United Nations Development Programme Country Office in Armenia
14, Petros Adamyan Street, Yerevan 0010, Armenia
Contact: Aramazd Ghalamkaryan
Tel: (374 10) 56 60 73, ext. 121
Fax: (374 10) 54 38 11
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
UNDP COUNTRY OFFICE IN ARMENIA
*May 4, 2006*
Helping Communities Help Themselves
UNDP’s new project starts with an honest discussion of local problems with
the heads of fifteen villages in Armavir province
*B**aghramyan village, Armenia* – Today, two project teams of United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) visited Armavir province in Southwestern
Armenia to meet with heads of fifteen villages – future stakeholders of the
projects – and to present the initiative. UNDP Armenia’s projects on
Community Development and Performance Budgeting joined their minds and funds
to achieve a breakthrough in the district of Baghramyan.
What the projects aim to achieve is to meet the immediate social needs in
communities, resolving certain long-term economic issues, such as lack of
employment and incomes, sharing goals for their communities and the district
as a whole.
The project teams were recently strengthened by well-known local experts
working in the field of community development. Through application of new
methods of budgeting (results-based), involvement of the local
self-governance bodies and the local citizens in the discussion and
prioritization of needs, decision making, elaboration of village development
plans, joint implementation, as well as joint monitoring of all the
processes, a new and advanced level of community development, of citizens
being engaged in their own development will be achieved.
Mr. Vrej Jijian, UNDP project manager, addressed the participants of the
meeting: “Your voice is and will be vital for us and for this initiative: we
will base the projects’ ideas on this. Every step forward will need not
only your consent but active participation and shared responsibility.”
“How can we bring about a sense of consolidation? What are your own
long-term visions of your respective villages? All in all, renovation of
buildings is far less important than change in the people’s attitudes and
behaviours: this is what we ultimately aim for,” – noted Ms. Hripsime
Manukyan, project expert.
The gap between the capital city Yerevan and provinces of Armenia, in terms
of access to social and health care services, education, economic conditions
and benefits of the high economic growth, has widened during the recent five
years. The level of participation of citizens at the local level is also
very weak. While the economy grows rapidly, the challenge for the country is
to distribute this wealth in an equitable way, especially outside Yerevan,
and achieve a balanced situation in the country for all the communities to
benefit from the growth, in line with the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).
In 2000, leaders of 191 countries, including Armenia, signed the Millennium
Declaration, thus pledging to reach the eight Millennium Development Goals
by 2015. The goals cover poverty, HIV/AIDS and other diseases, maternal and
child health, environment, education, women’s empowerment and global
partnership.
Since 2004, UNDP Armenia has successfully implemented a community
development programme in Karakert village in the same Baghramyan district.
Based on this experience UNDP has launched a new phase of community
development projects in 2006.
* * *
/UNDP is the UN’s global development network. It advocates for change and
connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people
build a better life. We operate in 166 countries, working with them on their
own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop
local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of
partners.///
* * *
For additional information, please contact Mr. Aramazd Ghalamkaryan, tel.:
+374 10 56 60 73, ext. 121, +374 91 436 312, e-mail:
[email protected] .