1. RESILIENCE
BUILDING
MECIS ECONOMIC JUSTICE COMMUNITY 0F PRACTICE
LEARNING WORKSHOP
ARMENIA TEAM MARCH 17-20, 2014

2. Page 2
PROCESS AND RESULTS OF
PILOTING A METHODOLOGY FOR
ASSESSING VULNERABILITY IN
ARMENIA
NUMBER OF BENEFICIARIES: 400 (200 women and 200 men)
LOCATION – Vayots Dzor (Hermon) and Tavush (Aknaghbyur)
regions of Armenia
STAFF AND PARTNER NAMES:
OXFAM Economic Justice team (2 persons)
BSC – Business Support Centre
SCVIC – Scientific Centre for Vegetable and Industrial Crop
PROJECT DURATION; 2012-2015

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SECTION I: CONTEXT ANALYSIS
Armenia
Population: 3.1 million
GDP per capita $5,279
Gender inequality ranking (out of 146): 60
Rural Poverty rate: 37%
Number of farmers: 340,000
Country challenges:
• Big number of small-holder farmers,
• Unfavourable weather conditions
• Weak involvement of private sector,
• Lack of sufficient natural resources,
• Lack of market access
• Lack of access to agricultural services,
• Lack of access to extension services,
• Lack of access to financial resources (credits, micro-credits)

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SECTION II: INTERVENTIONS
 The Pre-Vulnerability Assessment tool was introduced to OXFAM and implementing partners’ staff members,
 The Pre-Vulnerability tool was thoroughly discussed and adapted to local realities, namely Aknaghbyur and
Hermon villages, focusing on main agriculture sectors/activities which were potentially the most vulnerable risks
related to climate change disaster as well as socio-economic and political conditions in the region: based on
joint/participatory discussions the most vulnerable and sensitive sectors/activities and possible impacts on them
were identified,
 The assessment format and way was identified: local level workshop was more preferable and efficient rather
than discussions at national level conditioned with the need to collect as much as possible precise information on
community level which should be further incorporated in regional and national initiatives that address local livelihood
issues;
 The main group of participants selected: to ensure comprehensiveness of information the expert representatives
of OXFAM partners (BSC and SCVIC), Aknaghbyur and Hermon municipalities and agri- cooperative as well as
Tavush and Vayots Dzor Regional Rescue Departments and Regional Agricultural Support Centers(RASC) were
invited to the workshop.
 Sectors and hazards were finalized and narrowed down based on feedback from participants; taking into account
the intensiveness of discussions and relevance of some of sectors main focus was paid mostly to the horticulture
production, NTFP business, Livestock and pasture/fodder issues taking into account their dependency on such
factors as water dependency, agri- input supply, issues related to access to market and conflict with Azerbaijan.
 Vegetable cultivation/production outdoors and in greenhouse were assessed separately to show the
difference in the level of exposure and sensitivity of these two cultivation methods
 Impact chain analysis

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SECTION III: STAKEHOLDER
ANALYSIS
Main stakeholders
• Municipal authorities,
• Community Agricultural Cooperatives,
• Regional Rescue Departments of Ministry of Emergency
Situations,
• Regional Agricultural Support Centres of the Ministry of
Agriculture

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SECTION IV: ACHIEVMENTS
Sector/Crop Activity
Hailstorm
Seasonalfrost
Waterscarcity/Drought
(originalsources)
Wateringdependency
(notlocallysourced)
Higherseasonaltemp.
Heatdays/wildfires
Strongwind
Increasedpreci-pitation
Poorsoilfertility
Mudflow
Landslide
Aginputs
Accesstomarkets
Borderconflictw/Az.
Horticulture productionVegetables (outdoors) 0 3 2 1 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 N/A 2
Horticulture productionGreenhouse (tomato, cucumber, greens, ...)3 3 N/A 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 2 2 2
Horticulture productionPersimon 1 1 2 2 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 2
Horticulture productionFigs 3 0 2 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2
NTFP Berries (cornelian) 3 2 3 N/A 2 N/A 3 1 N/A N/A 3 N/A 3 2
Livestock Meat and dairy N/A N/A 3 N/A 3 3 N/A 3 N/A N/A 3 3 3 2
Horticulture productionHay (fodder) 3 N/A 1 N/A 1 2 3 3 N/A 3 3 3 N/A 2
S3 S2 S1 S0 N/A
E3 3 3 2 2 N/A
E2 3 2 1 1 N/A
E1 2 2 1 0 N/A
E0 2 1 0 0 N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
N/A
PV3
PV2
PV1
PV0
Not relevant to the sector/crop/activity
Sector/crop/activity is largely exempt from negative climate impacts and other political economy factors
Sector/crop/activity is likely to be partially effected by climate impacts and political economy factors
Sector/crop/activity is likely to be considerably effected by climate impacts and political economy factors
Sector/crop/activity is likely to be overwhelmingly effected by climate impacts and political economy factors
PV
PV
Increasingpre-
vulnerability

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SECTION IV: IMACT CHAIN ANALYSIS
Fumingation (using fume)
Loss of seeds Poverty
Decrease of
agricultural
production
Land degradation
Less capability to
access to agroinput
Loss of fig yield
Seasonal Frost Income loss Intense social issues
Seasonal
migration to
Russia
Shortage of male
resources in
border villages
National
security
chellenges
Persimon loss
Vegetanle/potato
loss
Increase of
import from
Georgia to cover
the loss
Problems with
municipal budget
performance
Shortage of
financial
resources
Loan debts
Debt
accumulation
Change seeding
periods
State and
foreign loans
Obtain resistant
crops
Mulching
technologies
• Seasonal frosts and hailstorms and water scarcity were identified as a
main hazards causing considerable impact on agriculture
• Impact chain analysis for seasonal frost and water scarcity were
conducted through identification of consequence effect for each issue (e.g.
decreased income, loss of yield, migration etc) as well as trying to identify
adaptive measures undertaken for specific challenge if available (e.g.
mulching, loans etc);

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SECTION VI: LEARNING AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Specific data available on exposure and sensitivity for each
sector to specific hazards
• Understanding on what specific impacts for each hazard with
opportunity to build on existing adaptive capacities;
• Building of adaptive capacity within the initially identified
interventions,
• Revising of initial resilience action plan and reassessing if
new areas have to be considered or budget reallocated
beyond identified priorities.