Armenia Social Protection Administration II Project

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The development objectives of the Second Social Protection Administration Project (SPAP) for Armenia are to: (i) improve social protection service delivery; and (ii) strengthen analytical and monitoring and evaluation functions of the agencies delivering social protection benefits and services. The project has five components. The first component will support rolling-out of integrated social protection service delivery that was initiated and piloted under the SPAP project. This component will also include civil works, furniture, and other goods for the central offices of two agencies - the state employment service agency (SESA) and the agency for medico-social expertise (AMSE) whose functions will be incorporated into the integrated social protection center (ISPCs) at the decentralized level. The second component, supporting the implementation of the new employment strategy by the government seeks to address some specific challenges of the Armenian labor market, namely: a high share of unemployed and not in education, employment, or training (NEET) youth; a low rate of job creation; a lack of specific technical skills which sometimes prevents employers from opening or filling vacancies; and low awareness and coverage of public employment services among both jobseekers and employers. The third component, modernization of the pension system will support the state social security service (SSSS) in improving its core business processes and upgrading them in line with ISPC requirements. The fourth component, strengthening ministry of labor and social issues (MLSI) analytical capacity and monitoring and evaluation systems aims at strengthening the capacity of the monitoring and evaluation unit within the MLSI and developing an integrated system of monitoring and evaluation of social protection benefits and services (in total over 70 different programs). The fifth component, project management will finance the standard operation of the project coordination unit (PCU) at MLSI for the duration of the project, trainings, project audit, and incremental operating costs.