The project is financed by the European Union and the Austrian Development Cooperation and is implemented by the Austrian Development Agency. The overall goal of the project is: to promote local growth and development leading to improved quality of life through community engagement in economic and social activity with a particular focus on the Northern region of Armenia.  The purpose of this participatory and gender-sensitive analysis with an integrated baseline is to gather comprehensive information that will serve as a benchmark or reference point for the project’s monitoring and evaluation data during the project implementation. At the same time, this assessment served as part of the inclusive awareness-raising campaign in all rural areas of Shirak to raise the interest of rural stakeholders in the LEADER approach. During the initial phase of the analysis, it served as a basis for the selection of targeted areas for project activities and for the establishment of Local Actions Groups (LAGs). The outputs of the research were:

Regional analysis on the current situation and development trends of Shirak around the thematic fields of demographic development, women and vulnerable groups, policy situation, socio-economic situation, agriculture, environment & climate change, infrastructure, living conditions, stakeholders’ capacity, education & culture and other topics defined under the scope of work.

Baseline survey amplifying existing data and information by a collection of primary quantitative and qualitative data incl. the establishment of a community development index for better comparison and follow up of the development progress.

Regional and local stakeholders becoming more engaged in discussing and analyzing the current situation in their settlements by applying a participative approach in course of the baseline survey.

Proposal on territorial areas for the establishment of Local Action Groups in the region of Shirak based on common needs and development potentials as well as geographic position (already selected by ADA).

Baseline survey providing data and information to set up project monitoring framework to assess the progress of the development and to update intervention logic of projects.

Usage of the results of the study for the socio-economic analysis and SWOT in the frame of the elaboration of the local development strategies.

This is the link to the TV program where Sonya Msryan, Prisma Senior Analyst and Karen Ayvazyan, ADA Project adviser, present the research findings and describe the future steps of the project.