TWINNING PROJECT FICHE - Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della … · 2015. 10. 14. · 2.2....

Strengthening of the National Statistical System of Armenia – II AM14/ENP/ST/15 (CRIS: 2014 / 347 714)

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TWINNING PROJECT FICHE

Strengthening of the National Statistical System of Armenia – II

AM14/ENP/ST/15

(CRIS: 2014 / 347 714)

2014


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List of Acronyms ADA – Austrian Development Agency BC – Beneficiary Country EC – European Commission EEA – European Environment Agency EFTA – European Free Trade Association ENP – European Neighbourhood Policy ENPI – European Neighbourhood Policy Instrument ENPARD – European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development EU – European Union Eurostat – Statistical Office of the European Commission FAO – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations GDP – Gross Domestic Product ICP – International Comparison Programme ICT – Information and Communication Technology ILCS – Integrated Living Conditions Survey ILO– International Labour Organization IMF– International Monetary Fund IOM– International Organization for Migration INOGATE – EU energy international co-operation project IT – Information Technology MOE – Ministry of Economy MS – Member State of the EU MS – STE – Short-term Expert from the EU Member State NSSRA – National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia NUTS – Common classification of territorial units for statistics PAO – EU Programme Division, Ministry of Economy of RA RA – Republic of Armenia ROSC – Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes RTA – Resident Twinning Advisor R & D – research and development SEEA – System of Environmental-Economic Accounting SEIS – Shared Environment information System STE – Short-term Expert SC - Steering Committee TACIS – Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States TAIEX – Technical Assistance Information Exchange Instrument TFSCB – Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building UNAIDS – Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS UNDP – United Nations Development Programme UNECE – United Nations Economic Commission for Europe UNESCO – United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture

https://www.google.am/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=13&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CGMQFjAM&url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.facebook.com%252FUNFAO&ei=z8pDU-zXDMOB4gTKnYHwAg&usg=AFQjCNEyo3hVVX0aoIVK-5QInVEZtRZ7Tg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations


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UNHCR – United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNICEF – United Nations Children's Fund UNFPA – United Nations Population Fund USAID – United States Agency for International Development WB – World Bank


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Table of Contents

1. Basic information…………………………………………………………………… .........................................5

2. Objectives…………………………………………………………………………... ........................................5

3. Description…………………………………………………………………………. . .........................................7

3.1. Background and justification…………………………………………………….........................................7

3.2. Linked activities……………………………………………………………….... .......................................13

3.3. Mandatory results………………………………………………………………. .......................................15

3.4. Activities………………………………………………………………………... ......................................15

Component A………………………………………………………………………............................................18

Improving of Statistical Information Dissemination system of the NSSRA

Component B………………………………………………………………………... .......................................20

Improvement of Demographic statistics

Component C…………………………………………………………………….…. .......................................21

Improvement of Labour market statistics

Component D………………………………………………………………….…… ....................................... 22

Improvement of Poverty statistics

Component E……………………………………………………………………..… .......................................23

Improvement of R &D statistics

Component F…………………………………………………………….…………. .......................................24

Environment statistics

3.5 Means/ Input from the MS Partner Administration………………………………....................................26

4. Institutional Framework………………………………………………………..… .........................................28

5. Budget…………………………………………………………………………….. .......................................29

6. Implementation Arrangements…………………………………………………... .......................................29

7. Implementation Schedule (indicative)………………………………………… ..........................................31

8. Sustainability…………………………………………………………………...… ......................................32

9. Crosscutting issues……………………………………………………………...... ......................................32

10. Conditionality and sequencing………………………………………………..... ......................................32

ANNEXES TO PROJECT FICHE………………………………………………..…. ...................................... 32


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1. Basic information 1.1 Programme: ENPI

1.2 Twinning Number: AM14/ENP/ST/15 (CRIS: 2014 / 347 714)

1.3 Title: Strengthening of the National Statistical System of Armenia - II

1.4 Sector: Statistics

1.5 Beneficiary country: Republic of Armenia.

1.6 Main beneficiary: the direct project beneficiary will be staff of the NSSRA. Indirect project beneficiaries will be policy makers in line ministries, the National Bank of Armenia, organizations representing businesses and employees, foreign and local investors, international organizations, the academic and research community and, by extension, the citizens of Armenia.

2. Objectives

2.1. Overall Objective(s)

To support the upgrade of official statistics of Armenia by introducing:

• Enhanced dissemination of official statistics and

• New compilation methodologies closely aligned to European standards

2.2. Project purpose

The project purpose is to support the National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia (NSSRA) by institutional twinning with equivalent authorities from the EU Member States with the aim of upgrading some elements and sectors of the Armenian system of official statistics, namely:

• Dissemination of official statistics

• Demographic statistics,

• Labour Market statistics,

• Poverty statistics,

• R & D statistics

• Environment statistics.


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2.3. Contribution to National Development Plan and the EU – Armenia Action Plan 2007-2013

The EU-Armenia Action Plan in section 4.4.5 Other key areas, Statistics, that aims at the “Adoption of statistical methods fully comparable with European standards and advance the modernization of the National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia" includes the following issues directly or indirectly relevant for the NSSRA in the light of the proposed twinning:

• Improve statistical data to ensure better monitoring of sustainable development programme, through improved administrative registers at local level;

• Elaborate and implement a short and medium term development strategy for harmonisation with European standards in the relevant statistical areas, based on a global assessment of the Armenian statistical system by EU experts;

• Improvement of educational and training programmes for civil servants.

The three –year State Statistical Work Programme for 2013-2015 was approved by the Parliament of RA as a Law on 28 December 2012.

This project fulfils the priority needs expressed in the Three –year State Statistical Work Programme and will support to implement the tasks mentioned in the given Programme, in particular, improvement of Statistical Information Dissemination is highlighted in the PART 1. GENERAL STRATEGY, and statistical spheres in the PART 2. PROGRAMS OF MEASURES GUARANTEENG THE DEVELOPMENT OF FUNCTIONAL SPHERES as are follows:

SECTION 2.1. REAL SECTOR

2.1.8. Labor market

5) Improvement of statistics on working hours, earning structure, labor cost to introduce the calculation of labor cost index, as well as improvement of statistics on labor migration, professional training, working conditions, vacancies.

SECTION 2.4. SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC SECTOR

2.4.1. Social sphere

2.4.1.1 Education and science

2) Methodological support to improve the formation of administrative registers and administrative recording with a purpose to complete the statistical registration of scientific and research activity sphere.

3) Continued improvement of statistics methodology on education and science spheres under international methodological developments.

2.4.1. 5 Households surveys


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4) Poverty deep assessment through the special modules (module questionnaires) during the households sample surveys (including studying the possibility to collect data on social exclusions, intergenerational transmission of poverty, access to information and telecommunication technologies at individual level).

2.4.2. Demography

2. Updating of demographic indicators informational system, as well as harmonizing with the internationally adopted standards to present the comprehensive demographic situation of the republic.

3) In parallel with the completion of population state register to be prepared for the testing and application of information on migration received from the register base.

2.4.3 Environment statistics

4. Implementation of preparatory work on introduction of environmental satellite subaccounts.

3. Description

3.1 Background and justification

Staff and organization

The NSSRA is internally organised into 29 divisions and 10 regional statistical offices and Yerevan city office. The total number of staff is 360; in the central office it is 181. Some of the divisions include only 1-3 persons. 16 divisions employing 91 staff are dealing with the subject-matter statistics. 15 divisions employing 71 staff carry out administrative and support functions (such as international cooperation, dissemination, legal, personnel management, information technology resources management). The President of the NSSRA approves the number of staff in each unit annually. The Yerevan city office and regional statistical offices employ 179 persons in total. The biggest of these is the Yerevan City office employing 44 persons, regional offices employ about 10-15 persons. In addition, there is 458 contract staff hired for different surveys to collect the data in Yerevan City and in regions.

The Supreme Body of Governance of the NSSRA is the State Council on Statistics consisting of 7 members and authorized to approve normative legal acts on statistics. The President of the NSSRA holds at the same time the post of the Chairperson of the Council. The President of the NSSRA and 6 members of the Council are appointed for 6 year terms by the RA President` s Decree.

A Council member and the Chief of Staff supervise all subject-matter divisions in parallel. The Council Members carry out statistical activity management functions, while the Chief of Staff has administrative functions. The subject-matter divisions are grouped together and form de facto departments with one Council member supervising them. Council members are responsible for the following domains: demography, sociology and public activity, international cooperation, financial and banking, nature protection, management of entrepreneurial activity, information technologies. The organizational chart of the NSSRA is attached.


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Data collection and processing

The main task of the regional offices is to collect data on the economic and social phenomena of the regions, and to provide information to the users. They enter the data, aggregate the results of the surveys and submit the aggregated data to the central office. The regional offices are responsible for implementing the surveys, the reliability and completeness of the data, the confidentiality, and improving data quality. They also support local authorities by compiling data for the regions and their communities. The NSSRA has tried to create administrative registers at the community level to help facilitate the data collection from communities and improve the data quality. In particular, at present the NSSRA supports the Ministry of Territorial Administration to create the databases in DevInfo format for communities. However, the administrative registers at the community level have not yet been implemented in practice. The heads of the regional agencies deal directly with the functional units of the NSSRA and the Council Members responsible for specific statistics, as well as with the Chief of Staff and the IT division.

The IT equipment and working conditions of the regional offices are at a much lower level than in the central office. As the regional offices are not well equipped with computers (for example, not every regular staff member has a personal computer), the contract workers complete questionnaires by hand and give them to regular staff for data input. The regional offices are connected to the central office via modem and internet for data transfer. Due to the ArmeniaInfo programme supported by UNICEF, IT equipment has been installed in 10 regional offices and Yerevan city office and connected to the corporative LAN network of the NSSRA. At the end of 2013, 18 territorial units will be connected to the mentioned network. The NSSRA holds regular annual meetings with all staff of the regional offices, as well as monthly meetings with the heads of offices and heads of units. In addition, the NSSRA subject-matter staff from the central office visit the regional offices about once per year.

The regional offices send to the central office both aggregated statistics and raw micro data. In some cases, because of the time constraints, the aggregate data are sent first and the micro data at a later stage. The regional offices perform the micro editing. The central office conducts data checking, editing, and aggregations. The NSSRA estimates that improving the effectiveness and the efficiency of the regional statistical offices needs a lot of work. In the regions, it has been difficult to explain the importance of statistics overall, as well as the importance of providing feedback information to the NSSRA. While the NSSRA is well known and trusted in the Yerevan City, the situation is often different in the regions, especially in the rural areas. Setting up good quality statistical registers could diminish the dependency of the NSSRA on the data collection process of the poorly equipped and not always well functioning regional offices.

Budget and staff retention

Since 2006, the NSSRA annual budget has consisted of around 0.025% of country's GDP. The 2013 budget amounted at about EURO 2.092 million. Salary expenditures comprised around 82.9% of the annual budget. The NSSRA has significantly relied on foreign donor assistance, which has been crucial in conducting many survey projects. In addition, without donors' support, very few publications would be available in English.

Low salaries are the main problem for retaining and recruiting staff. Although the salaries are technically comparable to those of the civil servants in other institutions, they are much lower than in, for example, the Central Bank or in the private sector. Staff members that have learnt certain skills while working for the NSSRA tend to move to higher-paying agencies. In 2012, 21 full time staff members have left the NSSRA and the rate of turnover has been rising over the past three years. Staff mobility across the divisions within the NSSRA is not encouraged by the civil service salary system. Currently, employees can change their divisions


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either via promotion or by participating in an open competition for the available position. Since the salary depends on the grade and on the number of years in a position, switching positions without promotion implies the loss of seniority earnings, effectively limiting staff rotation.

The NSSRA currently does not have a centralised staff-training programme. Staff may participate in local trainings in other institutions or international training events if resources permit this; however, participation is not systematic and nearly all subject or domain training is received on-the-job.

Information technology

NSSRA information technology is the responsibility of the Information Resources Management and Technologies Department, which employs 11 people. The Department includes three units: the Information Technologies Development Division, the Data Base Development and Programming Division, and the Information Resources Management Division.

The Department is responsible for technical IT services, maintaining and updating the NSSA website and intranet, providing software, as well as developing own software components and applications and creating databases. The Department has been shifting to SQL in the past 6-7 years. Currently, 6 sectors (finance, industry, trade, services, construction, and transport) and 26 databases were migrated to the SQL platform, while the remaining ones are still on Microsoft Access. Developing data warehouse, online reporting forms, corporate server network are the main future objectives of the Department; however, lack of financial resources has impeded its progress.

In 2013, IT expenditures comprised 1.5 % of the annual NSSRA budget. There are 250 computers in the NSSRA central office, 180 of which are connected to the internet. The central office also houses 13 servers out of which 2 are designated for SQL and 2 for domain-specific purposes. The situation with the IT equipment in the regional offices is considerably weaker than in the central office: altogether, there are 190 personal computers in the regional offices, most of which are only Pentium 2 and Pentium 3. Many of the older computers cannot handle newer software. Therefore, in practice 2 versions of each programme and application must be created so that both older and newer computers can be used. The standard software is also maintained in newer and older versions, with older versions not being retired. The Department estimates that 20 new computers will be required by 2014 to maintain the continuity of the IT systems.

Quality assurance

The internal monitoring in the NSSRA is organized through the day-to-day decision-making in the work hierarchy, embedded in the NSSRA organisational structure. Heads of the divisions and units are responsible for the quality of the work performed in the respective organisational units. The members of the State Council on Statistics are responsible for the work accomplished in the divisions they oversee. The President of the NSSRA assumes the ultimate responsibility for the organisation's work as a whole.

Within the EU Twinning project “Forwarding Armenian Statistics through Twinning” (January 2011- February 2013) the NSSRA has developed its quality management activity. It was a cooperation project between NSSRA with Statistics Denmark (main partner), as well as five other national statistical agencies within the European Union: Germany (junior partner), Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden.

One of the components of the Twinning project was “Quality management”.


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The objective of the “Quality management” component was to develop documentation, metadata and quality indicators for all the major statistical products collected, systematized and published on the NSSRA`s website www.armstat.am

The Working Group on quality management has been established, involving participants from the following departments: Statistical Work Methodology and Classifications, International Statistical Co-operation, Statistical Information Dissemination and Marketing, Information Technologies, Business Register/sampling expert, Price Statistics, Labour Statistics, Households Surveys, Industry Statistics and Agriculture Statistics.

A complete list of NSSRA`s statistical products has been developed. Quality declarations were developed for each of the statistical products of NSSRA according to the "Quality declaration of the European statistical system"; currently 136 products are organized under 17 statistical domains: Economy and finance, Population and social processes, Industry, construction, trade and services, Transport and tourism, Foreign trade, Agriculture, forestry and fishing, Food Security, Environment and energy.

The quality declarations describe the regulatory background of statistics and the purpose, and explain to all users of statistical information the statistics methodologies and its dissemination, how statistics is produced and how it should be interpreted and used, and other important information for users. They play a key role in the quality management system and give a possibility to enhance user awareness on the strengths and limitations of the produced statistics.

A “Documentation” webpage has been launched on the NSSRA`s website (www.armstat.am) where the quality declarations for all statistical products are published. Sampling error measurement has been introduced (quality indicator).

The PC Axis/PX Web dissemination tool has been installed and ARMSTATBANK.AM has been created, giving the users fast and easy access to statistical information. It allows downloading data in MS Excel, xml or other formats, as well as to create graphs and tables designed according to customised needs. The NSSRA was the first statistical office in the world to introduce the new 2012 version of PX Web. The ARMSTATBANK.AM provides the link to Quality Declarations.

The NSSRA provides information on the main quality characteristics of each product in a user-friendly and accessible form so that users are able to assess product quality.

External monitoring

External monitoring has taken place by the International Monetary Fund that has given the NSSRA good marks in their 2009 Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC).

The 2009 ROSC states that Armenia subscribed to the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and started posting its metadata on the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) on November 7, 2003. Armenia is in observance of the SDDS, meeting the specifications for coverage, periodicity, timeliness, and the dissemination of advance release calendars.

The report states that the NSSRA has relevant institutional prerequisites of quality like proper statistical legislation, statistical programmes, and active communication with major users of statistics. The data in areas of the National Accounts, Consumer Price Index, Producer Price Index, Government Finance Statistics, Monetary Statistics and Balance of Payments Statistics meet quality requirements as regards the international standards and the dimensions of the IMF Data Quality Assurance Framework.

http://www.armstat.am/file/doc/99459968.pdf

http://www.armstat.am/file/doc/99459968.pdf

http://www.armstat.am/en/?nid=401









http://www.armstat.am/


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In addition, the external evaluation of the strategic management and training needs was conducted by the World Bank within the project "Statistical Master Plan Development and Technical Assistance in Strengthening of Statistical Capacity” in 2008-2009. It included the Assessment of Statistical System and Data User-Provider Dialogue and Development of the National Statistical Master Plan.

Finally, in January 2009, the consultants of the European Commission (Eurostat), European Free Trade Association (EFTA), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) jointly undertook the Global Assessment of the National System of Official Statistics of the Republic of Armenia.

Specifically, the Assessment noted the high professional independence of the NSSRA, the commitment to ensure high data quality, the consistency of used classifications and standards systems with international classifications and standards.

On the other hand, the data collection methods, quality management and training system were found to be areas needing improvement.

The following key areas for expected improvements have been mentioned: price indices/consumer, producer and, especially, the construction price indices, exhaustiveness of national accounts and quarterly accounts and building up statistical registers.

The Global Assessment recommended that the cooperation with EU should focus on the Twinning approach.

Justification for the choice of the twinning components

The NSSRA has already taken steps in the direction of closer alignment with EU standards, notably with the help of several statistical cooperation programmes such as TACIS, Twinning, TAIEX and others (see 3.2. below). However, there are still areas where improvements can be made.

• One of these is the current lack of a comprehensive policy document describing the basic principles for Statistical Information Dissemination. Although the NSSRA is continuously improving dissemination and accessibility of its statistical information to guarantee the equal access to statistical information and communication for all users, the lack of modern dissemination tools and practice is a key issue. User satisfaction surveys should be conducted regularly based on a revised questionnaire to improve dissemination activities and services provided by the NSSRA. A pro-active user-producer dialogue to enhance their relationships, creating user-producer groups for different statistical domains and user-friendly dissemination products are highly recommended to get feedback from users, to study and meet their needs. Twinning would be a good tool to improve dissemination system, publications format and their dissemination means.

• Since 1990s, the global political and socio-economic difficult situation in Armenia (the 1988 earthquake, the economic blockade, the economic crisis because of the collapse of the Soviet Union, etc.) brought major changes in the demographic and social structure of the population and its living conditions. Unfortunately, the statistical indicators that are currently in use do not fully reflect the mentioned changes and the labour market of the Republic. As a consequence of the lack of coverage of indicators, of data sources, of administrative records and registers, of concepts and definitions, of other important statistical tools, the data on demographic statistics (migration, vital statistics, etc.), on the labour market statistics (labour cost, labour cost index, structural statistics on earnings, etc.), on the income and living conditions statistics (social exclusions, intergenerational transmission of


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poverty, etc.), on the R& D statistics (innovation statistics) are lacking. There is need to adopt internationally applied tools and mechanisms, to introduce new approaches and modern methodologies. All this is urgently required.

The following four statistical areas have been selected because of:

o Demographic statistics describes the demographic features of the population, including vital statistics, migration statistics and a regular Population Census provides information that is key for sound decision-making. As the Population Census results have shown that there are considerable differences in comparison with the current population statistics, in particular incompletness of migration statistics coming from administrative sources and that in its turn has an impact on the country`s demographic indicators.

o 32.4% of the population in Armenia was poor in 2012 in Armenia. The basic indicator of living standards indicates the percentage of persons living below the national poverty line. Poverty reduction is one of the main strategic tasks of the country. Based on the system of the poverty statistics in place, there is need to include the social exclusion dimension as well to provide a new indicator for social policy monitoring and to ensure the international comparability.

o In the framework of labour statistics, statistics of labour costs play a major role and is based on the concept of labour as a cost to the employer rather than as an earning to the employee. The labour cost concept is broader than the compensation of employees as it includes expenditure on welfare services, recruitment and training, social contributions and other miscellaneous costs. Labour cost is the cost incurred by the employer in the employment of labour. Therefore, to compare the evolution of labour prices within Armenia and with other countries, there is a need for reliable statistics on wage rates, earnings, labour costs and unit labour costs.

o R&D has traditionally been well developed in Armenia, and is still a priority for a country like Armenia with limited natural resources. It covers activities such as basic research, fundamental research, applied research, experimental development, technology development, materials and product development, process development, systems and services development, etc. UNESCO, Eurostat and OECD have developed new approaches and concepts for the measurement of innovation, based on which it was recommended to organize and introduce the new innovation statistics to reflect the main features and major changes of country`s structures on science, technology and industry, and to ensure internationally comparable indicators for policy analysis.

• Environment statistics is relatively new. Satisfying continuously growing human requirements

increases the pressure on nature and its use. The use of natural resources is continuously increasing and often ineffectively managed, and deforestation and land degradation have reached dangerous dimensions. As a result, the planet is on a threshold of serious ecological changes. Those concerns have been reflected in a number of global international documents on nature protection, i.e. climate change, protection of bio-diversity, fighting against desertification, waste management, etc. Particular importance is attached to the management of comprehensive and operative data on environment and nature use. Statistical and environmental structures of UN and EU foresee to enlarge significantly the set of statistical data on nature protection, to turn to general methodology and standards, to ensure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research


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international comparability. The development of nature protection information, its accessibility and its comparability, should meet the requirements of the Orhuse convention as well. There is a lack of a system of environmental and economic accounting, so the compilation of a water account would be a good start for the introduction of SEEA. The selection of the water account for Armenia as a priority is explained by the current ecological situation where the water resources are more vulnerable in quantity and in quality.

• For the above-mentioned components, the twinning project will provide support for acquiring the required statistical tools and methodologies. Adopting experiences from European national statistics offices should have a significant impact in this effort. The foreseen study visits are to allow the NSSRA experts to compare their own work and experiences with the way European standards are applied in the statistical production process in member states.

3.2. Linked activities Other cooperation projects include:

• EU project “Transactional e-Governance Development in Armenia” Contract no. 2012/297-958 – (ongoing);

• The NSSRA has been a beneficiary of the EU/TWINNING - Project "Forwarding Armenian Statistics Through Twinning" (Contract number: ENP/2010256-452): Quality management, Improvement of business statistics, Improvement of the exhaustiveness of GDP, Agricultural Census, Harmonized Consumer Price Index, ICT Society statistics, (2011-2013);

• EU/TAIEX - Common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS), 2008, Statistical Infrastructure (Data Security and Statistical Confidentiality),2008, Services Statistics, 2010, Statistical Classifications, 2010, Transport Statistics, 2012, Harmonized Consumer Price Index, (2013);

• European Environment Agency (EEA) - ENPI - SEIS (Shared Environment information System) project, Environment Statistics, (2010-2014);

• EU - INOGATE energy international co-operation project, (2012-2015);

• The World Bank - Integrated Living Conditions Survey of Households of RA, Households Surveys, Poverty Statistics, (2013);

• The World Bank - International Global Comparisons Programme by 2011 indicators in CIS region (Coordinator is the Interstate Statistical Committee of CIS), Price Statistics (ICP), (2010-2013);

• The World Bank - Bilateral Cooperation Project between Armenia and Georgia within the framework of International Global Comparisons Programme by 2011 indicators, Price Statistics (ICP), (2010-2013);

• The World Bank - TFSCB grant: TF 013918 “Statistical Capacity Building and Implementation Support for Armenia’s Pilot Agricultural Census”, Agriculture Statistics, (2013-2015);


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• The World Bank - TFSCB grant: TF 097400 "Armenia: Piloting and Preparatory Work for 2011 Armenia Population Census" , Population Statistics, (2010-2011);

• Support from the Governments of Italy, 2011, Norway, 2010-2013, India, 2011, and Switzerland, 2011-2012 to the 2011 RA Population Census, Population Statistics;

• USAID/US Census Bureau - 2011 RA Population Census, Population Statistics, (2011-2013);

• UNFPA - 2011 RA Population Census, Population Statistics, (2010-2011);

• UNHCR - 2011 RA Population Census, Population Statistics, (2011);

• UNICEF - 2013 TRANSMONEE, Demographic Statistics, Health Statistics, Education Statistics, Crime Statistics, Poverty Statistics, Labour Market Statistics, Households Surveys, Macroeconomic Statistics, (2013);

• UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA - To enhance the capacity of government partners in roll-out of ArmeniaInfo at the national and marz level for monitoring and reporting progress on the MDGs and the SDP, Statistics on MDGs, (2009-2013);

• UNICEF - Child Poverty, Households Surveys, Poverty Statistics, (2013);

• UNDP, FAO with the financial support of ADA - Support to Comprehensive Agricultural Census, Agriculture Statistics, (2013-2014);

• USAID/ Macro International Inc., UNICEF, UNFPA, UNAIDS - 2010 Armenian Demographic and Health Survey, Demographic and Health Statistics, (2010-2013);

• USAID/US Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Census, Agriculture Statistics, (2005-ongoing);

• USAID- Support to conduct the upcoming National Agricultural Census, Agriculture Statistics, (2013-2015);

• USAID/ Tetra Tech ES, Inc. - Development of Systems for Armenia's National Energy Balance and Greenhouse Gas Inventory, Energy Statistics, Energy Balance, (2012-2013);

• ILO- SCHOOL-TO-WORK TRANSITION SURVEY, Labour Market Statistics, (2012);

• IOM- Integrated Survey of the Migration of the RA Population, Migration Statistics, (2007-2013);

• EU – Support to Agriculture and Rural Development – ENPARD Armenia (Budget support), Agriculture Statistics, (2014- 2018);

• EC/FAO Programme on information systems to improve food security decision-making in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) East Area, Food Security Statistics, (2010-2013).


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3.3. Mandatory results

In order to adopt an appropriate and comprehensive set of statistical tools and methodologies and to aim at a higher degree of compliance with European norms and standards for regular and timely preparation of statistics, the following mandatory results are to be achieved through the activities of this Twinning Project are:

Result 1 for Statistical Information Dissemination:

The Statistical Information Dissemination Strategy paper developed and adopted, the user-producer dialogue improved, the existing User satisfaction survey questionnaire updated, tested and published at the NSSRA website.

The existing Statistical Information Dissemination System: availability, description and presentation of statistics and metadata improved.

Result 2 for Demographic statistics:

Vital statistics improved concerning data collection mechanisms (transition from paper sources to electronic), coverage, timeliness and quality.

A System of Migration statistics reorganized based on administrative registers and established surveys , increased data quality.

Result 3 for Labour market statistics:

Labour cost, labour cost index, structural statistics on earnings calculated and published.

Result 4 for Poverty statistics:

Social exclusions statistics introduced, calculated and published.

Result 5 for R & D statistics:

Methodology on innovation statistics introduced, questionnaire designed to maintain an innovation statistics, innovation statistics published.

Result 6 for Environment statistics:

Water account compiled.

3.4. Activities

The following listed activities and the proposed means for achieving the activity are indicative and upon necessity may be revised in the course of preparation and implementation of the contract between the twinned institutions. 3.4.0. General Activities Besides the activities related to the six components mentioned below, the project will also organize two general activities in order to ensure some visibility of the project at the beginning and discuss the project’s


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impact at the stage of completion. Anyhow, a communication plan of the project will have prepared and submitted to the EU Delegation within the first 3 months of the project. Furthermore, in order to ensure an effective management and monitoring mechanism, regular meetings of the Steering Committee will be organized.

Activity 0.1: Kick-off Meeting

Method:

In the first month of the project, the Resident Twinning Adviser (RTA) in the Republic of Armenia will take up duties in his/her office at the NSSRA. He/she will be introduced to the Armenian stakeholders of the project and to his/her counterparts and staff. He/she will also hire two assistants (RTA Assistant and Language Assistant) through an appropriate selection procedure (See Section 3.5 hereafter).

During the first quarter of the project, the project team will organize a Kick-off Meeting in Yerevan, with the purpose of providing a first official contact to all stakeholders involved in the project and presenting the project to the media and the public at large. In order to guarantee large public information about the start of the project, the meeting will be concluded with a press conference and a press release. The nature of this meeting will be operational, and will be attended by the Project Leaders, the RTA and the RTA Armenian counterparts, representatives of all the stakeholders, PAO representative, EU Delegation representatives, representatives from the MS Embassies in Armenia, plus other donor organizations. The Kick-off Meeting will give the participants the opportunity to be informed in detail about the project objectives, purposes and implementation plan.

Benchmarks: Stakeholders, media and public informed about the start and content of the project, Press release, Project visibility material produced

Activity 0.2: Closing Conference

Method:

During the last two months of the project, a closing conference will be organized whose purpose is to disseminate the result of the implemented project. The conference will take place in Yerevan and all the stakeholders participating in the activities, representatives from the EU Delegation, media, etc. will be invited to participate. The conference will be concluded with some recommendations for possible follow-up and lessons learned for similar projects.

Benchmarks: Closing Conference organized; Recommendations and Lessons learned formulated and discussed; stakeholders, media and public informed about the results of the project at its end.

Moreover, each specific activity under the following components, each of them upon completion will issue an outcome/deliverables with recommendations on which the Beneficiary is expected to give its considered opinion and act appropriately for a forthcoming implementation.

As a reminder, it is understood that the Twinning project is a “peer-to-peer” partnership, which requires a strong commitment also from the Beneficiary side at each stage of the project.


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Other Activities: Overall methodology

Each of the six components described below will apply the following five-step approach (order of activities can change depending on the statistical domain):

1. Precise identification of issues and discussion of proposals and options for addressing the issues;

2. Assistance as regards the implementation of the options;

3. Training of staff (as required);

4. Study visit to MS in order to compare the Armenian experience with MS experiences;

5. Review of the implemented options.

This will generally require 3-4 missions by EU Member State experts to Armenia. The third step will require a separate mission, but this mission may include step three: training. Review (step five) will also require a separate mission. A study visit to an EU Member State may contribute to the review steps that can also include the identification of suitable solutions; then, experiences of Armenia can be compared with experiences of the partner organization(s).

The proposed components are (short titles):

A. Statistical Information Dissemination

B. Demographic statistics

C. Labour Market statistics

D. Poverty statistics

E. R & D statistics

F. Environment statistics.

The activities within the six components are interlinked. Therefore, the sequencing of the activities especially within the components has to be carefully considered while drafting the work plan for the Twinning Contract.

All activities of the Twinning Project must be well co-ordinated with other ongoing EC programmes and other donor interventions and must build on results achieved by previous initiatives.

The achievement of sustainable results and an enhanced institutional capacity of the NSSRA require a long-term commitment. Therefore, the focus has been on the establishment of optimum preconditions for further development efforts in the future and activities, which will lead to visible and sustainable results in a cost efficient manner.


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Component A

Improving of the Statistical Information Dissemination system of the NSSRA

Component leader: Stepan Mnatsakanian, President of the NSSRA

Background

This component will mainly focus on the introduction within the NSSRA of a comprehensive Statistical Information Dissemination system. This is based on the basic principles of statistical data dissemination (relevance, accuracy, impartiality, objectivity, comparability, regularity and timeliness, etc.) of the European Statistical System and principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice (ESCP), and well-established practices of the European Union national statistical institutes.

The component should include regular user satisfaction surveys, based on an updated questionnaire, implementing pro-active user-producer dialogue, improving dissemination of data through the website, improving data visualization with a link to geographic dimensions, and setting up user-producer groups for different domains of statistics.

The NSSRA has already done a lot to develop and improve its dissemination policy, and continuously improves dissemination and accessibility of its statistical information to guarantee equal access to statistical information for all users.

The most comprehensive publication is the tri-lingual (Armenian, English, and Russian) Statistical Yearbook. The NSSRA publishes regular operative monthly reports "Socio-Economic Situation of the Republic of Armenia” in Armenian and Russian, a brief national abstract publication "Armenia in Figures", as well as "Regions in the Republic of Armenia" and other statistical handbooks. A Catalogue of Statistical Publications is published at the beginning of every year. Related to those publications, press releases are issued and press conferences are organized. All publications of the NSSRA are posted on its website at www.armstat.am that represents an important way to disseminate statistical information.

The NSSRA Newsletter, describing all the measures and events related to NSSRA‘s activity is published every two months. A release calendar of publications exists and is part of the annual statistical work programme. It contains the type of publication, time, language and brief description of its content.

The NSSRA has a statistical library in its Central Office building which is open to the general public and the library`s electronic catalogue is accessible to users through internet and contains 11 000 units. The user`s satisfaction questionnaire is posted on the NSSRA`s Website to get users feedback.

To facilitate the provision of country specific information to public the NSSRA has designed and developed publicly accessible and available web-site www.armdevinfo.am that offers easy and user-friendly ways to submit database enquiries, create tables, charts and maps, which can be exported to MS Word, MS Excel and MS Power Point applications.

The PC Axis dissemination tool has been installed and www.armstatbank.am has been created that gives users fast and easy access to statistical information, and allows to download data in MS Excel, xml or other

http://www.armstat.am/

http://www.armdevinfo.am/

http://www.armstatbank.am/


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formats, as well as to create graphs and tables designed according to their needs.

On 7 November 2003, the Republic of Armenia became the 54th subscriber to the IMF Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS). The NSSRA was one of the first subscribers to the IMF`s SDDS among the CIS countries.

However, a dissemination policy leading to a comprehensive dissemination system is needed. This can be used for improvement initiatives, and communicating quality information to the users of statistics. The user-producer dialogue should be enhanced by creating work groups and organising bilateral and multilateral meetings with users.

Activity A.1: Identification of issues with all stakeholders and roundtable discussions with staff of the NSSRA to develop options for solutions and roadmaps for the implementation of the solutions proposed.

Methodology: a fact-finding mission is needed to discuss the priorities and issues, and to develop in roundtable discussions an overall plan (roadmap) to address the identified issues, based on best practice examples. Part of the discussion will have to focus on how best to develop a dissemination policy and what should be its content, how to store the information collected and how to communicate the information (metadata) with the users of statistics, through the NSSRA website and otherwise. Any training needs can also be identified at this stage.

Output: Roadmaps for the implementation of the proposed implementation measures.

Activity A.2: Study visit

Methodology: Study visit of NSSRA experts to the Statistical Office of an EU Member State, in order to compare experiences with statistical information dissemination systems.

Activity A.3: Assistance to support the implementation of solutions for the issues identified under A.2.

Methodology: MS-STE mission to support the implementation of the solutions suggested by the roadmaps for the issues identified in A.2, including assistance in developing a dissemination policy document, and identifying critical areas for data dissemination strategy. Additional training needs may be identified at this stage.

Activity A.4: Training of the relevant heads of department and divisions on the implementation of the roadmaps for the solution of the major issues identified.

Methodology: MS-STE mission to deliver training to the heads of units for the implementation of the roadmaps, according to the list of training needs to be set up within activities A.2. and A.3.

Activity A.5: Review of the implementation

Methodology: MS-STE mission to review the implementation of the roadmap after its implementation and training delivered and to develop recommendations for further improvement.

Mandatory results of the component:

• The Statistical Information Dissemination Strategy paper developed and adopted, the user-producer dialogue improved, the existing User satisfaction survey questionnaire updated, tested and published at the NSSRA website.


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• The existing Statistical Information Dissemination System: availability, description and presentation of

statistics and metadata improved.

Component B

Improvement of Demographic statistics

Component leader: Gagik Gevorgyan, Member of the State Council on Statistics of RA

Background

The NSSRA is responsible for receiving, processing, summarizing and publishing the following statistics based on paper forms of civil registration: births, stillbirths, deaths, infant deaths, marriages and divorces.

Migration statistics is based on electronic database of registrations and de-registration of population from the regional passport offices and State Population Register maintained by the Police of RA. Information from the Border Management Information System of the cross border points of RA is also used for estimation of the volumes of migration. An additional source of information is ILCS.

A Special Rural Community registration system is created in all 866 rural communities, and is maintained by their administration. A result is annual information on de jure and de facto population numbers, age, sex, such features as household structure and education, employment.

Armenia had population censuses in 2001 and 2011. The final results of the 2011 Population Census will serve as a baseline for current population statistics and the population numbers and demographic rates for the mid census years will be recalculated. Electronic version of the results will be published at the national level, by Yerevan city and 10 regions in March 2014. In addition, 10% anonymous population census database will be produced for researchers.

The idea driving this component is to improve vital statistics and reorganize migration statistics.

It is recommended that the NSSRA involves the Migration Agency under the Ministry of Territorial Administration of RA in the implementation of this component.

Activity B.1: Identification of issues and roundtable discussions with staff of the NSSRA to develop options and roadmaps for the implementation of the solutions proposed.

Methodology: a fact-finding mission is needed to discuss the current situation and further developments, including with the Migration Agency, and to develop in roundtable discussions an overall plan (roadmap) to address the identified issues, based on best practice examples. Any specific training needs can also be identified at this stage.


Activity B.2: Study visit

Methodology: Study visit of NSSRA experts to the Statistical Office of an EU Member State, in order to compare experiences.


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Activity B.3: Assistance to support the implementation of solutions for the issues identified under B.2.

Methodology: MS-STE mission to support the implementation of the solutions (improvement of estimation tools, administrative registers, etc.) suggested by the roadmaps for the issues identified in B.2.

Activity B.4: Training of experts on the implementation of the roadmaps for the solution of the major issues identified

Methodology: MS-STE mission to deliver training to the experts for the implementation of the roadmaps, according to the training needs to be set up within activities B.2 and B.3.

Activity B.5: Review of the implementation



• Vital statistics improved concerning data collection mechanisms (transition from paper sources to electronic), coverage, timeliness and quality.

• A System of Migration statistics reorganized based on administrative registers and established surveys , increased data quality

Component C

Improvement of Labour market statistics


Background

There are two main sources for statistics on the labour market: administrative sources or statistical reports submitted by enterprises and organisations and labour force surveys based on ILCS. Employment, economically active population, economically inactive population is exclusively based on ILCS. Unemployment is based on both ILCS and administrative source at the State Employment Agency under Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of RA.

Labour cost (wages/salaries), hours worked, earnings are the indicators that are based on data received by reporting forms from organizations and companies. Data on formal employees are collected for the whole country on a monthly to annual basis, following ILO guidelines and RA legislation. Wages and salaries, hours worked are collected on a monthly to annual basis; labour cost statistics, earnings are collected on an annual basis. Data on wages/salaries and hours worked from small and micro-sized commercial companies are collected by the sample survey. This is an annual survey from 2003 onwards.

Activity C.1.: Identification of issues and roundtable discussions with staff of the NSSRA to develop options and roadmaps for the implementation of the solutions proposed.

Methodology: a fact-finding mission is needed to discuss the current situation and further developments, and to develop in roundtable discussions an overall plan (roadmap) to address the identified issues, based on best practice examples. Any specific training needs can also be identified at this stage.


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Activity C.2: Assistance to support the implementation of solutions for the issues identified under C.2.

Methodology: MS-STE mission to support the implementation of the solutions suggested by the roadmaps for the issues identified in C.2.

Activity C.3: Training of NSSRA experts on the implementation of the roadmaps for the solution of the major issues identified.

Methodology: MS-STE mission to deliver training to relevant NSSRA experts on methodologies for the implementation of the roadmaps, for addressing the issues identified under C.2. and C.3, including calculating the labour cost, labour cost index, structural statistics on earnings.

Activity C.4: Study visit

Methodology: Study visit of NSSRA experts to the Statistical Office of an EU Member State, in order to compare experiences with calculating the labour cost, labour cost index, structural statistics on earnings.

Activity C.5: Review of the implementation



• Labour cost, labour cost index, structural statistics on earnings calculated and published.

Component D

Improvement of Poverty statistics


Background

Armenian Integrated Living Conditions Survey (ILCS) was first introduced in Armenia in 1996 and was carried out in 1998/1999. Since 2001, the survey is annual. ILCS sampling frame was developed using the database of addresses obtained from the 2001 Population Census. The survey has a two-step stratified sample and has a monthly rotation of households and settlements.

This component should be focused on the introduction in the existing ILCS of the special module to calculate social exclusions.

Activity D.1: Identification of issues and roundtable discussions with staff of the NSSRA to develop options and roadmaps for the implementation of the solutions proposed.


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Methodology: a fact-finding mission is needed to discuss the current situation and further developments, and to develop in roundtable discussions an overall plan (roadmap) to address the identified issues, based on best practice examples. Any specific training needs can also be identified at this stage.


Activity D.2: Assistance to support the implementation of solutions for the issues identified under D.2.

Methodology: MS-STE mission to support the implementation of the solutions suggested by the roadmaps for the issues identified in D.2. Any additional training needs can also be identified at this stage.

Activity D.3: Training of NSSRA experts on the implementation of the roadmaps for the solution of the major issues identified.

Methodology: MS-STE mission to deliver training to relevant NSSRA experts on methodologies for addressing the issues identified under D.2. and D.3.

Activity D.4: Study visit

Methodology: Study visit of NSSRA experts to the Statistical Office of an EU Member State, in order to compare experiences with the calculations of social exclusions.

Activity D.5: Review of the implementation


Mandatory results of the component

• Social exclusions statistics introduced, calculated and published.

Component E

Improvement of R&D statistics


Background

The NSSRA is responsible for the following social statistics: education, R&D, health, social protection, culture, sport, crime, and housing and communal services statistics.

R&D statistics is based on the questionnaire “Report of Scientific and Technical Works” that consists of the following 7 chapters: Volumes of Scientific and Technical (S&T) Works by types; Gross expenditures for R&D; Gross expenditures for R&D by branches of science; Internal current expenditures for R&D by types of work and branches of science; Internal current expenditures for R&D by financial sources; Number of employees dealing with R&D at the end of the year; Movement of the number employees dealing with R&D by age groups and scientific degree; Number of Specialists-researchers by branches of science and scientific degree.


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There is no innovation statistics.

It is recommended that the NSSRA also involves the Ministry of Education and Science of RA in the implementation of this component.

Activity E.1: Identification of issues and roundtable discussions with staff of the NSSRA to develop options and roadmaps for the implementation of the solutions proposed.

Methodology: The first MS-STE mission will focus on understanding the problems and priorities; to identify the specific issues the twinning project can address and make a substantial contribution to; and to develop in roundtable discussions an overall plan (roadmap) to address the issues identified in D.1, based on good practice examples. Any specific training needs can also be identified at this stage.


Activity E.2: Study visit

Methodology: Study visit of NSSRA experts to the Statistical Office of an EU Member State, in order to compare experiences of innovation statistics.

Activity E.3: Assistance to support the implementation of solutions for the issues identified under D.2.

Methodology: MS-STE mission to support the implementation of the solutions suggested by the roadmaps for the issues identified in D.2. Any additional training needs can also be identified at this stage.

Activity E.4: Training of NSSRA experts on the implementation of the roadmaps for the solution of the major issues identified.

Methodology: MS-STE mission to deliver training to relevant NSSRA experts on methodologies for addressing the issues identified under E.2. and E.3.

Activity E.5: Review of the implementation


Mandatory results of the component

• Methodology on innovation statistics introduced, questionnaire designed to maintain an innovation statistics, innovation statistics published.

Component F

Environment statistics

Component leader: Yurik Poghosyan, Member of the State Council on Statistics of RA

Background


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The NSSRA uses 31 questionnaires on environment statistics. Statistical data on environment are mainly based on administrative sources at the Ministry of Nature Protection of RA, Ministry of Emergency Situations of RA, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of RA, Ministry of Agriculture of RA, State Committee on Cadastre of RA. Data are also collected by the NSSRA.

Compilation of a System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) is a technically difficult exercise.

The availability of good basic environmental and economic data is a good prerequisite for the SEEA compilation. It also includes the social data.

Taking into account the role of SEEA as a measurement standard for the interactions between the environment and the economy and the fact that implementation of SEEA is one of the most important tasks in environment statistics, the NSSRA initiated to start its compilation.

Cooperation from the Ministry of Nature Protection of RA, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of RA, Ministry of Agriculture of RA will be needed to compile basic required data.

The component will be focused on introduction of the Water account that is comparable with SEEA.

Activity F.1: Identification of issues including with the stakeholders and roundtable discussions with staff of the NSSRA to develop options and roadmaps for the implementation of the solutions proposed.

Methodology: The first MS-STE mission will focus on understanding the problems and priorities and to identify the specific issues the twinning project can address and make a substantial contribution to, and to develop in roundtable discussions an overall plan (roadmap) to address the identified issues, based on best practice examples. Any specific training needs can also be identified at this stage.


Activity F.2: Study visit

Methodology: Study visit of NSSRA experts to the Statistical Office of an EU Member State, in order to compare experiences with the compilation of SEEA, in particular a water account.

Activity F.3: Assistance to support the implementation of solutions for the issues identified under F.2.

Methodology: MS-STE mission to support the implementation of the solutions suggested by the roadmaps for the issues identified in F.2. Any additional training needs can also be identified at this stage.

Activity F.4: Training of NSSRA experts on the implementation of the roadmaps for the solution of the major issues identified.

Methodology: MS-STE mission to deliver training to relevant NSSRA experts on methodologies for addressing the issues identified under F.2. and F.3.

Activity F.5: Review of the implementation


Mandatory result of the component


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• Water account compiled.

3.5. Means/ Input from the MS Partner Administration

3.5.1. The tasks and profile of the Project Leader The Project Leader will be based in the MS and will be responsible for the overall management of the project and the co-ordination of activities performed and ensures the overall quality of the services provided on site. He or she will have the overall responsibility for the implementation of all twinning activities.

The profile of the Project Leader:

A university degree in statistics, economics or another relevant discipline;

A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in official statistics;

Extensive experience in management of statistical projects;

Knowledge of the EU Acquis on statistics;

Good analytical and organizational skills;

Experience in solving co-ordination and co-operation issues;

Well developed interpersonal skills as well as skills in mediation, and experience of working with the various levels of governments;

Fluent in both written and spoken English. Knowledge of Armenian and/or Russian would be an asset.

3.5.2. The tasks and profile of the RTA

The Resident Twinning Advisor (RTA) will be based in the Republic of Armenia and will be responsible for carrying out the activities on site that make up each component. In particular, the RTA will ensure the completion of planning and preparation, engage and supervise short-term experts required for activities, ensure training and study tour performances and manage the individual components of activities according to specified budgetary and other targets. The RTA needs to reside in Armenia for 24 months.

The tasks of the RTA:

Supervision and on-site coordination of all activities performed during the project lifetime;

Supervision of short-term experts;

Day-to-day advice to the staff of project beneficiary institutions;

Professional support for the project activities;

Permanent contact with RTA counterpart;

Monitoring project implementation and timely proposals for corrective measures;


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Contribution to preparation of reports under the project;

Monitoring expenditure of funds according to the financial plan.

The profile of the RTA:

A university degree in statistics, economics or another relevant discipline

A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in official statistics

A minimum of 3 years professional experience of project and/or team management

Advanced knowledge of social and/or demographic statistics

Knowledge of the EU Acquis on statistics

Good analytical and organisational skills

Well developed interpersonal skills as well as skills in mediation, and experience of working with the various levels of governments

Fluent in both written and spoken English. Knowledge of Armenian and/or Russian would be an asset.

3.5.3. The tasks and profile of the short-term experts

The tasks of the short term experts

Short-term experts are expected to provide support in the development of methodologies e.g. questionnaire design, modification of methodologies, training and evaluation of results etc. The Twinning Contract will elaborate the precise number, tasks and working days of short-term experts.

The profile of short-tem experts:

University degree in statistics, economics or another relevant discipline;

Very good command of written and spoken English;

Computer literacy;

At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in statistics;

At least 5 years of professional experience in official statistics in areas that are relevant for the project components to be covered;

Ability to provide on-the-job transfer of practical know-how through participation in the implementation of project tasks;

Proven experiences as trainers of government officials (for training activities).

3.5.4. The tasks and profile of the RTA assistant

The tasks of the RTA assistant


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The RTA assistant will be recruited and funded by the project. He/she will be of Armenian nationality and be working together with the RTA the whole duration of the project. The RTA assistant will provide logistical/administrative support, technical translation and interpretation services to the RTA to facilitate the implementation of the Twinning project activities and assist in the preparation of working documents, organization of seminars, trainings and study tours.

The profile of the RTA assistant will be specified by the RTA and the RTA-Counterpart who will proceed to his/her recruitment following the provisions of the Twinning Manual.

The profile of the RTA assistant:

University degree in statistics, economics or another relevant discipline;

Very good command of written and spoken Armenian and/or Russian and English;

Computer literacy;

Relevant professional experience in statistics would be an asset.

4. Institutional Framework The beneficiary is the NSSRA. NSSRA will be responsible for the implementation of the project. Within NSSRA, the Division for International Statistical Co-operation is in charge of coordinating the activities. Indirect project beneficiaries will be policy makers, producers and users of statistics in line ministries, the National Bank of Armenia, organizations representing businesses and employees, foreign and local investors, international organizations, the academic and research community and, by extension, the citizens of Armenia.

Implementation mechanisms

NSSRA shall ensure that appropriate personnel are made available to work with the EU Twinning partner. Counterparts for each activity will be appointed to facilitate implementation. Since one assumption in the Twinning project fiche is the capacity of NSSRA to disseminate and implement certain concepts without foreign assistance, it is of paramount importance that these persons will be selected thoroughly with required skills to carry on the development efforts.

The Armenian Twinning partner is responsible for the selection of participants for the study tours and trainees (in consultation with the EU partner) and shall ensure the staff is made available and released from their duties during their training/study tours. NSSRA will provide appropriate training facilities properly equipped for all training activities foreseen and implemented in the course of this twinning project.

NSSRA will be required to make available the necessary infrastructure for the MS partner to carry out its tasks. The provision of office space, the provision of equipment, including access to computer, telephone, fax, etc, and the professional use of that equipment should be available to the RTA from day one of her/his arrival.

It is recommended that the NSSRA forms a working group for the implementation of the Twinning project for each component of the activities comprising senior staff officials.


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If there will be a consortium in the Twinning Project, it is suggested that a co-ordination mechanism should be considered in between the partners (lead and junior) in order to smoothen implementation, clarifying roles and competencies, and settle issues of competition or dissenting opinions.

The action will be coordinated with actions of other Development Partners in the field of statistics.

5. Budget

The total budget amounts at € 1,000,000.

6. Implementation Arrangements

6.1.Implementing Agency responsible for tendering, contracting and accounting

Delegation of the European Union to Armenia

Mr. Alessandro Zanotta, Economic Adviser, EUROPEAid, EU delegation

21 Frik Street

YEREVAN 0002, Armenia

Tel: +374-10-54 64 94 ext. 826

Fax: +374-10-54 64 95

Email: [email protected]

PAO will support the twinning project implementation process with the EU Delegation.

The person in charge of this project in the PAO is:

Mrs Amalia HOVSEPYAN, Head of PAO

EU Programme Division (PAO) in Armenia

Ministry of Economy,

5 M. Mkrtchian str, Yerevan 0010

Republic of Armenia

Tel: (+374 10) 597 179

Fax: (+374 10) 543 983

E-mail: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



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6.2. Main counterpart in the BC

National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia

3 Government House, Republic ave.,

Yerevan 0010

Republic of Armenia

RTA counterpart:

Ms. Anahit SAFYAN

Member of the State Council on Statistics of RA

National Statistical Service of RA


Yerevan 0010, Armenia

Tel. +37410 – 589 545

Fax: +37410 – 521 921


BC Project leader:

Mr. Stepan MNATSAKANYAN

President

National Statistical Service of RA


Yerevan 0010, Armenia

Tel. +37410 – 524 213

Fax: +37410 – 521 921


6.3. Steering Committee

The twinning partner management team will be responsible for the financial management as well as for the successful technical implementation of the project.




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The Project Leader will report to the contracting authority and to a Steering Committee (SC) that will be established at start. The SC will consist of the following members:

BC Project Leader and MS Project Leader

BC Counterpart to the RTA, RTA,

Representative of the European Commission

Representative of the MOE/PAO

Other representatives from the European Commission may be invited to participate in a technical capacity, as and when necessary. Representatives from international statistical organisations, international donor community, organisations representing the providers and users of statistics and NSSRA experts could be invited as observers as and when necessary.

The SC will endorse proposals made for preparing, organising and conducting all aspects of the work ensuring a proper co-ordination among the various activities to be performed and results to be achieved.

The SC will meet at least once every 3 months. Its main functions will be:

• to assess project progress;

• to discuss jointly any critical points or bottlenecks in implementation process

• to propose and discuss corrective actions to be taken to tackle problems

• to discuss such issues as timing, cost or project content;

• To discuss and evaluate the Quarterly Progress Reports as agreed to in the twinning contract.

This procedure enables the BC representatives to actively participate in the implementation process during the project lifetime.

7. Implementation Schedule (indicative)

7.1. Launching of the call for proposals

Launching of the call for proposals is foreseen in August 2014.

7.2. Start project of project activities

Start of project activities is indicatively foreseen in 2015.

7.3. Work plan duration

The project will have an implementation lifetime of 24 months starting from the date of notification following signature of twinning contract.


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8. Sustainability

The transfer of knowledge with the counterparts in corresponding EU institution is expected to provide in-depth knowledge on statistical working methods and methodologies that will enable BC experts to continue to adjust their statistics to European standards in a timely manner beyond the lifetime of the project on the basis on the newly introduced tools and protocols.

9. Crosscutting issues

Equal opportunity principles and practices in ensuring equitable gender participation in the project will be guaranteed.

Whenever applicable, human rights and fundamental freedoms will be mainstreamed into the project activities.

Environmental issues are directly targeted by the project.

10. Conditionality and sequencing

The project is conditional to the involvement of the NSSRA management in adopting new methodologies to upgrade official statistics based on European standards.

The Twinning project fiche has been drafted and endorsed by the NSSRA that commits itself to make the contributions stated in the fiche.

Regarding sequencing of project activities, see the above in the components.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

ANNEXES TO THE PROJECT FICHE

A. Logical Framework Matrix

B. Organisational Chart of the NSSRA

C. NSSRA Development Strategy

D. List of relevant laws and regulations for information

TWINNING PROJECT FICHE - Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della … · 2015. 10. 14. · 2.2....

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