Armenian PDFs Available

2024-12-02, World Bank

The report is based on the WBG’s technical assistance which aimed to 1) provide a baseline of current PHC performance, understand the strengths and weaknesses of the PHC system, and where to target initiatives for improvement; 2) identify and understand variation in PHC performance, especially in terms of quality, between facilities in urban and rural areas and in Yerevan; and 3) assess care integration among health services at different levels of care. Four key assessment studies were undertaken to support these aims: 1) a Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) survey to measure the quality and capacity of PHC facilities across the country through a nationally representative survey of over 300 facilities, 2) the Vital Signs Profile, the core tool of the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI), to provide a snapshot of a PHC system across four pillars: financing, capacity, performance, and equity, 3) vertical Integration Diagnostic and Readiness Tool to assess linkages between PHC and hospital care, and 4) an assessment of Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions to examine if all uncomplicated care is managed at the PHC level.

2024-11-25, World Bank

Waste management is a challenging sector to govern. The sector involves the day-to-day delivery of services that are vital to protecting public health and the environment. Regular and reliable waste management services underpin quality of life in communities, and contributes to Armenia’s attractiveness as a place to live, work and invest in. Significant progress has been made in Armenia in recent years, with collection service nearing universal coverage of the population. A significant number of unauthorized waste disposal sites have been closed over the past few years. Still, in many areas, the waste sector in Armenia is not performing well enough when compared to the best international standards. This waste sector reform plan is intended to support Armenia in developing a road map for its solid waste management sector and to improve, expand and make waste management services more sustainable.

2024-01-22, World Bank

The Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) provides an assessment of the constraints Armenia should address and the opportunities it can embrace to accelerate progress toward the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. The first-generation SCD in Armenia, published in 2017, highlighted the need for a new growth model grounded in greater productivity, and it identified four main related challenges: (1) poor external sector performance, (2) low private sector productivity, (3) insufficient labor productivity, and (4) key macroeconomic, environmental, and microeconomic vulnerabilities. This second-generation SCD looks into the future by reflecting on the five years that have transpired since 2017. It finds that the challenges identified in SCD remain valid, while it highlights new challenges related to fragility, conflict, and violence. It also finds that governance, institutional capacity, and investment in data are cross-sectoral constraints.

2021-06-08, Dudu, Hasan, Chukwuma, Adanna, Manookian, Armineh, Aghazaryan, Anastas, Zeshan, Muhammad

Armenia has made significant progress in improving population health outcomes over the past two decades. However, essential health care for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is underutilized in part due to the cost of access. Armenia has also committed as a signatory to the Sustainable Development Goals, to making progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This commitment involves guaranteeing access to essential health care for all its citizens. The Ministry of Health (MoH) has developed a concept note for the introduction for Universal Health Insurance that proposes to mobilize additional revenue through payroll taxes or higher budgetary allocations to the sector. However, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has noted that revenue mobilization options should ideally demonstrate positive returns in terms of economic growth and employment. Therefore, at the request of the MoH, the World Bank has modeled the macroeconomic impacts of options to increase domestic resource mobilization to finance universal access to essential health services in the basic benefits package. The analysis assumes that through UHC reforms that mobilize additional public spending, the government would cover the cost of ninety-five percent of household needs for health care from 2021 to 2050, and that the increase in the demand for care will be supported by improvements in supply-side efficiency. The results suggest that increasing direct taxes is better than increasing indirect taxes as the former are less distortionary and cause smaller allocative inefficiencies.

2024-11-25, World Bank

This report presents an analysis of Yerevan's waste management system. It investigates the quantities of municipal waste generated and makes a projection what would be the waste generation in the next 20-year period of time. It also provides a description of the solid waste management (SWM) system in place in terms of operations, infrastructure, and facilities in place, institutional arrangements, current costs incurred, and financing of the waste management system. Besides, this Report tries to provide a critical overview of the municipal waste management sector in Yerevan and outline specific areas for improvement. Four different scenarios of an improved waste management system are analyzed in the report. The analysis points to potential efficiency gains that could be achieved and presents the cost implications of improved waste operations. The report concludes with recommendations about the steps that could be undertaken by the city to improve the overall performance of the waste management system in the short- and medium terms.

2024-05-01, World Bank

This report presents an analysis of the waste management system of Hrazdan Community. It investigates the quantities of municipal waste generated and makes a projection what would be the waste generation in the next 20-year period of time. It also provides a description of the solid waste management (SWM) system in place in terms of operations, infrastructure and facilities in place, institutional arrangements, currents costs incurred and financing of the waste management system. Besides, this report tries to provide a critical overview of the municipal waste management sector in Hrazdan Community and outline specific areas for improvement. Three different scenarios of an improved waste management system are analyzed in the report. The analysis points to potential efficiency gains that could be achieved and presents the cost implications of improved waste operations. The report concludes with recommendations about the steps that could be undertaken by the community to improve the overall performance of the waste management system in the short- and medium-terms.

2023-11-02, World Bank

Armenia’s fiscal performance has improved during the past two decades, supported by reforms. Revenue collection has converged with income and regional peers, overall spending levels have remained prudent, and debt levels remain sustainable. Fiscal policy has been counter-cyclical and progressive but has had a limited impact on economic growth. Spending efficiency is a key area of concern. Expenditure efficiency in areas such as infrastructure, road transport, health, and education are significantly behind the global efficiency frontier. The fiscal implications associated with the policy proposals in the 2021-2026 government program are significant. How can fiscal policy support the implementation of the government’s key policy proposals while ensuring the sustainability of public finances This is the main question for this Public Expenditure Review (PER). To answer it, this PER will (i) analyze past fiscal performance; (ii) assess the medium-term fiscal impacts of selected policy proposals that are currently being considered such as increase in pensions, changes to social assistance, increased health expenditures, and increased capital expenditure; and (iii) propose options to improve spending efficiency in select areas to provide options for the government to use the available fiscal space to effectively implement these policy proposals.

2024-11-25, World Bank

The present report presents an analysis of the waste management system of Gyumri city. It investigates the quantities of municipal waste generated and makes a projection of what would be the demand in the next 20-year period of time. It also provides a description of the solid waste management (SWM) system in place in terms of operations, infrastructure and facilities in place, institutional arrangements, and currents costs incurred and financing of the waste management system. Besides, this Report tries to provide a critical overview of the communal waste management sector in the city of Gyumri and outline specific areas for improvement. Four different scenarios of an improved waste management system are analyzed in the report. The analysis points to potential efficiency gains that could be achieved and presents the cost implications of improved waste operations. The report concludes with recommendations about the steps that could be undertaken by the city to improve the overall performance of the waste management system in the short- and medium-terms.

2024-04-11, World Bank

Economic activity in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region is expected to remain resilient but slow this year as a weaker global economy, slowdown in China, and lower commodity prices weigh on the region’s growth outlook. Regional growth is likely to drop to 2.8 percent in 2024, following substantial strengthening to 3.3 percent last year because of a shift from contraction to expansion in the Russian Federation and war-hit Ukraine, and a more robust recovery in Central Asia. Regional output growth is projected to moderate further to 2.6 percent in 2025. The outlook faces multiple headwinds. A slower-than-expected recovery in key trading partners, restrictive monetary policies, and exacerbation of geopolitical developments could further dampen growth across the region. Weak productivity growth in ECA in the recent decade has resulted in a sharp slowdown in income convergence with advanced economies. Fundamental drivers of productivity growth, including progress in advancing institutional and market reforms, technology adoption, and innovation, are key for enabling private sector–led growth. Boosting business dynamism in ECA will require addressing several challenges, including upgrading the competitive environment, reducing state involvement in the economy, dramatically boosting the quality of education, and strengthening the availability of finance. While meeting these challenges will look different across countries, addressing them is an essential condition to achieve stronger economic growth and overcome the middle-income trap.

2021-10-05, World Bank

Although global economic activity is recovering and output in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) is expected to grow in 2021, containing COVID-19 remains a challenge in the region. Enterprise survey data for the emerging and developing countries in the region show that COVID-19 had a profound and heterogeneous impact on firms. Smaller, younger, and female-run businesses were hit harder and had greater difficulty recovering. But the crisis also played a cleansing role and economic activity in ECA appears to have been reallocated toward more productive firms during the crisis, particularly in countries with more competitive markets. Firms with high pre-crisis labor productivity experienced significantly smaller drops in sales and employment than firms with low pre-crisis labor productivity and were also more likely to adapt to the crisis by increasing online activity and remote work. Many governments in ECA implemented broad policy support schemes to address the initial economic fallout from the crisis. Overall, this government support was more likely to go to less productive and larger firms, regardless of the level of their pre-crisis innovation. As economies enter the economic recovery phase, it will be important for policy makers in all countries to phase out broad policy support measures as soon as appropriate and focus on fostering a competitive business environment, which is key to a strong recovery, resilience to future crises, and sustainable, long-term economic growth.