in early-1990s, he worked on new administrative territorial division of Armenia and the law on local government.