16 Sep
Uncategorized

Harvest Festival of Rural Life and Traditions 2018

Two partners of SDA’s “Livestock Development in the South of Armenia” Project SIS-ALP LLC and Tad-M LLC along with 2 active beneficiaries of “Boosting competitiveness of regional SMEs” Project Arkadya Khachikyan SP and Tutyan LLC participated in the “Harvest Festival of Rural Life and Traditions”. They presented a wide range of their products. The Festival of Rural Life and Traditions is organized on an annual basis by Green Lane NGO with the support of the RA Ministry of Agriculture, Yerevan Municipality and other local and international organizations. This year the festival took place on 15th of September, in Kirov Children’s park.

Competitions among farmers and their groups took place on that day, as well as interesting events and games for children and teeThe main goal of the festival is to support the development of rural communities. It is already the third year that “Strategic Development Agency” NGO is an organizational partner of the Festival.nagers were organized. The Festival was accompanied by live music, traditional songs and dances. The best fruits, vegetables, dairy foods, honey, dried fruits were exhibited during this “tasty” festival and all attendants had a unique chance to taste and later on to buy those. During this festival, farmers from Armenia, Georgia and Iran were willingly presenting their high-quality products with a great taste and look.

 

09 Aug
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National Veterinary Association was founded at its Founding Assembly

The founding assembly of the National Veterinary Association (NVA) took place on 3 of August, 2018. The event was organized with the support of Strategic Development Agency (SDA) NGO within the framework of “Livestock Development in the South of Armenia”| project and was held at Syunik Animal Market premises.  More than 30 people participated in the event including veterinarians from different regions, CARD foundation and SDA team members. The unanimous decision was voted for to establish an association to set up a dialogue with relevant state institutions to effectively deliver and regulate animal health services. During the meeting, NVA adopted its Charter and formed decision-making bodies, including the Board consisting of five members representing different regions of the RA. Tigran Gabrielyan, an experienced veterinarian has been elected as a Chairman.

Animal health related issues and development perspectives were discussed during the assembly. Amongst others, absence of medical insurance for veterinarians was highlighted as veterinarians are sensitive to infections and diseases due to their profession. The range of discussed topics included various issues such as: improvement of skills and qualifications of veterinarians, training of young professionals in the field, access to international veterinary practices and experience exchange etc. The founding assembly ended with the decision to meet and develop a more comprehensive and detailed agenda.

08 Aug
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Boosting cooperation in the field of food safety

A two-day seminar dedicated to food safety issues took place on 4-5 of August, 2018 in Tsaghkadzor. The conference was held by the State Service for Food Safety of the Ministry of Agriculture of the RA (SSFS) and with the support of the “Livestock Development in the South of Armenia” project implemented by Strategic Development agency (SDA) NGO funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. It was aimed at informing journalists about structural changes in SSFS and discussing food security issues. More than 30 people participated in the seminar representing local media platforms, different NGOs and SSFS.

Speakers presented topics such as EEU technical regulations, the importance and necessity of HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) system, risk management, transparency as a tool of indirect control etc. During the event, journalists had an opportunity to ask questions and get comprehensive responses from specialists. Intensive cooperation between SSFS and SDA was launched with the Memorandum of Understanding signed in September 2017. Along with such seminars the range of activities was implemented to to increase public awareness in the realm of food safety. Guidelines and informative booklets were released for customers and entrepreneurs; the information campaign was carried out to inform people about hotline service etc.

 

18 Jun
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HAFL Expert Conducts VET learning workshop for Armenian teachers

“Activity-oriented and student-centered learning in VET” workshop was held on June 05-08 in Goris State Agricultural College within the framework of “VET development in Syunik marz” project, implemented by “Strategic Development Agency” (SDA) NGO in partnership with Swiss organizations HEKS/EPER (Swiss Church Aid) and HAFL (the School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences of the Bern University of Applied Sciences).

The workshop was led by HAFL expert Johannes Brunner and was attended by over a dozen teachers from Goris State Agricultural College and Armenian National Agrarian University (ANAU) Sisian branch, as well as representatives of the private sector. The main objectives of the workshop were to familiarize teachers with student-centered learning methods, to introduce the PBL (Problem Based Learning) method, to strengthen teaching competences with communication and reflection skills, as well as to familiarize with exam procedures.

Simultaneously with the workshop for teachers, another workshop on non-formal learning processes in host companies was conducted for two milk processing factories – “Sis-Alp” factory in Sisian and “Elola” factory in Goris, where the technology of hard and semi-hard cheese production was introduced.

 

13 Jun
Uncategorized

“Lovely Goris” guesthouse registers over tenfold increase in bookings with EU support

Yerevan, June 13, 2018:// Zhirayr Martirosyan and Nadejda Sevoyan were one of the firsts to use the concept of a hostel in Goris back in 2003. They have been welcoming guests from all over the world ever since. When the opportunity arose in late 2017, the guesthouse involved in “Boosting Competitiveness of Regional SMEs” project jointly realized by SME Development National Centre of Armenia (SME DNC) and “Strategic Development Agency” (SDA) NGO amongst other members, and co-funded by the European Union and the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development of RA.

The hostel stood out with comfortable amenities, delicious food prepared by the landlady using Armenian traditional recipes and only fresh ingredients, as well as unique visual art – contemporary paintings by owner Zhirayr. However, because of lack of hospitality management and internet marketing and promotion skills, the business was showing slow growth.

Within the framework of continuous business consultancy support to SMEs, SDA team tackled a few important issues hindering the business’s growth. In addition to rebranding from Goris Hostel to “Lovely Goris” to avoid confusion with Goris Hotel operating in the same area, existing issues with representation on worldwide booking platforms like Booking.com were fixed and the guesthouse started to receive online booking requests again after several months of interruption. At the second stage of business consultancy support, SDA team developed two additional services using the existing opportunities for growth. Zhirayr, who is a renowned painter, started offering art tours in the city, as well as master classes for hostel guests in his art studio located in a natural cave in old Goris. This package, developed for explorers interested in art, history and culture of Syunik region, has set this hostel aside from other hospitality businesses in the city and created a distinct niche for “Lovely Goris”.

SDA team undertook promotion measures, such as a familiarization trip of over a dozen tour agency representatives to program beneficiary businesses, which also rendered measurable outcomes. As a result, only a few months into cooperating with the project through business consultancy and MASP packages, “Lovely Goris” guesthouse has registered more than 40 bookings in April-May of 2018, as opposed to only 3 in the same period of the last year, at that showing steady increase.

“Boosting Competitiveness of regional SMEs” project is co-funded by the European Union and the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development of RA. The overall objective of the Project is to boost competitiveness of regional SMEs and create sustainable employment opportunities in Lori, Syunik and Armavir regions/marzes of Armenia. The Project is implemented by the SME Development National Center of Armenia in partnership with “Strategic Development Agency” NGO, “Armavir Development Center” NGO, “Spitak-Farmer” NGO, “Syun” NGO.

 

 

 

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