2001-ongoing

Gender dimension of development is one of the key areas of ICHD’s work. ICHD strives to promote gender equality and empowerment of women through both mainstreaming gender dimension into its programs and initiating and implementing gender specific projects, as well as incorporating the principle of equality of men and women into its human resources and other corporate policies and practices.

Equality and non-discrimination are among ICHD’s core values. Our staff is gender-balanced and we strive to further promote women to managing positions within our organization. ICHD follows the principle of equal pay for equal work principle throughout entire development portfolio of projects. ICHD Methodologies and instructions of using its instruments include specific non-discriminatory clues unless gender specific target groups or gender specific needs are addressed. ICHD have also implemented several projects promoting gender equality, empowering women in economy and politics, preventing gender based violence in Armenia.

2005-ongoing

ICHD’s vision of the future of Armenia and the South Caucasus portrays the people bearing European values, regulations and institutions meeting the European standards, political and business culture of European democracy and states committed to European principles of human rights. Following its vision, ICHD strives to foster integration of Armenia and the region with European community through promoting European values, creating demand for quality public services of European standards, supporting approximation of the regulatory frameworks to EU acquis, and advocating to keep the integration policies on the spot of national and regional political agendas.

In this effort ICHD uses its entire arsenal, organizes off the record meetings, prepares and distributes policy papers, works through its networks and social media, convenes conferences and seminars, etc. With the announcement of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) and its instruments, ICHD has streamlined its work on European integration to support these frameworks. The Government of Armenia welcomed the ENP program in 2004, and began developing an EU-Armenia Action Plan under the ENP since March 2005. In the same year, ICHD instituted a new tool to consolidate Armenia’s progress towards its commitments under the instruments of European integration.

2002-2006

ICHD strives to promote environment in the region conducive for effective conflict transformations and peace building.

The conflict over Nagorno Karabakh (NK) recharged on the last years of the former Soviet Union and soon escalated into a large scale armed conflict that took lives of thousands on both sides. The “hurting stalemate” brought a Russia mediated cease fire in May 1994. Since than the political leaders of conflicting parties heavily negotiate to resolve the Conflict over Nagorno Karabakh (NK) under the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Cochairmen. Meanwhile, even on the eighth year after the cease-fire agreement, the societies and elites of the countries affected by the conflict lack confidence in each other and feel distrust to any proposal that would suggest compromises for peace. The thinking prevails that the peace agreement would not bring a lasting peace but would rather transform the ephemeral stability of the status quo settled after the cease-fire into a fragile peace simply to be followed by a new cycle of more bloody warfare. Such “status quo” thinking hinders any effective peace building forcing the peace-builder to route after a while. ICHD considered that prior to engaging civil society in the region into an effective dialogue on the conflict and peace; the “status quo” thinking shall be really challenged to open the room for dynamic thinking of opportunities.