Visit to Lusadzor Community by the Representatives of UNDP, Embassy of Italy and Hayastan All-Armenian Fund

Yerevan, November 6. ArmInfo On November 5, 2007 Consuelo Vidal, UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative, H.E. Massimo Lavezzo Cassinelli, Ambassador of Italy and Ara Vardanyan, Deputy Director of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund paid an official visit to Lusadzor community of Tavush marz. The purpose of the visit was to inaugurate the jointly launched community-based projects as well as to reiterate the commitment of all three parties to enhance the development cooperation framework in this community. The delegation was received by Mr. Armen Ghularyan, Governor of Tavush marz, Mr. Suren Kocharyan, Mayor of Lusadzor and the Community Council. In May 2007, UNDP, in line with its participatory planning and integrated development needs prioritization, entered the village to address and help resolve the most urgent needs identified by the community people. Projects identified are focused on recovery of the social and economic infrastructure of the village, one of which involves the construction of a 4.8-kilometer intra- community natural gas network. Works are currently underway and the project will be accomplished by December of this year. With the technical design already completed, UNDP will next focus on the building of an internal potable water network and the reconstruction of the internal irrigation network. In an effort to boost agricultural development, two projects are currently being implemented in the community. One of these initiatives aims at returning the non-tilled arable lands into crop rotation. In order to restore the proper cultivation of Lusadzor's land plots, around 150 rural households have recently been provided with diesel, fertilizer and 17 tons of high quality wheat seeds. Consequently, in the month of November, UNDP will start distributing persimmon seedlings to the households of Lusadzor. Under this project it is envisaged to replace the old gardens of the beneficiaries with newly planted orchards. This opportunity promises a more favorable condition for fruit marketing as persimmon is notable for its steady high yield qualities and resistance toward diseases.

Lusadzor is one of the six cluster villages of Ijevan sub-district selected as part of the Rural Development Program launched by Hayastan All-Armenian Fund on the initiative of the RoA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, immediately following the Third Armenia-Diaspora Conference. All of the abovementioned projects in Lusadzor are implemented under UNDP's Community Development Project, with the financial support of the Government of Italy totaling 500,000 Euros and co-funding by UNDP making 34,000 Euros.