25-02-2009 Partnering for Raised Awareness on Child Protection in Armenia
On February 17, 2009, the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Issues (MLSI) hosted the launch of the guidebook on “Children Protection system in Armenia” with representatives from MLSI, RA National Assembly, USAID/Armenia, local government bodies and NGO community.
Among other functions, MLSI has been making efforts to achieve the goal of making child protection system in Armenia more efficient. The key challenge in this system is the deficient collaboration mechanism between its main role-players MLSI- local government social services and the civil society, which is crucial for ensuring access to available resources of social assistance. The issue of public awareness is of no less importance. Insufficient awareness on social rights often results in potential abuse of authority, raising the dependency of population on social services. In this context, the issue of social advertizing is accentuated as it is not getting adequate state attitude so far. Respective NGOs currently make efforts to draw state and public attention to this problem in an attempt to identify solutions by means of state budget allocations, policy decisions or drawing the attention of mass media and the civil society.
As an aid to these endeavours, Armenian Relief Society (ARS) NGO, a sub-contractor of USAID Armenia, Social Protection Systems Strengthening (SPSS) Project, among other assisgnments, was tasked to assess reasons for low utilization of existing social assistance services to children, develop a system for distributing information on the range of public and NGO services available for children (0-18). In the framework of this task and in collaboration with the National Institute for Labor and Social Research (NILSR) and MLSI, ARS developed a comprehensive reference guidebook “Children Protection system in Armenia,” which is an active reference tool. It will be regularly updated by the MLSI Family, Women and Children’s Issues Department jointly with NILSR, and can be accessed in hard-copy and on-line for social workers and the civil society, as well as for the general public.
The co-authors (SPSS, ARS, MLSI and NILSR) are confident that this event will support to consolidation of endeavours made by the representatives of state government, local self-government bodies and the civil society, targeting the creation of established children rights protection system and improved quality of social services in Armenia. Read more on MLSI website>>>
This website was made possible with the support of the American People through the U.S. Agency for International Development. The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the US Government.
Among other functions, MLSI has been making efforts to achieve the goal of making child protection system in Armenia more efficient. The key challenge in this system is the deficient collaboration mechanism between its main role-players MLSI- local government social services and the civil society, which is crucial for ensuring access to available resources of social assistance. The issue of public awareness is of no less importance. Insufficient awareness on social rights often results in potential abuse of authority, raising the dependency of population on social services. In this context, the issue of social advertizing is accentuated as it is not getting adequate state attitude so far. Respective NGOs currently make efforts to draw state and public attention to this problem in an attempt to identify solutions by means of state budget allocations, policy decisions or drawing the attention of mass media and the civil society. 
As an aid to these endeavours, Armenian Relief Society (ARS) NGO, a sub-contractor of USAID Armenia, Social Protection Systems Strengthening (SPSS) Project, among other assisgnments, was tasked to assess reasons for low utilization of existing social assistance services to children, develop a system for distributing information on the range of public and NGO services available for children (0-18). In the framework of this task and in collaboration with the National Institute for Labor and Social Research (NILSR) and MLSI, ARS developed a comprehensive reference guidebook “Children Protection system in Armenia,” which is an active reference tool. It will be regularly updated by the MLSI Family, Women and Children’s Issues Department jointly with NILSR, and can be accessed in hard-copy and on-line for social workers and the civil society, as well as for the general public.