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Armenia - a brief profile
Overview
Situated on the ancient Silk Route, Armenia has long been a cultural and historical crossroads between Europe and Asia. It is a landlocked mountainous country in the Transcaucasia region that borders with Georgia in the North, Azerbaijan in the East, Iran in the South, Turkey in the West and Nakhijevan (Azerbaijan) in the South-West. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia regained its independence in 1991. Despite periods of autonomy, over the centuries Armenia came under the sway of various empires including the Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Persian, and Ottoman and the legacy of many of these societies are still present in Armenia today. Of the approximately three million people who live in Armenia, over 96% are ethnic Armenians. In addition, Russians, Yezidis, Kurds, Greeks, Ukrainians, and Jews are among the minorities who call Armenia home. The busy and hastily growing capital, Yerevan is home to slightly over a million people.
Years that followed 1991, were marked by deep economic recession manifested in collapse of production, high rates of inflation and unemployment. Economic and energy crises and the accompanying transportation blockade made the population's socio-economic and living conditions practically unbearable, driving approximately one million people (one quarter of the population) away from the country in search of jobs, relatively better living conditions and social protection. Armenia's economy has since made a remarkable recovery. Despite socio-economic recovery that was observed starting from 1994, unemployment and poverty are still considered major challenges for the Armenian society. The global financial crisis in 2008 negatively impacted on the socio-economic situation in the country resulting in reductions of sales volumes, payments delays, difficulties in attracting financial means and delays in investments. The crisis aggravated unemployment as majority of companies saw job cuts and salary reductions. To mitigate consequences of the crisis, the Government of Armenia (GoA) sought international financial support for emergency assistance and adopted the Armenia Public Expenditure Support Program to enable swift mitigation of fallout from the global financial crisis.
Political context
Following a national referendum, Armenia declared its independence in September 1991. The first Presidential elections were won by Levon Ter-Petrossian, leader of “Armenian National Movement” party who was re-elected as President in 1996 and forced to resign two years later. The Presidential elections of 1998 brought to power Robert Kocharyan, non-party man, who was re-elected for the second and final term followed by the Presidential elections of February 2008, which were won by former Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, the present leader of “Republican Party of Armenia” party. Constitutional reform has been a priority for the agenda of Armenian authorities over the last ten years. The 2005 referendum on a package of constitutional reforms made potentially significant changes regarding the judiciary, the executive and the legislative, as well as in the area of human rights. Armenia's electoral code was revised several times during 2005-2007 in order to increase transparency, to reduce opportunities for violations, and to weaken the President's influence over the composition of election commissions.
Economy
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia has made progress in implementing many economic reforms including privatization, price reforms, and prudent fiscal policies. However, the first years of independence witnessed a dramatic shrunk in GDP and cease of major economic activities. Since 1994, Armenia took on the path of economic growth. The major growth factors were: macroeconomic stabilization, liberal economic and trade reforms, and large-scale financing in public infrastructures and social spheres-primarily from international financial institutions, bilateral donors, and private transfers and remittances. To substantially improve the living conditions of the majority of the population and ensure the basic rights of people for a sustainable livelihood over the medium and long-term, the Armenian Government adopted the Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) in 2003 which was revised in 2008 to mainstream MDGs as major targets on population and development agenda.
Administration
The Republic of Armenia is a sovereign, democratic state with a presidential governing system. The state power is administered pursuant to the Constitution and the laws based on the principle of separation of the legislative, executive and judicial branches. The President of Armenia, chief of the state, is elected directly by the citizens for a five year term and according to the Constitution, may hold office for a maximum of two consecutive terms. The government is headed by the Prime Minister appointed by the President upon consultations with Parliamentary factions. Legislative power in the Republic of Armenia belongs to the National Assembly (Parliament), which implements its activities through sessions, permanent and temporary committees, as well as through its deputies. Justice is carried out by Courts in accordance with the Constitution and the Law.
Situation assessment
Starting from 2003 a stable negative trend in the population dynamics, which was recorded in 1990, started to stabilize. This stabilization process resulted in a declining death rate, stabilization of emigration trends and an increase in the number of births in the recent years. Despite these positive developments, Armenia continues to face the challenges of depopulation. The migration remains negative but; another problem that is becoming more and more serious is the aging. Among important achievements of the recent years became the significant decrease of maternal mortality ratio (MMR) which in 2007 dropped down to 15 in 100,000 live births (6 maternal deaths) in comparison with 30 in 100,000 live births (12 maternal deaths) in 2006. Since 2001 no cases of maternal death from direct obstetrics complications of unsafe abortion has been observed and, this tendency continued in 2007. Secondary infertility remains high. In the field of reproductive health (RH) a National Strategy and Action Program on Reproductive Health was developed in 2007, the PRSP was revised so as to mention the MDG 5, Maternal Mortality, as the most important target to be achieved.
As to situation with Armenian youth, they still lack quality knowledge on SRH, and there is a general need of access to youth friendly health services. Yet, there is a positive trend in lowering cultural stigma associated with adolescent sexuality. In 2007 the GoA finalized a Strategy Document on Youth, where RH issues are widely discussed and supported to expand coverage and improve access to high-quality RH services and information.
Since lack of official statistics concerning RH and aging was one of the major challenges on the country’s population and development (P&D) agenda, in the year 2008, UNFPA Armenia CO has implemented three surveys in the fields of aging, RH (infertility) and Gender-Based Violence. These surveys will become important information sources for the GoA, which is in the process of drafting national strategies concerning these three P&D areas. Another important achievement of the year 2008 became establishment of RH Parliamentary Support Group with the strong advocacy and support of UNFPA CO. In traditional Armenian society violence is often accepted even by majority of women as an appropriate way to resolve divergences within the family to preserve its internal cohesion and respect for the traditional authority. The lack of knowledge and awareness on gender issues, lack of official surveys and researches has contributed to lack of legislation and aggregated the problem and the visibility of gender issues. Despite the fact that the gap in education of men and women is very small, the politics in the country is still male-dominated. Some positive changes were observed in 2007. The new elected parliament witnessed an increase in women MPs from previously 4% to 10%. There are two women Ministers and two Deputy Ministers in the Government. In economy, women are mainly engaged in small family economic activities. Gender-based violence (GBV) is not widely recognized, and general awareness on GBV issues is quite low. With the purpose to create enabling environment for reduction of gender based violence in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and support the countries in fulfilling their international obligations in this field, UNFPA launched a three year regional project on Combating Gender Based Violence in South Caucasus. This project is the first regional joint initiative on gender based violence prevention and reduction tailored to both the policy making process and grass-root levels. The project will ensure participation of civil society throughout the course of the project implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Within the framework of the project, a nationwide awareness raising campaign on GBV has been implemented since 2008. Other important ongoing activities include nationwide survey on GBV prevalence and assessment of national legislation from GBV perspective. There is still lack of official statistics on trafficking whilst available data is not accurately maintained due to lack of system for data collection. Nevertheless, according to the report of GoA General Prosecutors Office, there were 137 criminal cases of trafficking under investigation in 2007. The main causes of this phenomenon are unemployment and inequality in opportunities for women, including unequal pay.
Basic indicators*
Total population: 3.230 (Statistical Yearbook of Armenia 2008)
Population growth rate: % 0.41 (Statistical Yearbook of Armenia 2008)
Population 10-24 years old: %: 26.9 (Statistical Yearbook of Armenia 2008)
Population 60 and over: %: 13.2 (Statistical Yearbook of Armenia 2008)
Urban population: %: 64.1 (Statistical Yearbook of Armenia 2008)
Life expectancy at birth (Statistical Yearbook of Armenia 2008)
Male: 70.2 years
Female: 76.6 years
Total: 73.5 years
Maternal mortality rate (1980-2007): 15 deaths per 100 000 live births (Statistical Yearbook of Armenia 2008)
Total fertility rate: 1.35 children born/woman (Indexmundi)
Infant mortality rate: 20.94 deaths/1,000 live births (Indexmundi)
GDP per capita, PPP (USD): $ 5,700 (Indexmundi)
Gini coefficient as of 2008: 0, 37.