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.

2005 – ongoing

One of the major areas of ICHD’s work is promoting the participatory democracy in Armenia and in the region. Here ICHD works with national and local decision makers, building their capacity to engage the citizenry through various channels; promotes environment conducive for the participatory decision making process; develops and implements mechanism that enable the effective participation of citizens in the decision making process at the national and local levels. The Town Hall Meeting mechanism, one of the most effective and vibrant models of facilitating public participation in decision making process both in local and expert communities. The Town Hall Meeting (THM) mechanism creates meaningful opportunities for citizens to participate in public decision making.

2001-ongoing

The tobacco control is another key focus of the Center and a cornerstone of ICHD’s activities since 2001. Smoking rate is traditionally very high in Armenia. About one third of Armenian adults are regular smokers. About 3,000 deaths of smokers at the age of 35-69 years in Armenia are due to diseases caused by smoking. The smoking prevalence is rather high among the adolescents. The accession of Armenia to the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2004, triggered elaboration and adoption of stricter legislation and policies on tobacco control.  However, the tobacco industry lobbying is very strong in Armenia. ICHD is a leading organization with its 12 projects in this area. The economic impact of stronger tobacco control policies were in particular focus of the Center. The ICHD was the key player in lobbying for Armenia’s accession to the FCTC and in recent increase of tobacco taxes. Two key ICHD associates represented the EURO region respectively in FCTC protocols on Illicit Tobacco Trade and in Tobacco Farming. ICHD has produced a number of publications and conducted the first ever comprehensive nationwide smoking prevalence survey in Armenia. The Center is a member to Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) and Coalition for Tobacco Free Armenia (CTFA). The ICHD operates a unique Tobacco Control web portal at http://nosmoking.ichd.org.

2001-ongoing

ICHD assists reforms in the security sector in Armenia and in the region through advocating for democratic governance in the security sector and promoting bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the major systems of collective security including the NATO.

2007-2008

Democratic decision making in the South Caucasus is still in the stage of development. The practices and knowledge in the societies in transition are not adequate to the emerging challenges in fast changing environments. The societies and governments need more effective new instruments, different skills and knowledge to handle transitional challenges and enter a phase of functional democracy. One of the instruments making participatory democracy to work, the Town Hall Meeting (THM) mechanism has been developed and introduced in Armenia by the ICHD since 2005. After being effectively used at local and national levels in Armenia, the ICHD has considered to extend its capacity throughout the entire region in South Caucasus.

2002 - 2008

Armenia’s public financial management (PFM) reform agenda aims to improve fiscal discipline and allocative and operational efficiency. This goal is reflected in Government’s own documents, like the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). The Government’s reform agenda covers activities across the PFM system, including MTEF and program budgeting reforms, treasury reforms, internal and external audit reforms, accounting reforms, and others.  These reforms cannot be seen to stand alone, but rather as specific but interconnected interventions at different points within one PFM system. The ICHD has been one of the key institutions in Armenia both advocating for the PFM reforms and providing policy advice and technical inputs in the process of the reforms since 2002. ICHD engaged all critical processes of the PFM system through 2002-2008.