The kick-off event of the project “Strengthening current and future employment and self-employment programmes through sustainable value chain management systems under the Migration Resource Centres and Local Centres of the State Employment Agency” (imigrant.armenia.eu) was held on September 28, 2017. The event was attended by Sona Harutyunyan, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Varazdat Karapetyan, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development, Hovhannes Azizyan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments, Artak Mangasaryan, Head of State Employment Agency, as well as Martin Fredriksson, representative of Embassy of Sweden in Armenia.
The project is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Arbetsförmedlingen (Swedish Public Employment Service) and an Integrated Expert from the Centre for International Migration and Development in partnership with the State Employment Agency under the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia. The overall objective of the project is to maximize the contribution of Armenian circular labour migrants to the development of Armenia through repatriation of skills, experiences and financial capital from the Country of destination to the Armenian communities of return.
Opening remarks of the meeting were delivered by Per Lindberg, Project Manager. Deputy Minister Sona Harutyunyan highlighted in her welcome speech the importance of the project in the selected regions, meanwhile mentioning the productive cooperation of more than 10 years with Swedish employment sector professionals. In his welcome speech Deputy Minister Hovhannes Azizyan noted that the implementation of the project reflects the policy priorities of the Armenian Government on promoting community business projects and increase employment in the communities”.
During the kick-off meeting a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Arbetsförmedlingen (Swedish Public Employment Service) and Armenian State Employment Agency to underpin their commitment to cooperate and successfully implement the project.
The one-year project will support the Migration resource centers and local centers of the State Employment Agency by providing advanced trainings and toolkit aimed at strengthening management capacities of the responsible units to direct the potential of migration towards innovative business models and start-ups in communities as well as supporting increased financial inclusion and independence of migrants and their families.
The core component of the project is an extensive web-based platform for community development investments (CDIS) which will serve as a link among the labour migrants, Armenians abroad, returned Armenians successfully demonstrating impact of their return to their homeland as well as foreigners intending to invest in competitive community development projects and business ideas. Both capacity building activities and the web-based platform component will be based on a preparatory study providing a needs-analysis for the project. Furthermore,
contribution to the cluster initiatives and cluster development is part of a long-term commitment to the evolution of the CDIS aimed at development of value-chain planning and management capacities in Armenian communities.
The primary target locations for the project core activities cover the communities of Shirak, Aragatsotn, and Yerevan.
