On June 8-9, Tsaghkadzor hosted a two-day, outreach workshop “Protecting the Interests of Beneficiary Families and Issues of Beneficiaries’ Awareness”. It was conducted by the “Local Democracy Development and Research Centre” NGO within the framework of a small sub-grant project “Protected Beneficiary Family and Informed Citizen” Project,” which is implemented in the scope of the EU funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project implemented by a consortium of NGOs led by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association.

The objectives of the project are:

• assessment of the role of employers, social sector representatives in protecting the rights of beneficiary families, their members’ rights, and overcoming the problems related to the employment of beneficiary family members,
• elaboration of basic proposals to raise the awareness of beneficiary families’ interests and the rights of beneficiary citizens;
• elaboration of targeted proposals to improve the benefits system and presentation to relevant authorities.

The main reports of the workshop were compiled according to the comprehensive analytical reference based on the results of the study entitled “Protecting the Interests of Beneficiary Families and Issues of Beneficiaries’ Awareness”.

The main objective of the survey was to study opportunities of employment and problems of beneficiary families, in the context of their knowledge and interests. The research was conducted in March and April 2019, in Yerevan and Gyumri. In-depth interviews with the representatives of social sector, experts and employers, as well as focus group discussions with beneficiary families were held.

MPs, representatives of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Social Support Officers, representatives of civil society organizations, experts of the sector and social workers attended the workshop.

The problems in the system of benefits were in the core of the workshop discussions. Based on the results of the survey, the participants assessed the effectiveness of the system as well as their approaches in terms of the realistic recommendations for the improvement of the system mentioned in the report.

The participants generally agreed that the existing system of benefits was not sufficiently flexible and efficient. It puts more dependency on beneficiary families and is not aimed at addressing the problem of having a stable job.

Highlighting the presented recommendations, the participants emphasized the active cooperation between the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, the National Assembly and civil society organizations aimed at making the expected legislative amendments more targeted in the framework of benefits. The first step in this regard has already been done. On 6 June, the experts of the “Protected Beneficiary Family and Informed Citizen” Project in the National Assembly have met with MPs.