Temperatures around the world are rising.
The average increase globally stands at 0.850C but in Armenia, that figure is higher still – 1.10C.
Rainfall and other precipitation have also gone down in Armenia by 10% between 1935 and 2012.
According to a study by the World Bank, Armenia, out of 28 countries in Europe and Central Asia, is the fourth most likely to experience an increase in extreme weather conditions. Out of the same group, it is the fifth most sensitive country to climate change.
Take a look at some of these facts:
- An astonishing 98 percent of the entire territory of Armenia is now at risk of drought and 31% of the country is at risk of flooding.
- Almost 80 percent of land show signs of desertification.
- Landslides currently occur in over 4 percent of Armenia, yet about 35 percent of the population live on landslide-prone areas.
- In recent years, spring frost cases have increased dramatically, harming agricultural output. The entire geography of the country is expected to change drastically with agro-climatic zones – with fertile farming land shifting 100 meters upward by 2030, and 200-400 meters by 2100.
Many of the country’s rarest species of fauna and flora are also predicted to disappear. Indeed, some already have.
As Armenia’s focal point to the UN Climate Change Convention, Dr. Aram Gabrielyan recently said, if no action is taken to combat these changes, “desert zones will spread and Armenia’s rich landscapes will come to resemble something closer to the dry plateaus found in Iran”.
Economically speaking, the country suffers an average annual damage of US$ 28 million due to climate change related disasters.
The agricultural sector employs around 36 percent of the population and generates up to 20 percent of GDP in Armenia. Such vulnerabilities are likely to ripple outwards and damage our country’s wider economic and social development.
As always, it will be the poor who suffer most.
The sad fact is that it’s too late to stop most of these changes. But what we can do is prepare ourselves for the future and stop things from getting even worse.
A recent gathering of the world’s governments in Paris tried to do just that. Countries from all around the world, including Armenia, pledged to take action to limit an increase of temperatures to under 2oC – the minimum below which the effects of climate change are manageable.
In practice, this means using water-saving technologies, planting drought and flood resistant species, setting up early warning systems, anti-hail networks, passive solar and energy efficient greenhouses, drip irrigation systems, and using new cattle breeding techniques, as well as investing in more renewable energy and energy efficient technologies.
Armenia is now working to fulfill its promise. The government, supported by our office – UNDP in Armenia – and a range of other international organizations, is working to increase the forest cover of Armenia to 20.1 percent by 2100, instead of the current 11 percent.
This is only one of the many proposed interventions. By 2050, Armenia is aiming to reach the golden target of zero emissions – meaning the country will only emit as much as it can absorb.
Ultimately, though, tackling climate change is not simply the job of the government.
In order to truly make a difference, each one of us needs to step up.
Simple actions like walking or cycling short distances rather than driving, planting trees and cutting down on paper, using natural light as much as possible, using energy saving bulbs at night, unplugging any device that isn’t being used, choosing energy-saving devices, using recyclable packaging, buying locally-produced products: these can make a huge difference at the collective level.
Only when we all work together can we guarantee a better future for our children.
Yerevan, 7 September 2016 – Over the next three years 60 communities in Armenia will benefit from UNDP’s intervention to support rural tourism in the country, which will ultimately reduce the level of rural poverty and promote community based tourism and rural development. The “Integrated Rural Tourism Development” project is financed by the Government of the Russian Federation and implemented by UNDP in Armenia, in close partnership with the RA Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development. The project budget is USD 3 million.
Today, Bradley Busetto, UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia, and Davit Lokyan, Minister of Territorial Administration and Development, launched the project. A Russian delegation headed by Dmitry Maximychev, Deputy Director, Department of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation, was present at the signing ceremony. Representatives of government agencies responsible for rural tourism and community development, as well as international organizations, diplomatic corps and media also attended the event.
Opening the signing ceremony, Bradley Busetto said, “UNDP will provide a holistic approach to rural tourism in the communities, considering the social, including its gender equality, economic, environmental, and cultural aspects of tourism development. After prioritizing communities’ needs, we will establish local supply chains to ensure that the benefits of tourism development are retained within the communities, being equally accessible by both women and men.” He expressed his gratitude to the Governments of Russian Federation and Armenia for the excellent partnership aimed at supporting rural communities in Armenia to thrive as tourist destinations through diversification of services and development of high quality products.
“The potential of rural tourism in Armenia is immense, and I would like all of us today to concentrate in identifying how each one of our institutions can support the unleashing of its potential. I would like to express my appreciation to our international partners for a successful cooperation that we remain committed to continue,” said Minister Lokyan in his opening remarks.
For the past 15 years UNDP has been supporting thousands of residents in more than 150 communities to access new employment and income-generation opportunities in the agro-processing, food processing and construction sectors, increasing their income levels by more than 20 percent. More than 100 greenhouses were established for the most vulnerable in rural communities. In more than 50 communities, rural infrastructure such as irrigation, potable water and gas networks, schools and kindergartens, community centers was built or reconstructed.
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UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations UNDP in Armenia was established in March 1993, and supports the government in meeting its development priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Tavush, 06 September 2016 – For the past year and a half, residents of 16 bordering communities of Tavush region, working together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Armenia, have been busy assessing the needs of their communities and developing community plans. The plans address a range of critical areas for community growth, such as employment, rural development and development of agro-processing, revival of infrastructure, education, healthcare, as well as environmental protection and resistance to natural disasters.
UNDP is helping them implement and finance these plans as part of the five-year project “Integrated Support to Rural Development: Building Resilient Communities”, financed by the Government of the Russian Federation and implemented by UNDP in Armenia, in close partnership with the RA Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development. The project budget is over USD 5 million and is aimed at increasing income-generation opportunities and supporting rural infrastructure.
Today, members of a Russian delegation headed by Dmitry Maximychev, Deputy Director, Department of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation, Hovik Abovyan, Governor of Tavush region, and Armen Martirosyan, Programme Analyst for UNDP Sustainable Growth and Resilience Portfolio, visited the community of Berdavan in Tavush region to familiarize themselves with the project.
“UNDP in Armenia is focused on reducing inequality, exclusion and poverty in an environmentally friendly way. The integrated and participatory approach applied by this project ensures that every single community member’s opinion is considered in the development of their own community,” said Bradley Busetto, UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia.
During the last 18 months, the project has registered substantive progress - 16 integrated community development plans have been approved by Community Councils. Energy-efficient greenhouses with a surface of 135 m² have been constructed for 12 families in the communities of Berdavan, Voskevan and Dovegh - 80 percent of co-financed by the project, with the remaining 20 percent by the families themselves. Drip irrigation systems for the greenhouses were installed by the Armenian Relief Society.
The Culture House in the community of Voskevan is currently being renovated, for which the community has invested 20 percent of the total cost from its own funds. It is estimated that the energy efficiency of the Culture House will increase by 45 percent, which will cut down the building’s heating and cooling costs.
By 2020, the residents of all 45 bordering communities of Tavush region, with an overall population of 62,000, will benefit from the project through increased access to quality infrastructure, such as potable water and irrigation networks, community centers, collection centers for agricultural products and agricultural machinery parks, as well as employment in agricultural and agro-processing sectors.
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UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations UNDP in Armenia was established in March 1993, and supports the government in meeting its development priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Highlighting the role of impact-driven enterprise to accelerate the SDGs
#Accelerate2030 #SGSGeneva
Armenia – September 6, 2016 - Together, UNDP and Impact Hub are excited to announce the national finalists of the inaugural #Accelerate2030 initiative; supporting impact-driven entrepreneurs accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
After the Accelerate2030 pitching events, out of eleven shortlisted ventures three national finalists have been selected for consideration by the international Jury in Geneva.
With 10 hubs participating in the first edition of #Accelerate2030; Armenia, Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Malaysia, Mali, The Philippines, Russia, 30 national finalists will be reviewed and 5 international finalists selected between September 5th-11th.
The international jury, whose members include UNECE, UNDP and the Schwab Foundation, will announce the 5 international finalists on September 12th.
Each of the final five will be invited to Switzerland to partake in a two-day International Scaling Bootcamp and benefit from a service package offered by UNDP, Impact Hub and partners (including for instance The International Trade Center (ITC) and Horyou); as well as attend the inaugural Social Good Summit Geneva - a closed door summit welcoming speakers and attendees from financial institutions, incubators, impact investors, International development organisations and fellow entrepreneurs.
From Armenia, the finalists are:
ONEArmenia - enterprise invests in sustainable projects within the realm of agriculture, tech, tourism and made-in-Armenia products with the vision to build a thriving country.
Dasaran.am – an educational program which tries to bring positive change to the educational system in Armenia. Their efforts are aimed at providing efficient tools of school management and interactive education environment (such as an online tool-set), bridging the learning and technology divide across Armenia’s most remote regions and making education accessible to all the stakeholders involved in the public education sector.
News Deeply - an innovative media and technology company that aims at voicing issues that are missing from mainstream news cycle. They raise awareness of the most pressing issues, and connect governments, stakeholders, policymakers and communities together.
Eligibility and Participation
Each entrepreneur was required to fulfill the below criteria:
The venture has existed for at least 2 years;
The venture works on projects that deliver social impact and are clearly connected to one or more of the SDGs
Enterprises have carried out some pilot or testing work and have achieved a few paying customers before applying;
The business solution has a strong potential for global scaling and replicability.
More information about the Accelerate 2030 initiative can be found here: http://accelerate2030.net/
For further details about the Social Good Summit in Geneva:
http://www.europe.undp.org/content/geneva/en/home/ourwork/social-good-summit.html
Contacts:
United Nations Office in Armenia
Varya Meruzhanyan
Impact Hub Yerevan Office
Ani Baboomian
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UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations.
Impact Hub is a fast growing global network of 85+ physical work and collaboration spaces that host and support more than 15’000 social innovators and mission-driven startups. Part innovation lab, part business incubator, and part community center, each Impact Hub offers its members a unique ecosystem of resources, inspiration, and collaboration opportunities to innovate for a new kind of economy - sustainable for all people, as well as the planet.
"Actually, they are the chiefs of the greenhouse", Marietta laughs showing her daughters of 11 and 12, who run along the high tunnels of pepper and tomatoes while demonstrating how they do artificial pollination in the greenhouse.
Marietta moved to Tavush at the age of seven. Back in 1989, the village of Ptghavan sheltered her family who fled their home in the Vardashen region of Soviet Azerbaijan. The family of eight children farmed to make ends meet. Marietta left school after finishing 8th grade, as the family could no longer afford her tuition costs. At 22 she met Armen. Shortly after, they got married and moved to Voskevan to live with his parents. Throughout 13 years of marriage, they’ve had to face many hardships, but as Marietta says, they’ve also managed to form a strong partnership.
Life in their remote bordering village is not easy. Amongst the statistics, they represent another number that makes up the region’s high level of poverty and migration. While talking about the family’s income sources, the disability allowance of her husband and the retirement pension of her parents-in-law come first. The young mother of three has to manage the household mostly on her own because of her husband’s visual impairment. Still, Marietta doesn’t complain. Against the odds, Marietta and Armen aren’t considering leaving the village for better wages and have turned down the invitations of many relatives living abroad. Especially now, she says, that she has started greenhouse farming.
It is Marietta’s first season of greenhouse growing. With support from UNDP’s Project “Integrated Support to Rural Development: Building Resilient Communities”, funded by the Government of the Russian Federation, she was among several female rural community members who were selected to receive a 135 m2 energy-efficient greenhouse. The greenhouse production, she says, has brought new hope for her family.
In Armenia, the statistics on economic inclusion and the job market show a clear inequality in income between men and women. The number of economically non-active female housekeepers outweighs the number of men in the same category. Meanwhile female-headed households are more likely to be poor when compared to male-headed households (in 2013 this figure stood at 36.4% vs. 30.5%).
Economically empowering Armenia’s women has been an integral part of UNDP’s community development projects that have been implemented over the past 10 years. In this regard, greenhouse cultivation seems to hit multiple targets at once when used as a tool for raising the income of women in rural areas and advancing their economic inclusion.
Marietta admits, it is much easier to grow vegetables in the controlled conditions of the greenhouse, which is protected against the weather, allows for clean farming, and provides higher income due to off-season farming and the opportunity to grow high-value crops. For Marietta, it is also a big relief to have the greenhouse right in her backyard, where she can work without losing the sight of her children or taking care of the other household tasks. In addition, the greenhouse solves the problem of scarcity or inaccessibility of agricultural land in the community that have arisen as a result of safety issues or the lack of technical skills and limited access of women to agricultural inputs. Through the project, Marietta received high quality seeds and a training on greenhouse cultivation. "She became а real pro," Armen says.
Marietta gives the tomatoes and peppers she produces to the local shop for sale. Her daughters show the notebook where they keep the record of their sales and earnings. With a few weeks left before the start of the school term, the girls plan to go shopping to get new stationary and clothes for the upcoming school year. Marietta looks forward to the off-season sale, when the price for vegetables will rise and she can sell in bigger quantities. "Now", she says, "I feel more assured that our children will get education and maybe in the near future we can live separately in our own house. I enjoy working in the greenhouse", she adds. "I don’t even think about leaving Voskevan. Now I cannot imagine leaving my greenhouse", she laughs. "It means a lot to us. It makes me believe that we can provide a better future for our children. It gives us hope".
Diana Harutyunyan is UNDP in Armenia’s foremost Climate Change guru. Between heading an all-star team of experts and giving now-renowned TEDx talks, Diana’s team have just secured the region’s first investment from the new Green Climate Fund. We sat down with her to find out more…
Diana, you and your team have just been allocated $20 Million USD from the Green Climate Fund, the first in the region. It’s also only the second GCF grant on energy efficiency worldwide, as well as one of the largest single investments UNDP in Armenia has ever received. What, in a nutshell, are you planning to do with this investment?
Firstly, it’s important to point out that this was a combination of the work of many people, across UNDP and beyond – at the Country Office here in Armenia, at the Regional Hub and in HQ. As for what we will do: the grant will allow us to upgrade and insulate external walls, entrances, roofs, ceilings, floors and windows – around 6000 family apartments and over 150 public buildings, including schools and kindergartens – helping to achieve a reduction in energy use for heating, cost-savings, and association reduction in CO2 emissions.
Historically, Armenia suffers from very poorly insulated housing stock. Most of its multi-apartment buildings were built 40, 50, even 60 years ago. Even those built more recently were constructed without a consideration that energy prices might increase and the buildings’ operational costs would ever become such a burden. We have the same issue in the public sector, in schools, hospitals, ministries, etc. Financial resources that are being spent on heating costs could be reinvested into other critical areas. Say nothing of the negative environmental consequences that this kind of energy use produces. Thirdly, Armenia’s rural areas are at higher risk of energy insecurity. The houses built there, many of which are larger than their urban counterparts, are exposed to harsher climatic conditions. This also increases the pressure on local woodland areas, as people burn wood for heating. If we address these houses’ energy efficiency, then we can also reduce gas consumption and deforestation, thereby having a double or triple impact when we also consider decreases to land degradation and landslides.
This is all the more important in the context of Armenia’s national energy security. Over a third of the country’s energy supply is generated through an ageing nuclear power plant. Sooner or later, this energy demand will need to be covered from somewhere. Renewable energy cannot cover all the demand. This would mean a future in which we will be more dependent on imported gas and which the effects of climate change would only get worse, not better. However, if we can reduce consumption, we can mitigate the problem.
How significant would these reductions be to the average family?
Very significant. We have two statistics, which were generated out of the experience of our pilot projects. In the residential sector, in multi-apartment buildings, we reached a reduction in energy consumption of 63%. In public facilities, in another pilot project, there was a minimum reduction of 50%. This is what we’re doing – better insulating buildings to reduce consumption, while maintaining or even increasing comfort.
There are a lot of other funds out there, so what makes the Green Climate Fund any different? What’s all the hype about?
The Green Climate Fund, or GCF, is the primary financial instrument of the Paris Agreement, as well as the largest and the most unique. It is targeted at both mitigation – reducing further emissions – and adaption – adapting to the climactic changes that have already been caused.
When the world came together to agree on the landmark Paris Agreement last December, leaders agreed on a plan to keep the world’s temperatures from rising beyond 2 degrees Celsius - the minimum through which the effects of climate change are manageable. To reach this target, each country needs to limit the amount of greenhouse gases they emit through sustainable production and consumption. These reforms cost money. It is thought that we are talking in the area of $100 Billion USD per year.
During the Paris talks, it became clear that developing countries are expecting support for adaptation, as historical responsibility for Climate Change lies with the developed world. So a core theme of negotiation during the talks centred around the compromise of developing countries making commitments in the mitigation sphere, in exchange for adaptation. They were saying: “you have to help us, and if you do, we’ll also take obligations for mitigation”. This is where the GCF came in, as a bargaining chip.
Why was your proposal invested in?
It was not that it was picked and chosen. We did a lot of preparation. Our proposal package was an 800-page document and contained 16 annexes. In the end it was well-prepared and met all the GCF requirements.
The GCF now livestreams all their Board meetings in an effort to boost transparency amongst decision-making, and it was useful to watch these to find out what kind of things they look out for. The system in fact demands that a lot of issues have been taken into consideration – gender issues should be streamlined, social and environmental screening must be done and its impacts and risks properly considered, so a lot of things are important for the board.
We’re also thankful to the GCF Board member from Georgia, representing the Eastern Europe region, for intervening in defense of Armenia's proposal and saying that it could be a good example for replication in countries in the region which suffer from high levels of energy poverty, understood to be when households spend over 10% of their budget on energy.
Why is the GCF investing in UNDP? Why not go straight to national governments?
The GCF Board is moving towards directly accessing national institutions in developing countries. However, for now international organisations can act as a go-between. UNDP as an organisation has the institutional capacity to be able to deal with the challenge of producing proposals and implementing. In fact, almost half of GCF grants that have been approved involve UNDP as an accredited entity. UNDP in Armenia, starting in 2004, has been steadily working across three pillars energy efficiency: first the heating sector, afterwards in the building sector, where we did a lot of policy work and engagement with the private sector, and now in the lighting sector.
Also, it’s important to mention that UNDP in Armenia has proven experience working with International Financial Institutions. Our work with the European Investment Bank proved that we can handle loan-based projects. If you use just grant money, then you can’t ensure tangible change – the private sector and financial institutions have to be involved too.
When we talk about Climate Change funding, Eastern Europe is rarely seen as a critical area in need of assistance. What can the region as a whole learn from this success?
From an adaptation perspective, we have to understand that the GCF will deliver support to the most vulnerable - small-island states and the least-developed countries, which under climate change are considered most at risk. So we don’t have such a big comparative advantage as a region and as a country. Instead, we thought in terms of mitigation. We concluded that energy efficiency projects can have the most impact in countries where there is a high energy usage, either as a result of extreme climatic conditions, and a high-level of energy infrastructure, developmentally speaking more likely to be a middle-income country.
If we want to think about adaptation, it is best to think about a regional project where the GCF Board can really see a cost-effective added value. The challenges of climate change necessitate that we increase our cooperation.
Armine Muradyan resides in Lori region of Armenia, in a community playfully called Gargar of around 1000 people. In a family of six, Armine lives with her husband, two sons, daughter-in-law and grandchild. Her younger son currently serves in the Armenian Army.
"Our community lives mostly on animal breeding and crop cultivation. A small number of people work at the village administration, school, and a military unit in the nearby village”, tells Armine. She explains that in her community mowing and making hay bales are typically the men’s job, while taking care of the cattle and gardening is a shared job between men and women, often supported also by the youngsters. Despite these strong gender perceptions in her community, Armine, together with several female farmers from her village, formed a cooperative to produce high-value vegetables. They named it “The future is ours”, and decided to experience with crops that are not common in the local market.
Everything started five years ago, when with Armine’s initiative and leadership, several women of the village decided to grow non-traditional vegetables - asparagus, ruccola, broccoli - that had a high price and strong demand in the Armenian market. It was not easy to start, but later the experience showed that it was worth doing. The women created an opportunity for self-employment and an additional small source of income, and they gradually attracted the attention of different NGOs and other farmers who were interested in exchanging experiences.
Armine mentions that one of the biggest challenges for them was obtaining a greenhouse, a place where they could grow seedlings of their crops, and then finding a way to move the seeds to the fields for expanded production. This was a vital necessity for them due to the rainy and comparatively colder climate of Lori region.
In 2015, Armine’s group applied to the ENPARD “Producer Group and Value Chain Development” project’s open call in Armenia and, after a competitive process of shortlisting, they were finally selected to be involved in the project. The project, implemented by UNDP and UNIDO Armenia offices is funded by the European Union and Austrian Development Agency, is one of the largest agricultural projects currently implemented in the country. Armine and her fellow farmers received training in cooperative establishment, business skills development and were supported in developing their business plans. “These type of projects expand the role of women within their families and societies, making them stronger and more self-reliant”, explains Armine. With the project’s support, by June 2016, the women farmers were already planting broccoli seeds in their own greenhouse tunnel equipped with a drip irrigation system. The tiny seedlings that grew in hundreds of plastic cups were later transplanted into the nearby field to grow and provide yield.
At the end of summer, Armine is already taking joy from the good harvest, but she is cautious not to rush things: “Once we have a market, we need to be able to comply with their demand and provide a high enough volume of broccoli to the buyers”. Though the youngsters of Armine's family are not interested in agriculture, her husband provides great support in harvesting and sales of the crop.
Slowly but surely, Armine and her team are also thinking of developing other side-products for their business, like producing nutritious broccoli baby food, or growing other cash crops. These self-reliant, entrepreneurial and hardworking women have all the ingredients to succeed as a result of their huge potential, drive and patience in watching the seedlings of their work grow.
Each year, UNDP Armenia teams up with the Armenian Missionary Association to provide young people with internship opportunities, under an initiative called “Youth Career Trail”.
Six-month paid positions are made available to around 60 young people from an employer of their choice. There is a wide range of possibilities: be it a private business, think-tank, civil society group or international organization! This year, three United Nations agencies – UNDP, UNHCR and UNDPI – joined the list of employers and hosted three interns.
Feeling that not enough had been done in the past to provide equal opportunities, during this year’s recruitment process a concerted effort was made to attract young people with disabilities in the open call.
Meet Anna, “Youth Career Trail” intern who joined UNDP Armenia in January 2016. During the six months of her internship (split between UNDP and UNDPI) Anna became an invaluable part of UNDP Armenia Human rights team, bringing a unique perspective to the role.
When she was four months old, she was diagnosed with Cerebral palsy. However, Cerebral palsy is not what defines her. When sending out her CV, Anna made no reference to her disability as she was thinking that nobody ever writes about their eye color or height in their CVs. In fact, Anna has never considered herself a person with disability. She’s sure that everyone has abilities and she has her own special ones. As she told us during the interview, her life motto is simple: don’t stop, believe in yourself and continue growing as a personality.
Anna is a lawyer interested in human rights, advocating for equal opportunities for people with disabilities. Summing up her six month’s experience at UNDP, she said:
"This internship experience at UNDP Armenia was more than useful and worthwhile. It was a great opportunity to improve my every day working skills, for example: How to share your ideas with people? How to write an email correctly? How to use computer programs? And so on. These skills that seems so small and unimportant were more than useful for me. And most importantly, I met new people, contributed to the team discussions and felt the UN vibe”.
The team at UNDP Armenia tremendously enjoyed working with Anna, and will truly miss her drive, her amazing personality and endless sense of humor.
Anna also shared her future plans with us:
"My main goal now is to obtain a master’s degree in Human rights and I have decided to get it abroad by stepping out of my comfort zone. I’m sure that the skills and knowledge that I gained during my experience at UNDP will help me go forward and discover the human rights field as deep as possible”.
She’s going to specialize in the rights of children with disabilities as she believes that the only thing which can really change and make the world a better place to live in is the education for children.
UNDP Armenia wishes Anna good luck in her future endeavors, be that her lifelong dream of flying with a parachute, riding a bike or becoming an outstanding human rights lawyer and advocate.
Social Entrepreneurship & Impact Investments in International Development Organisations
A breakthrough discussion on the role of Social Entrepreneurship & Impact Investments for International Development Organisations was held on 13 July in Geneva. Presenters Prof. Hans Wahl from INSEAD, Katherine Milligan from Schwab Foundation and Artak Melkonyan from UNDP, elaborated on significance of impact investments and social entrepreneurship for developing economies, approaches the development organisations choose to support them and upcoming dedicated conference in March 2017 invited by UNDP and INSEAD in Yerevan, Armenia.
In the session, participants discussed role of Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investments in the mission of International Development Organizations (IDOs). Traditional development approaches are facing significant challenges and limits in addressing their goals. Engaging private sector and market-based initiatives could be more effective through the use of social entrepreneurship and impact investment principles. Development sector players have tried to address social entrepreneurship trends in various modes and scales – from sponsoring discreet events and projects, to more advance systematic interventions such as setting-up and supporting social innovation incubators, supporting social impact “buyer” roles of governments or even introducing and expanding blended finance instruments to cater Islamic finance principles. The interest is reciprocal - impact investors increasingly consider IDOs’ global networks and local presence and involvement as important factors to mitigate risks of SE projects and expend their ultimate impact.
UNDP with INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, are planning a dedicated global conference on these topics and, in anticipation, invited relevant stakeholders (IDOs, social entrepreneurs, impact investors, etc.) to become partners and contribute to organizing this breakthrough convention planned in several months from now.
The meeting was supported by Rianta Capital Zurich and hosted at ImpactHub Geneva. Its members, impact investors from private foundations and banks, as well as representatives of development organisations (WWF, ICRC, UNDP, UNCTAD, etc.) attended the event.
Using the online world to change the offline one
Since 2011, UNDP has been organizing social innovation camps in an effort to locate innovative tech solutions that will help to solve issues that exist in different sectors of Armenia.
Social Innovation Camps gather people, ideas and digital technologies in one place. Over the course of two days, business prototypes or models of embryonic ideas are cultivated and developed. The camp transforms these theoretical ideas into precise solutions by uniting people from different walks of life. Designers, programmers, marketing gurus, media and SMM specialists all come together to co-create technological solutions to specific social challenges.
Before the camp
With the support from European Union Kolba Lab invited anybody who was interested to submit their ideas or apply for participation in the camp by filling in a participation application form. Anyone could apply; there were no restrictions. We received 55 ideas and almost the same amount of participation applications. A professional jury was invited for the first round of selection, shortlisting the best ideas based on a criteria that was published beforehand.
During the Camp
Starting on Friday evening, the camp began with five idea leaders presenting their ideas in a nutshell. The other camp participants picked the ideas that interested them the most, and the newly-formed teams set to co-work and co-create the idea prototypes over the following two days.
By the end of Sunday evening, the teams pitched the outcome of their work to the jury. The jury panel included:
Karen Vardanyan - Director of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises
Lilit Gevorgyan - Executive Director of the Union of Employers of Information and Communication Technologies
Aram Mkhitaryan - Head of Helix Consulting LLC
Araksia Martirosyan - Vice President of World Startup Cup
Alexander Bazarchyan - Director of the National Institute of Healthcare
Astghik Grigoryan - USAID, expert on healthcare project management
Following intensive debate, the jury selected three ideas that will have an opportunity to enter Kolba Lab’s incubation cycle. Throughout the incubation the teams will get both financial support (up to $3000) as well as mentorship, access to UNDP’s network of experts and Kolba Lab’s consulting assistance throughout the implementation of their projects.
The first award went to Satenik Grigoryan’s team, who were working on the development of a mobile app. The app, provisionally called PanDoc, will help users to figure out the most probable reason of their health issue by asking a set of simple questions, and will then direct them to the appropriate doctor or specialist. As a result, users won’t waste time being redirected from one doctor to another, saving financial resources and energy. Satenik also manages the platform Doctors.am, which has an established community of users and doctors who would be invited to test and provide feedback for this new service.
The second award was distributed between two teams:
Gayane Hovhannisyan’s team created a mobile app to help kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder be more confident and accomplished in their daily activities. As part of this app, which will be in Armenian, “social stories” will help the children to develop their communication skills, to organize and guide their daily activities, and will allow parents to be aware of their children’s activities by following them on the app.
Satik Badeyan’s team was working on a web platform project, which will inform users about the laws regulating healthcare service and processes in Armenia. The platform will also provide information on the free and subsidized services that are paid for by the government, and how to access them. This tool will also act as a broker between the patient and the medical institution to solve issues connected to the provision of healthcare services.
After the camp
All the energy and enthusiasm generated during the camp will now put into the implementation of the projects.
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