Repository of Practices
Primary GCM Objectives
Secondary GCM Objectives
GCM Guiding Principles*
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Dates
Type of practice
Summary
Armenia and the larger Caucasus Region are prone to various natural hazards and disasters as well as the geo-political developments, which can trigger massive cross-border migration of affected populations. To provide for adequate response in such situations, the national agencies responsible for crisis management as well as border management are to be able to ensure the full respect of migrants’ rights, while at the same time maintaining border security and managing the borders in a crisis responsive manner. This requires a special approach to border management, which is supported and promoted by IOM as humanitarian border management (HBM) and includes comprehensive border management operations before, during and after humanitarian crisis involving all the national and non-governmental actors and covering all the issues related to managing the massive mixed migration flows in emergency situations. This approach calls for increased inter-agency cooperation and coordination on the national level, cross-border cooperation among the relevant agencies on both sides of the border and mainstreaming of protection concerns and measures in disaster and risk management policies and regulations.
The project intended to provide the Government of Armenia with technical assistance to strengthen the legal, institutional, and operational framework for implementing HBM-related components to enhance the national capacity to adequately respond to migrants needs in cases of emergency.
The project objective was to strengthen the institutional capacities of the Armenian National Security Service (NSS) and the Border Guard Troops (BGT) to respond to migration crisis and enhance their role in the inter-agency cooperation.
Outcome 1: Enhanced institutional preparedness of BGT in HBM and improved coordination in the area
Output 1.1: Needs of BGT in HBM mapped and standard operating procedures (SOPs) developed
The following activities were implemented within this output:
HBM Needs and Gaps Assessment (HBM NGA) completion.
Guidance on Preparation of SOPs for HBM at BCPs was developed.
Output 1.2: Inter-agency dialogue on HBM-centred response to migration crisis initiated
The following activities were implemented to support the achievement of this output:
A workshop on enhanced institutional preparedness of the state agencies in terms of information management in the case of crises with migration dimension
A workshop on development of the HBM related SOPs based on developed Guidance on Preparation of SOPs for HBM at BCPs was delivered
Cross-border interagency simulation exercise (SIMEX) was conducted
Outcome 2: Enhanced HBM capacity in place
Output 2.1 Training for BGT and other services delivered
The following activity was implemented to support the achievement of this output:
The training on HBM for all the national agencies and relevant non-governmental actors involved was developed and conducted
The project incorporated cross-cutting issues at the stage of its development and in the process of implementation. The HBM training materials and the Guidance on Preparation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for HBM at Border Crossing Points (BCPs) developed within the framework of the Project are fully gender sensitized and incorporate the clauses aimed at enhancing the beneficiary services understanding and skills to integrate cross-cutting concerns like gender, race, religion, socio-economic status, migrants’ vulnerability, interests of children and unaccompanied and separated children, etc.
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Main Implementing Organization(s)
Detailed Information
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Benefit and Impact
Due to inclusion of SIMEX exercise, the Projects encouraged the government to realistically assess its capacities and realize the urgent need to enhance them. It also allowed IOM to position itself as the major partner of the Government of Armenia in developing its HBM related capacity.
An inter-agency working group was established by the Government to draft decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia on approval of the “Action plan for management of migration flow operations caused by disaster or military actions”. IOM was involved in the interagency coordination mechanism and contributed to the development of the Action Plan guided by findings and recommendations of the Assessment Report.
Key Lessons
• The pilot nature of the project did not provide for sufficient time and resources to implement more sustainable project outputs with higher impact;
• National legal framework on issues related to migration management and HBM related capacity building is outdated and does not cover all the spectrum of relevant issues thus not providing the sufficient basis for the whole of government approach in cases of crisis involving the mass migration flows across the border;
• Systematic increase in passenger flows over recent several years was not addressed by enhancing the institutional capacity to manage those flows, allocation of additional budgetary and human resources, necessary capacity building activities;
• Absence of institutional training capacity within most of project beneficiary agencies did not allow for more sustainable implementation of the training components of the project.
Project implementation took 23 months instead of the initially planned 1 year. The project was extended 3 times. The project launch was timely, however, there has been unanimous feedback that the political developments dragged project implementation. The delays were caused by constantly on-going staff rotation within and late reaction of the beneficiary services to most of the forwarded communications and by the difficulties to get their feedback on nearly all the project deliverables. From the project efficiency perspective, this might also indicate the lack of efforts put into mitigating those challenges by the project implementation team. To address the mentioned above challenges, IOM had to revise the initial project plan to secure the timely implementation, some activities were amended, IOM intensified the interactions with the beneficiary agencies including on the highest level.
Recommendations(if the practice is to be replicated)
• Enhanced consultations with the governmental agencies in the course of the political turmoil allowed to mitigate the risk of total beneficiary services disengagement into project implementation;
• Reacting to the beneficiaries’ urgent needs and interests in a timely manner within the project scope by revising its activities and incorporating an additional one allowed to enhance the project relevance, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. It also allowed IOM to secure its position as the major government partner in HBM related capacity building;
• Involving the high-level officials into SIMEX exercise implementation and taking measures to provide for the event’s high visibility allowed to secure the beneficiary agencies ownership, political will and opened the doors to potential joint cross-border projects on the same thematic issue with involvement of neighbouring countries.
Innovation
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*References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).