Assistance by the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security to the project “Sustainable Livelihood for Socially Vulnerable Refugees, Internally Displaced and Local Families” in Armenia

March 2, 2009
Japanese

On 2 March, the Government of Japan and the United Nations (UN) decided to extend assistance totalling 2,484,900.00 US dollars (approximately 255.94 million yen) through the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security to a project entitled “Sustainable Livelihood for Socially Vulnerable Refugees, Internally Displaced and Local Families” in Armenia, which is going to be implemented by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Develop Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Due to rapidly increasing income inequalities and social uncertainties, socially vulnerable people including groups such as refugees and internally displaced people have been suffering from poverty and lack of access to social services in Armenia. Through the following activities, this project aims to reduce poverty and improve access to social services in order to support vulnerable people, especially women and the youth, to attain sustainable livelihood:

Renovate old buildings to provide housing units for vulnerable households;
Encourage beneficiaries to get involved in community-based organizations such as women’s group;
Conduct trainings on entrepreneurship and business skills development;
Establishing Small and Medium Entrepreneurship (SME)-supporting Fund and provide start up loans to 100 businesses and support community-owned programmes;
Organize trainings on operation and maintenance of renewable energy (RE) systems;
Train health care providers to build their capacity.

This project is expected to assist vulnerable people in reducing poverty and secure their lives, livelihoods and dignity.

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