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Data for Development - Armenia

What's the situation ?

 Armenia's population faces challenges of depopulation and ageing . Its Government needs support to assess and analyze these trends and other aspects of its population dynamics in order to develop the policies which would best address them.

 The political and economic upheavals which followed Armenia's independence caused many people to migrate. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia suffered a deep economic crisis, which was exacerbated by the 1988 earthquake, armed conflict, the presence of thousands of refugees and an energy crisis.

 About one million left the country since 1990. Most of those who left were economically active people of reproductive age. The current rate of new births is not enough to make up for this large wave of migration.

 At the same time, with so many young people migrating, the proportion of elderly people in Armenia's population has risen by 150 per cent in the last 20 years. The elderly are greatly affected by poverty and they often lack of access to basic social services. The consequences of this rapid aging of the population in Armenia have not been fully assessed and analyzed. It is clear however that the Government has little capacity in place to develop the necessary population policies to address these challenges.

 

What is UNFPA doing to help ?

 Population dynamics and gender disparities

UNFPA began its support to Armenia when in 1995. The fund provided technical support for Armenia's first national census since Independence, which was carried out in 2001

 This support included:

  • On-the-job training of local staff in several areas including demographic analysis, questionnaire design, table design, editing and coding of census data, and data processing software.
  • Seminars on the preliminary results of a pilot census, preparation of the census questionnaires, cartography
  • Procurement of essential computer and office supplies

 Because of Armenia's problems with depopulation and ageing, UNFPA plans further support to improve capacity among institutions and to help develop policies for population and development.

 In its current plan for Armenia, UNFPA aims to help strengthen national capacity to implement poverty reduction policies that take into consideration population dynamics and gender disparities .

 With this aim in mind, UNPFA plans a wide range of activities, including:

  • Promoting policy dialogue with the Government and civil society on population dynamics and its consequences
  • Supporting studies and research on the consequences of demographic trends
  • Mobilizing the public to support population and development issues
  • Supporting training on the relationships between population and development for ministry experts and facilitating their participation in professional forums
  • Providing technical assistance in policy formulation
  • Advocating and supporting data collection and analysis
  • Urging decision makers and opinion leaders to support the implementation of national population policies

 These activities will be coordinated together with other UN Agencies, particularly UNDP and the World Bank

 

Current UNFPA projects in Armenia:


   Helping Young People get Access to Quality Information and Services on Reproductive Health

Improving the Use of High Quality Reproductive Health Services in Armenia

Capacity building in HIV/AIDS prevention

Population and development strategies

 

 
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