Armenia Social Protection Strengthening Project
Following 15 years of economic transition, Armenia continues to face the urgent challenge of improving its socioeconomic situation. The recent positive trends toward economic and political stabilization in Armenia need to be reinforced by targeted interventions to alleviate severe poverty and widespread unemployment. As the Government of Armenia concentrates its work against poverty, the Social Protection Systems Strengthening (SPSS) project supports its efforts in confronting these historic challenges.
The project’s foremost objective is to help Armenia achieve notable improvements in the social protection systems while at the same time increasing opportunities for self-reliance and reducing citizens’ dependence on public support to meet their basic needs. AECOM International Development is working through public and private channels to help establish a pension system capable of providing adequate pensions, to enable the employment services to effectively target market conditions, to establish a Labor Inspectorate able to effectively enforce labor and occupational safety and health rules, to steer public-private collaboration, and to reform state-dominated social services that imperfectly target the vulnerable. Activities under this project are composed of four components.
- Social Insurance. In addition to providing retirement planning options to its citizens, Armenia is working to build a dependable pension system that provides adequate living standards to current and future pensioners and that properly tracks individual contributions and benefits. To help Armenia reach this goal, AECOM International Development is developing reform options for the benefit of all social-insurance recipients in the country and providing policy advice on the reform of the pension system. This activity is supported by work to support counterparts in establishing effective and integrated management systems, and to harmonize social sector databases to improve information integrity and security.
- Employment Services. The current economic growth in Armenia must be supported by modernized employment services. Targeting such services to better match labor force supply to business demand would bring benefits for both the employers and the job seekers, boosting enterprise productivity, stimulating private sector growth, and creating a more competitive workforce. AECOM International Development facilitates this objective by providing labor market research capacity support and working with government counterparts to develop the National Employment Strategic Plan. SPSS also helps improve the effectiveness of the State Employment Centers by realigning staff functions and processes.
- Occupational Safety and Labor Code. Armenia recently revised its Labor Code to improve employee safeguards and, in 2005, created a Labor Inspectorate to enforce these regulations. To reinforce the positive effect of these reforms, the SPSS project is working to help the Labor Inspectorate build the institutional capacity necessary for effective and risk-based regulation enforcement. AECOM International Development provides technical assistance to develop occupational health and safety norms and to refine labor legislation in accordance with international standards. The project also emphasizes the need to raise awareness on these issues, especially among the private sector.
- Social Assistance Programs for Vulnerable Populations. SPSS assists Armenia in efforts to meet the urgent challenge of providing effective and targeted assistance for its socially vulnerable populations. Under this component, the project is working to improve social services that reduce dependency on the state by promoting efficient use of scarce resources to help the most needy citizens. AECOM International Development supports the government and NGOs to collaboratively provide community-based social services through social contracting, while emphasizing the need to promote professional social work and ensuring high-quality social service provision.
The AECOM International Development consortium on the SPSS project brings together firms and partner institutions with deep and extensive qualifications in social protection reform. Our partners include Emerging Markets Group, Development Associates, American University of Armenia, International Center for Human Development, Armenian Relief Society, and VGM Partners.
