From February 4 to 5, with the support of the UNFPA Armenia country office, the next discussion of the draft of the new demographic strategy of the Republic of Armenia took place. It focused on the forecasting model, strategic challenges, as well as proposed strategic goals and programs.

RA Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan, UNFPA Armenia Head of Office Tsovinar Harutyunyan, Members of Parliament, representatives of stakeholder ministries and other state structures, local and international experts participated in the discussion.

The strategy, by order of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and with UNFPA Armenia support, is being developed by the consulting company "America Management Advisory" in close cooperation with leading international demographic institutes and experts.

Welcoming the attendees, Tigran Khachatryan noted that finding the most effective solutions for demographic problems is one of the government's top priorities and that the development and implementation of the demographic strategy is of key importance for the sustainable development of the country.

Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan said in his opening speech that the development of the strategy started last year and this discussion is already the fourth. The Minister stressed the importance of the active participation of the representatives of various Government structures in the discussion and expressed confidence that this should be the document of the Government as a whole.

Tsovinar Harutyunyan, UNFPA Armenia Head of Office, noted that demographic issues are of constant importance to UNFPA, and that UNFPA Armenia country office has supported the Government of Armenia in improving the demographic situation in our country since 2005, including through research involving the best international experts. She reaffirmed the readiness of UNFPA Armenia country office to support the Government in the development of this important document.

At the discussion, the strategy was presented by Tigran Jrbashyan, head of the Ameria Management Advisory and of the strategy development team, as well as Artashes Shaboyan, Chief Research Specialist at Ameria Management Advisory.

A number of well-known international experts also made observations: Anna Matisiak, a family demographer and labor market economist, Tomasz Kucera, professor of demography representing Charles University in Prague, Nicholas Gailey from Wittgenstein Center for Demography and Global Human Capital, as well as Eduard Jongstra, UNFPA regional advisor on population and development.

It is expected that the demography strategy will be completed in the first half of 2023 and will be submitted to the judgment of the most prominent international expert community.

The support to the development of the demographic strategy of Armenia is provided through the CISPop “Better Data for Better Policies”, which is a regional UNFPA programme supported by the Russian Federation to strengthen population data collection, analysis and utilization for evidence-based policy-making in the CIS region.