What we do

In recent years, Armenia has made progress in women’s political participation and gender equality at all levels of decision-making. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2023, Armenia rose from 121st to 61st place, emerging as the leader in the region. The gender quotas have increased women’s representation to 36.4% in the National Assembly and 30% at local level, following the last round of local elections in autumn 2022. Work is currently underway to finalize the National Gender Strategy and the Action Plan 2024-2028, with a particular emphasis on improving the representation and promotion of women in appointed decision-making positions within public administration. The Public Administration Reform Strategy has emphasized the need to identify factors contributing to existing gender disparities within Armenia’s public system and create appropriate mechanisms to address them in order to continuously strengthen gender-balanced and merit-based public services. Armenia also adopted its second National Action Plan in relation to UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on ‘Women, Peace and Security’, which emphasizes the priority of women’s involvement in conflict prevention, resolution and recovery efforts. Evidently, gender equality has become a priority at the national level, and both national and local public bodies have become increasingly willing to put in place corresponding institutional mechanisms.

At the same time, women’s representation in other areas of involvement currently faces:

– 0% as Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister

– 16.7% as ministers (2 out of 12) and 17% as deputy ministers (8 out of 47)

– Less than 6% as community heads (4 out of 71); 30% as municipal council members

– 0% as governors, 15.8% as deputy governors (3 out of 19).

Objectively

UNDP is currently implementing the project “Women in Politics, Public Administration and Civil Society” which aims to contribute to stronger systems and mechanisms to ensure equal opportunities and rights of women and men to participate in decision-making processes at local and national levels . The project is being implemented in collaboration with the RA Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure and the OxYGen Foundation. The project builds on the results achieved within the previous UNDP project “Women in Politics”, funded by the UK Good Governance Fund, the UNDP-funded project “Gender Equality and Public Administration”, the SDC-supported project Women and Youth in Innovative Local Development, and on the SDC-supported project Women and Youth in Innovative Local Development. OxYGen advocacy works towards the political empowerment of women.

Some results so far

More than 200 women leaders have been reached through several interrelated and complementary formats: Women Leadership School, Women and Youth Advisory Councils, Mentorship Scheme and Policy Club.

Six Women and Youth Advisory Councils have been established to ensure local voices are heard, to highlight and address pressing issues of community concern.

Methodologies for gender mainstreaming and social inclusion have been developed to be used as mandatory documents for policy makers.

The project beneficiaries’ contributions to policymaking have been secured through recommendation packages for the draft National Gender Strategy (2024-2028) and its Action Plan, the RA Electoral Law, the Mass Media Law, the ‘Law on Temporary Unemployment and Maternity Benefits’ , among others.

The Gender Equality Seal for Public Institutions has been officially launched within the Armenian Human Rights Defenders Office.

The involvement of ethnic minorities in policymaking, decision-making and advocacy has continued to improve.

The CSO-National Assembly platform has been relaunched as an essential tool for networking, advocacy and lobbying.