Project title – “Participatory Policies – Sustainable Agriculture” project
Coalition title – Agricultural Alliance of Armenia
Consortium members – “OxYGen” Foundation for Protection of Youth and Women Rights, International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education, “VISTAA Expert Centre” Consulting NGO, “Shen” Charitable NGO, “Center for Agribusiness and Rural Development” (CARD) Foundation, “ProMedia-Gender” NGO, “Aware” Community Development Support NGO.
Project duration – 12 months
Project budget –AMD 25,000,000, contribution of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project – AMD 22,500,000, applicant’s financial contribution – AMD 2,500,000.
Implementation location – Yerevan and 10 RA marzes
The Agricultural Alliance of Armenia was established in 2011 and over the past 7 years it has participated in the development of agricultural policies, conducted joint advocacy, lobbying and expert consultancy on access to agricultural loans, improvement of legislation on agricultural cooperatives and food security, supported the development and gender mainstreaming of the draft Strategy on Sustainable Agricultural Development and other agricultural programmes.
The Agricultural Alliance brings together international and local organizations (18 full and 2 associated members) involved in agriculture development in Armenia.
Overall objective
Overall objective of the Project is sustainable development of agriculture in Armenia through improvement of the policies in the agricultural sector. During the project at least 7 packages of recommendations on improvement of agricultural policies will be developed and submitted, at least 2 out of which will be included in the agricultural development national agenda.
Specific objective 1: Strengthening Agricultural Alliance aimed at supporting improvements of policies which ensure fair competition in the agricultural sector.
It is planned to organize several workshops in 4 marzes of Armenia with different agricultural zones/levels with participation of more than 100 small-holder farmers (including cooperative members) and other stakeholders, and later “Farmers Congress” in Yerevan during which issues in the agricultural sector will be raised and discussed, the most realistic scenarios of solving at least 4 priority issues will be identified. CSO-government group will develop concept papers (recommendations) which will be submitted to the relevant government agencies. To ensure inclusion in the government agenda and further adoption of those recommendations advocacy and lobbying activities will be implemented, including work with mass media and different public events.
Within the current specific objective monitoring of at least one state support programme will be conducted. Advocacy and lobbying activities will be carried out for adoption of the recommendations developed as a result of the monitoring.
Specific objective 2: Support in establishment and development of agricultural cooperatives as a means for combining and effective usage of the small-holder farmers’ resources and ensuring competitiveness in the market.
To identify barriers for development of agricultural cooperatives in Armenia, as well as to develop recommendations on state support programmes aimed at agricultural cooperative development in Armenia a comprehensive research will be conducted. Two policy papers (recommendations) will be developed. To ensure inclusion in the government agenda and further adoption of those recommendations advocacy and lobbying activities will be implemented, including work with mass media and different public events.
Second project – “Capacity Development of the Agricultural Alliance”
The main objective of the “Capacity Building of the Agricultural Alliance of Armenia” Project is to improve and strengthen the capacity building of the Agricultural Alliance of Armenia.
The project special objective is improving the financial sustainability and effective management of the Agri-Alliance by learning from the best international/European practices/cases of Multi-Stakeholder Partnership (MSP) management and by employing/applying the obtained knowledge and international experience to the Agri-Alliance of Armenia.
The project is implemented by 7 member organisations of Agricultural Alliance /Coalition of Armenia in the frames of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project.
OxYGen is the lead organisation.
Project main activities:
Provision of capacity building trainings to the Agri-Alliance which is to be conducted by an international expert/organisation.
Development of the Agri-Alliance Strategic plan.
Study visit of an Agri-Alliance representative to any EU country to learn from international experience and best cases of MSP management.
Development and launch of the new Agri-Alliance bilingual web-site.
Expected results:
Agri-Alliance enriched with new knowledge and skills on effective management and fundraising, project and strategy development;
A joint proposal is developed by the Agri-Alliance to apply to potential donors;
The Agri-Alliance Development Strategy is developed with the support of an international expert;
The recommendation package/guide of further ways of Agri-Alliance development is developed based on the study visit;
The new web-site of Agri-Alliance is launched;
The Agri-Alliance has established a new international network relationship through partnering with relevant MSP organisation(s) operating in Europe.
