PUBLIC AFFAIRS

NEWS

02.06.2010

Hovik Abrahamyan, RA National Assembly Speaker and Marie L. Yovanovitch, US Ambassador in Armenia visited Ararat marz

Aygezard gravity system, Armash pumping station and farmer Harutyun Hovhannisyan's greenhouse: these were the sites picked by the high-ranking guests to see what is being done by MCA-Armenia program in Ararat marz.
The first target of the visit was Aygezard gravity system, which will provide irrigation water to more than 702 hectares of lands after rehabilitation. MCA-Armenia is rehabilitating 8.5 km of the gravity system. Farmer Ashot Abrahamyan's orchard is situated just next to the canal. It also serves as a Water-to-Market demonstration site and is equipped with drip irrigation system. Thanks to the rehabilitation of the gravity system, Ashot and a number of farmers like him will not have lack of irrigation water to cultivate crops in their orchards.
The next site was a greenhouse in Avshar community. The following improvements and technologies were introduced to this plot to serve as a demonstration site for farmers' trainings under the MCA-Armenia program: drip irrigation system established on a 1,500 square meter greenhouse and a seed center, where seedlings' production of different vegetables and their further production in the greenhouse and open field are demonstrated. Farmer Harutyun Hovhannissyan is also a borrower under MCA-Armenia's Credit component and has installed a new heating system into the greenhouse and has enlarged his orchard.
And finally, the last site of the visit was Armash pumping station, where the rehabilitation works are on-going. The total investment made by MCA-Armenia here will be USD 2.9 million. The following renovations are being done in Armash pumping station: replacement of all pumps and motors, electric equipments and cables, full rehabilitation of the building and intake, construction of a sand catcher.

22.05.2010

Stakeholders' Committee and Governing Council members' elections 2010 results

On May 22, 2010 the elections for the Stakeholders' Committee (SC) and Governing Council (GC) civil society members under the Millennium Challenge Account Armenia Program were held. The elections 2010 were the fifth and the last one in its kind to be organized with the Program.
282 representatives from different organizations were registered by the election committee to participate at the elections as voters and 19 of them were registered as candidates. 239 representatives from different organizations participated at the close secret voting, in result of which the following 15 candidates were selected as SC members: the first five members with the highest votes will also serve as GC members:

...details

12-21.05.2010

From May 12-21 Jonathan Richart, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Environmental Social Assessment (ESA) Associate Director and Armando Balloffet, MCC ESA Consultant were in Armenia on an Implementation Oversight Mission. The primary purpose of this particular mission was to finalize planning for the remaining ESA oversight activities and review the progress to date. More specifically, the mission worked with the MCA-Armenia ESA team on the following key activities:

- Coordination with the Infrastructure Activity Project (IAP) with regards to current work plan, review of key environmental aspects of IAP and defining the timing and sequencing of outstanding deliverables. Of special interest were the issues related to preservation/maintenance of the Ramsar site in Ararat Valley Drainage and finalization of Environmental and Social Assessment for Martuni and Zolakar pump station Environmental Management Plans.

- Review the draft MCA-Armenia Management Information System developed under a contract with the Environmental and Social Assessment Oversight Contractor (ESAOC).

- Review the ESAOC progress and define the further plans.

10-21.05.2010

On May 10-21 Gary Merkley, an individual consultant hired by MCC to implement the quality assurance review of the Institutional Strengthening (IS) of Water Management Entities’ Project, was paying a working visit to Armenia. The visit was highlighted with various meetings, most of them with irrigation water management entities – Water Users’ Associations (WUA), Water Supply Agencies – which are the main targets of the Institutional Strengthening component.
At the end of his mission Gary Merkley made his comments and suggestions concerning the implementation and future steps of the IS component. Particularly, he underlined that the progress in the work of the WUAs and Water Supply Agencies is obvious, as compared with the period before the program implementation. One of his main recommendations was the development and successful implementation of the Irrigation Policy, which will positively influence the work of all the entities.

07.05.2010

On May 7, the U.S. Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch and the Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan opened 2.5 kilometers of the 8.5 kilometers that constitutes the Aygezard gravity irrigation canal (Ararat marz) rehabilitated under the Millennium Challenge Account-Armenia Program. A farmer's plot at the 1.4 kilometer mark also was the scene for a number of other important programmatic events, including the inauguration of the 200th Demonstration Site under MCA-Armenia's Water-to-Market Activity.

Press release

30.04.2010

On April 30the election committee candidates for the upcoming MCA-Armenia Stakeholder Committee elections had their first meeting. MCA-Armenia's Coordination Officer Ester Hakobyan presented the new Elections Procedure for 2010 as well as other issues concerning the election process. The role of the election committee was emphasized as representatives of the civil society called to ensure the transparency and fairness of the process. According to the new Procedure all the candidates who applied for the committee membership received the opportunity to get involved in the committee.
Election committee members welcomed the new approaches by which the role of the committee has become more important. All the candidates took the responsibility to perform their functions as election committee member for the upcoming one month period.
The committee summoned its first session during which Artak Saribekyan was selected as the Chairman of the committee and Marianna Yeghiazaryan as the Secretary. The next session of the committee will be summoned on May 4, at 17:00 in the MCA-Armenia office.

The list of the election committee 2010

26-30.04.2010

From April 26 to 30, 2010, Rebecca Tunstall, MCC M&E Associate Director, and Kenneth Fortson, Mathematica Policy Research (MCC consultant) representative, visited Yerevan to coordinate on a series of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) issues with MCA-Armenia. The main objectives of MCC & MPR’s April mission included the following: discussing the sustainability of MCA co-funded Integrated Survey of Living Standards with the National Statistical Service of Armenia; reviewing the implementation of the Tertiary Canal Survey; agreeing on the design of the enterprise adoption survey; getting updates on the Water Users Association and Water Users Survey, and on a number of other issues. The trip successfully met all of the objectives required to move forward in a timely manner on the monitoring and evaluation work for Armenia.

22.04.2010

Tractors to farmers

On April 22, 2010 a group of farmers took possession of 7 Chinese made tractors during an event that was held in Dimitrov community of Ararat marz. This was made possible by Farm Credit Armenia (FCA), one of the ten credit providers involved in Millennium Challenge Account - Armenia's (MCA-Armenia) farm credit program and the initiator of the leasing facility under the MCA-Armenia Credit Component. The farmers and the representatives of the producer-"YTO International", stressed the advantages of new tractors - their cost is much cheaper, they are small and easy to drive, and consume little fuel.
The event was kicked off by U.S. Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch who described U.S. assistance to Armenia's agricultural sector through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. She pointed to Mr. Henrik Yegyazaryan as an excellent example of how ordinary farmers have benefitted from U.S. assistance. The event and the demonstration of the tractors were conducted on Henrik Yegyazaryan's plot who is both an FCA member and stockholder, and an MCA-Armenia demonstration farmer.

15.04.2010

Irrigation Infrastructure Technical Auditor Presents Alternative Ways of Irrigation Canals

Mr. Adrian Laycock (Scotland), MCA-Armenia Irrigation Infrastructure project technical auditor, is finishing his one month visit to Armenia. According to his contract with MCA-Armenia, Mr. Laycock will have three working visits (one month each) to Armenia during the last 1,5 years of program implementation. During his visits the technical auditor is supposed to review the rehabilitation/construction works and ensure that they are implemented in accordance with generally recognized high standards, in compliance with all the required documents and technical specifications, in accordance with the pre-agreed time schedule and with a high quality. Each visit will be followed by a report and a final report will be submitted upon completion of services.
Within the frames of his first visit, on April 10, Adrian Laycock made a presentation for MCA-Armenia staff and its partners about alternative ways of design and construction of irrigation canals, which are not yet used in Armenia. The focus of the presentation was large and small parabolic canals (see the pictures).
Adrian Laycock - "My main purpose is trying to bring some outside knowledge from western countries so that the engineers here could understand that there are alternative ways of doing the design and construction, and not continue doing the same things that were practiced for 50 years during the Soviet era".
During his first visit Adrian Laycock will also have a lecture at Yerevan State University of Architecture and Construction.

10.04.2010

We Construct-We Take Care

On April 10, 2010 the Millennium Challenge Account - Armenia (MCA-Armenia) marked the completion of 550 meters of the tertiary canal in Norabats community (Ararat marz) through a unique event. In collaboration with Foundation for Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC) and Sunchild Eco-clubs, MCA-Armenia, its partners, and Norabats community members joint their efforts to clean the area around the canal and to plant 150 trees along the canal length.

Press release

12.03.2010

U.S. Government's Millennium Challenge Corporation Commits US$ 8.08 Million to the Rehabilitation of Ararat Valley Drainage System

Press release

26.02.2010

Press Conference in the Government

On February 26, 2010 a press conference, initiated by the RA Government, took place. The topic of the press conference was "Irrigation system in Armenia: investments, results, plans for future". The press conference took place at the Government's press center with participation of the representatives of key programs working on the rehabilitation of the irrigation infrastructure - MCA-Armenia and Irrigation PIU. MCA-Armenia was represented by the Irrigation project Officer Tigran Kalantaryan briefly presented the on-going irrigation infrastructure rehabilitation works being implemented under the MCA-Armenia program and the future steps. He described all the components of the infrastructure project - main canals, gravity schemes, tertiary canals, pumping stations and rehabilitation of drainage system. After presentation he answered the questions of media representatives. The questions mainly concerned the financial side of the investments, the volume of investments needed for the modernization of the irrigation system in Armenia, etc.

12.02.2010

Ljiljana Spasic-Gril and Stuart Gunn, representatives of MCCs independent Engineering Consultant Company-Jacobs (UK), were in Armenia from February 8 through February 13. This was yet another mission through which MCCs independent consultant reviews the works in progress under MCA-Armenia's Infrastructure Activity and provides feedback to MCC and MCA-Armenia on how well they are progressing, both from the technical perspective as well as given their effectiveness and timeliness. This visit stands out from the almost biannual missions as it comes at a time when the Armenian program has entered full construction stage. During the five days of their stay in Armenia our Jacobs colleagues visited construction sites, had meetings with construction contractors and summarized their findings in a report. The highlight of their mission was a site visit to the Arzni-Shamiram main canal, where the works are progressing well. The use of shotcrete on this canal is an essential technical solution that is well-received by Jacobs representatives. Back in the design stage they were concerned by the proposed use of heavy lining and everywhere asked MCA-Armenia to consider this new technology, which was later accepted by MCA-Armenia and implemented in Arzni-Shamiram canal, allowing to significantly accelerate the works.

04.02.2010

On February 4, the Stakeholders' Committee held a full day outreach meeting to discuss and amend SC Bylaws, clarify the mechanisms of the GC members' selection and a few other internal regulatory issues.

During the outreach event ongoing projects of the MCA-Armenia Program were presented to the SC members as well as their possible participation was discussed. As traditional role of the SC member, the following was highlighted: 1. participation in the evaluation panels; 2. visits to Program sites; 3. public awareness activities. MCA-Armenia representatives encouraged SC members to regularly participate at the programmatic activities: monitoring the quality of construction, discussion of legislation initiatives, public hearings, trainings, as well as present and discuss the issues raised with the MCA. SC members were particularly interested in visiting the Program sites, participation at the public hearings on environmental and social issues, restart of the credit component as well as efficiency of the trainings in the communities. MCC Resident Country Director Alex Russin gave much importance to the role of the SC members in the efficient implementation of the Program and its positive image.

03.02.2010

Credit Component Monitoring Results

On February 3, 2010 the implementing company of the Credit component of the Water-to-Market activity - Rural Finance Facility (RFF) PIU, presented the summarized research of the credits disbursed up to date. It is almost 2 years that the Credit component is being implemented. During the first year credit resources were disbursed through 4 banks and universal credit organizations selected through open bidding process, while in the second year their number is - 10. According to the RFF report, as of January 1, 2010, the number of applications for getting agricultural loan was 229, which contain 597 credit packages with the total amount of AMD 2,546,971 million. 91% of money has been disbursed. According to the report, the average amount of the loan is AMD 4,2 million, average duration - 61 months, average interest rate - 11%.

The loans are mainly directed to the construction and development of greenhouses, refrigerating equipments, fruit and grape orchards. Their main recipients are individual farmers.

22.01.2010

MCA-Armenia site visits commenced.

On January 22, 2010 MCA-Armenia CEO Ara Hovsepyan, accompanied with a group of staff members, visited Armavir and Ararat marzes. In Lukashin, Hovtashat and Nizami communities the MCA-Armenia team got acquainted with the activities of the farmer cooperatives which are members of the Federation of Agricultural Associations (FAA), particularly – capacities of the collection points under the Water-to-Market activity, freezing equipments, as well as the consolidation center situated in Yerevan and the cooperation between these entities. FAA president Vardan Hambardzumyan also participated in this visit. An interesting discussion on farmer cooperatives took place in Lukashin community: its member-farmers raised the issue of social, financial and technical problems which are being solved through the cooperatives. The scheme of the relationships between the FAA and cooperatives was presented in details.

In the second part of the day the MCA-Armenia team visited Aygezard Gravity system and Mkhchyan 1 Pumping station and got acquainted with the on-going civil works.

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