“EUWI+ Project Progress in Armenia” by Vahan Davtyan EU Water Initiative plus for Eastern Partnership (EUWI+East) Project Progress Meeting Minsk, Belarus, 26 April 2018

1. EUWI+ Project
Progress in Armenia
Prepared by: Vahan Davtyan
Head of Water Resources Management Agency,
Ministry of Nature Protection of Armenia
Prepared for: EUWI+ Project Progress Meeting &
Strategy Development Workshop
Minsk, 25-26 April 2018
European Union Water Initiative plus
for Eastern Partnership

2. Institutional changes
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• Merger of 4 monitoring organizations (Environmental Monitoring and Information
Centre, Waste Monitoring Centre, Hydrogeological Monitoring Centre and
Information-Analytical Centre) into a single Environmental Monitoring and
Information Centre successfully completed and formalized in June 2017
• EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership (CEPA) Agreement signed
on 24 November 2017:
• Armenia undertook the same obligations for the 5 Water Directives as the Association
Countries;
• On 11 April 2018 Armenian Parliament unanimously ratified the agreement
• Transfer to Parliamentarian Republic since April 2018:
• No major institutional changes in water sector are envisaged at the moment

3. Ownership
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• EUWI+ project is officially exempted from VAT and other taxes/duties in Armenia
• Adoption of a package of Water Code amendments by Parliament (2 March 2018),
including chapter on sanitation - Support by UNECE to develop part of the chapter;
• Government of Armenia Resolution No 1584-A (7 December 2017) on EMIC lab
relocation to the premises of the Institute of Chemical Physics of the National
Academy of Sciences of Armenia (539.1 m2) – UBA Recommendation

4. Ownership
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• Government of Armenia Protocol Resolution No 45 (26 October 2017) on Model
Outline for Development of RBMPs – Support by IOWater
• The server for Water Cadastre Information Database has been acquired as a result
of cooperation of the Ministry of Nature Protection of RA and other international
organizations.

5. Progress Assessment
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• Slow progress in the initial phase of the projects, but things seem to improve now:
• Concern over tender evaluation committees:
• big differences between the assessment results of the International Experts and
beneficiary organization representatives
• To improve coordination and planning, since March 2018, EUWI+ Project Local
Representative in Armenia provides summary monthly reports in Armenian
language, including expected activities in the following 2 months
• As a focal point I don’t receive information about project all activities.

6. Workplan Modification
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• Flexibility of the workplan highly appreciated;
• No major changes in Results 2 and Results 3
• Some additional activities within Result 1, to help Armenia in line with the new
obligations undertaken by the CEPA agreement
• Details to be discussed in the upcoming meeting of the National Policy Dialogue Steering
Committee on June 19, 2018

7. Links with On-going Projects
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• Close coordination with USAID ASPIRED and other projects and donors active in the
water sector of Armenia
• The role of the National Policy Dialogue is very important in ensuring the linkage
with other on-going projects and activities in the country

8. Thank you for your attention !
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