PRESS RELEASE
United Nations Development Programme / Armenia
14 Petros Adamyan St., Yerevan 0010
Contact: Mr. Hovhannes Sarajyan, Communications Associate
Tel: +37410 566 073
E-mail: hovhannes.sarajyan@undp.org<mailto:hovhannes.sa rajyan@undp.org>
Web site:
Human Development – a Framework for Migration Policies
Yerevan, 11 May 2010 – "Armenia’s migration policies should be built
on the human development framework that views migration as a tool for
realization of the individual’s opportunities and freedoms," states
the 2009 National Human Development Report (NHDR) that was officially
launched today at the UN Office in Armenia. The findings of the Report
are based on qualitative data presenting materials of in-depth
interviews or focus groups conducted with migrants. The quantitative
data used in the document has a purpose to outline the trends, rather
than definitive and ultimate statistics. The NHDR is a powerful
advocacy and policy making tool to highlight major development
challenges and recommend policies to address these issues and promote
human development.
The UNDP commissioned Report, which is entitled Migration and Human
Development: Opportunities and Challenges, was presented with
participation of Ms. Dafina Gercheva, UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP
Resident Representative in Armenia, Mr. Armen Gevorgyan, RoA Deputy
Prime Minister, Minister of Territorial Administration, Ambassador
Raul de Luzenberger, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ms. Ilona
Ter-Minasyan, IOM Representative in Armenia, Mr. Gagik Yeganyan, Head
of Migration Agency under the Ministry of Territorial Administration,
as well as independent national experts directly involved in the
preparation of the report and representatives of relevant
international and national structures.
The prevalent estimate is that about 700,000-1,300,000 people have
emigrated from Armenia since the first intensive wave of emigration
from Armenia that started back in 1991. During this period the
migration processes in the country were driven by socio-economic
causes and no sufficient attention was paid to human development
objectives. An overview of causes of migration shows that many of them
are work-related problems, such as the lack of employment, obstacles
to doing business and the insufficiency of conditions for people to
realize their potential and to be appreciated adequately. Reportedly,
emigration from Armenia has mainly involved qualified human resources
mostly from the urban areas which had significant negative effects on
Armenia’s development processes, in particular on reproduction of
social and cultural capital. However, the migration is not a one-sided
process and although its domestic causes are mostly negative in terms
of human development, it also contributed to improving key human
development indicators, such as living standards and children’s
education in Armenia. Moreover, it helped to solve health care
problems, due to the inflow of remittances provided by migrants to
their families.
Addressing the participants of the event, Ms. Dafina Gercheva said,
"Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. The
most critical ones are to lead a long and healthy life, to be educated
and to enjoy a decent standard of living. UNDP’s overarching value
proposition is its commitment to a more sustainable human development
path. We have a proven track record in accelerating human development
through reinforcing institutional capacities of state and non-state
actors. If human development is the ‘what’ of UNDP’s mandate, then
capacity development is essentially the ‘how.’ UNDP in Armenia is well
positioned to support the government in its efforts to establish
flexible mechanisms of migration management and to reinforce state
capacity to address the changing trends in migration through targeted
policy making and implementation."
The NHDR argues that migration policy priorities should focus on
steering migration processes in such a way as to encourage the
accumulation of innovative and creative human resources with the
strategic potential of contributing to human development prospects in
Armenia. The approaches to development adopted in the RoA Government’s
Sustainable Development Program, the main strategic document on
Armenia’s development, need to take into consideration all these
policy priorities.
"Migration trends of varying degrees have always been a part of the
Armenian reality, however during the last two decades Armenia saw
unprecedented high rates and particular quality of migration flows,
which grew into challenges that alarmingly affect different aspects of
our life. For these very reasons, the solution of migration related
issues not only fails to leave the urgent to-do list of imminent
challenges faced by the Armenian government but takes on even more
significance, as demonstrate the reforms implemented in 2009 within
the state migration management system along with the initiative to
develop a new strategy for the state policy on migration," said
Mr. Armen Gevorgyan. He thanked the UNDP for providing a comprehensive
and a thorough analysis of the linkages between the migration and
human development processes from the perspective of Armenia’s
strategic development.
The NHDR consists of five chapters dedicated to the following issues
concerning migration flows related to Armenia: migration trends in a
globalizing world in the context of human development; causal
interplay between migration, poverty, and inequality; relationship
between migration governance and human rights; role of migrants’
remittances and the Armenian Diaspora in the human development
process; and relationship between migration and current human
development trends.
The full text of the Report can be accessed on the UNDP/Armenia
website:
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UNDP is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and
connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help
people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries,
working with them on their own solutions to global and national
development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on
the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners. UNDP in Armenia was
established in 1993 and supports the Government of Armenia to reach
its own development priorities and the Millennium Development Goals by
2015.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress