IIASA, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia, and UNFPA sign MoU

On 15 March 2023 Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Narek Mkrtchayn and Head of Country Office in Armenia of the United Nations Population Fund Tsovinar Harutyunyan met with IIASA Director General Albert van Jaarsveld to discuss research collaboration and to sign a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding. The document foresees strengthening of cooperation between the three parties on matters of mutual interest, primarily on the development of demographic and population policies, strategies, tools, and identification of the optimal policy solutions through various research methods, based on the international best practices and experience.

During the visit IIASA researchers introduced MLSA and UNFPA delegations to the latest population research at IIASA, while MLSA and Ameria CJSC experts delivered presentation on the Population Strategy and Results Framework for Armenia.

During the visit Minister Mkrtchayn was accompanied by Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Davit Petrosyan, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Armenia to the UN Office in Vienna and other international organizations Armen Papikyan, Head of MLSA Integrated Social Service Eduard Petrosyan, and Head of MLSA International Relations Department Ruben Elamiryan. UNFPA delegation, led by Ms. Harutyunyan, comprised of Senior Advisor Michael Herrmann, Programme Analyst Anna Hovhannisyan, Programme Assistant Manana Mananyan and Senior Advisor of the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research Alexandre Sidorenko. IIASA was represented by Interim Deputy Director General for Science Wolfgang Lutz, Population and Just Societies Program Director Anne Goujon, Multidimensional Demographic Modeling Research Group Leader Samir KC, Science Diplomacy Officer Sergey Sizov, and Guest Research Assistant Nicholas Gailey. Representatives of America CJSC – Management Advisory Partner Tigran Jrbashyan and Senior Researcher Artashes Shaboyan – also joined the meeting.