UNICEF Yerevan Office, ADA announce second phase of cooperation

ArmInfo.UNICEF and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) announced the launch of the second phase of a three-year cooperation (2024-2027) aiming to empower young and communities across Armenia to become resilience towards climate change.  

As part of the cooperation, 20 consolidated communities,  covering about 300 settlements in Armenia, will be supported to  conduct climate risk assessment and reflect subsequent responses  actions to identified vulnerabilities in the community budgets and  development plans. At the local level, the partners will also  contribute to improve climate change education, support adolescents  and young people to come up with innovative solutions and initiatives  to mitigate the consequences of climate change. 

In this regard, Silvia Mestroni, the UNICEF Yerevan Representative,  emphasized that environmental risks, such as air pollution, pose a  serious threat to the fundamental rights and well-being of children  in Armenia.  "Through this collaboration, we will act in multiple  inter-linked directions at national and local level, resulting in  longer-term social change that respects children's right to grow up  in a healthy environment," Mestroni added. 

As noted in UNICEF, the 2024 - 2027 cooperation will build on the  achievements and lessons learned of the previous project implemented  with ADA in 2020-2023, which helped to build the capacity of over 400  teachers from 33 communities in project-based learning on climate  change, implement more than 275 local environmental projects by  students, and institutionalize climate change education into the  national curriculum. Within the framework of this cooperation, a  climate risk assessment was carried out for 31 consolidated  communities (with 365 settlements), through a child-sensitive risk  management methodology.