2001-2005

ICHD consistently focuses on promoting local democracy and developing the institute of local governance in Armenia through addressing various dimensions, including strengthening capacities of local governance institutions, raising public awareness on the scope and powers of local institutions, as well as promoting participation of the community residents in the local decision making.

Armenia has established fundamental democratic institutions since its independence. Armenia’s local self-government is clearly defined by the legislation, instituting representative and executive bodies in each of about 930 communities. However, the local democracy in the country remains the Achilles hill of the democratic transformations in the country. Despite to consistent efforts of the Government of Armenia, development partners and civil society, the local democratic governance does not show much progress for several years. The weak capacities of the local governance bodies to deliver public services to the community residents remains one of the major obstacles hindering development of the local democracy and the institute of the local governance in Armenia. Indicatively, the level of satisfaction of citizens with the scope and quality of services delivered by the local governance bodies is rather low.

2001-ongoing

Gender dimension of development is one of the key areas of ICHD’s work. ICHD strives to promote gender equality and empowerment of women through both mainstreaming gender dimension into its programs and initiating and implementing gender specific projects, as well as incorporating the principle of equality of men and women into its human resources and other corporate policies and practices.

Equality and non-discrimination are among ICHD’s core values. Our staff is gender-balanced and we strive to further promote women to managing positions within our organization. ICHD follows the principle of equal pay for equal work principle throughout entire development portfolio of projects. ICHD Methodologies and instructions of using its instruments include specific non-discriminatory clues unless gender specific target groups or gender specific needs are addressed. ICHD have also implemented several projects promoting gender equality, empowering women in economy and politics, preventing gender based violence in Armenia.

2001-2004

The ICHD is one of the region’s civil society Champions striving to promote regional peace and security through Track Two Initiatives.

One of the challenges to the regional peace and security are the unhealthy relations between Armenia and Turkey. As Turkey blocked its border with Armenia since 1993 and no diplomatic relations have been established between Armenia and Turkey, any effective peace-building effort in the region shall consider engaging civil society institutions in both countries in track two diplomacy (T2D) initiatives. The joint project of ICHD and the Center for the Research of Societal Problems (TOSAM) supported by the American University’s Center for Global Peace, Washington, DC (AUCGP) and facilitated in Milano School at New School University, NY, was one of the first initiatives encouraging the institutional cooperation in the region.