Toward Social Inclusion of Vulnerable Children in Armenia

The program will support the Government of Armenia (GOAM) to advance country's social protection systems through:Direct assistance to implement a national child care reform that stops the flow of children placed into residential institutions; systematically reduces the number of children in residential institutional care; and develops alternative family-based and community-based social services for vulnerable children and their families.

The program will build the GOAM's institutional and human resource capacity to ensure a smooth transition to community-based alternative services, as well as share the one-time transition costs for this reform. Support to integrated social services (ISS) in Armenia.

The assistance will complement the World Bank's program to establish one-stop shops for social services for clusters of communities outside of Yerevan.

It will also strengthen the role of community social workers and will incorporate child protection and pension services into ISS.