Inter-Agency Response
On September 27, 2020, heavy clashes broke out along the line of contact (LoC) and quickly expanded to other areas in and around Nagorno-Karabakh (NK), until a nine-point ceasefire agreement was signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan on 9 November 2020. Six weeks of conflict resulted in significant civilian casualties and destruction of houses and public infrastructure in the NK conflict zone, including schools, roads and communication networks. At the peak of the crisis, it was estimated that the majority of the population living in NK (estimated to be 150,000) had fled to Armenia.
From the initial 90,000 persons in a refugee like situation2 that arrived in Armenia between October 2020 and December 2021, some 26,725 persons still remained across ten regions of the country3 and Yerevan, as of 31 December 2021. While more than two-thirds seem to have returned more permanently again to NK, those remaining in Armenia are likely not to return to NK as the places of their origin (e.g. Hadrut) are under Azerbaijani control.
However, in light of numerous continuing ceasefire violations, and the volatile situation within NK and along the new line of contact including the border regions, the sustainability of returns is yet to be determined.
The conflict in the fall/winter of 2020 compounded an already fragile socio-economic situation resulting from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This left the refugee-like population at the beginning of their displacement with very few prospects for employment and livelihood opportunities; which further stretched the limited resources in the cities and localities where they have settled. Consequently— and from the very beginning—the inter-agency response linked immediate humanitarian assistance (shelter, food, protection) to more durable solutions (e.g. livelihoods, recovery, health, education).
The Inter-Agency Response Plan (IARP) for Armenia—initially formulated for the period of October 2020 to June 2021—outlined a multi-agency comprehensive response strategy and consolidated the financial requirements of 41 humanitarian partners supporting the Armenian Government to provide humanitarian assistance and protection services to the 90,000 refugee-like individuals. The geographic coverage of the IARP extended across the country (i.e. territory of the Republic of Armenia) to provide comprehensive assistance, in light of the movements and the concentration of people in need outside urban centres.
Overall the IARP was designed to complement the efforts of the Government of Armenia (GoA), which responded to the needs of new arrivals, by providing some critical support and implementing a broad range of support measures, including 18 cash assistance programmes for rent and utilities. Thus, the IARP focused on the sectors of Protection (including child protection and education), Shelter and NFIs, Food Security and Nutrition, Health, Early Recovery, and Cash. As of June 2021, the GoA actively participated at the Working Group (WG) level and in the Coordination Steering Group. WGs and sub-WGs (sWGs) were co-chaired by representatives from the Government, including representatives from Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA), Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure (MoTAI), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), and the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office.
Two rounds of Multi-Sector Needs Assessments (MSNA) in December 2020 and June 2021, respectively, informed the evolution of the IARP. With consideration of the remaining refugee-like population of 36,989, the UN Country Team in Armenia extended the Response Plan until December 2021, and reflected the financial requirements of 14 of the 41 partners to continue providing assistance to 26,725 refugee-like persons remaining in the country as well as some 7,500 host community members.
At the June/July 2021 review point and informing the extension decision, the coordination structure was simplified to reflect the changing needs based on the results of the first nine months of the response and in line with GoA’s policy aiming at integrating the refugee-like population within the existing services. For example, the Health WG was folded into the UNSDCF Results Group 1 from September 2021 onwards, while the sub-WGs on Child Protection and Education were merged with the Protection WG.