According to Asia and the Pacific Progress Report 2022, Amenia is among the top five countries in the Asia-Pacific region along with the Philippines, Thailand, Georgia and Indonesia, where approximately 75 percent of SDG indicators have data. The integrated ecosystem for SDG data and analysis; availability of sound evidence for policymaking and mobilization of finances and partnerships for SDGs have been prioritized by the UN to help fast-track development progress.

In quest of innovative, impact-oriented, and data-driven solutions for policymaking our data science projects included:

Edu2Work, a UN-run project, that uses a cutting-edge machine learning technology to offer a real-time snapshot of the labour market to feed into policies and suggest investment opportunities in various industries.

© RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs
“Our labor market is transforming rapidly… It is paramount to have a tool like Edu2work in these challenging times to get a real-time overview of the labor market trends and make evidence-based decisions in regards the workforce re-skilling opportunities and economy recovery and development.”
Mesrop Arakelyan, RA Minister of Labor and Social Affairs in 2020 - April 2021

Travelinsights is the first-ever AI-powered real-time data analytics tool in the tourism sector in Armenia. To this date, the platform has generated more than 500,000 negative and positive insights based on the analysis of 175,000 online reviews.

SDG Monitor: AI-powered, open-access interactive online data analytics tool for real-time SDG progress monitoring in Armenia, focusing on SDG 16.

AI4Mulberry designed to increase the efficiency of GoA internal electronic document management system, Mulberry, and improve citizen-government correspondence. As a result, 99.7% of the time needed to read and categorize digital correspondence was saved for public servants.

SDG Investor Map: Launch of a new market intelligence product to attract foreign investment by offering public and private investors actionable knowledge across the SDG spectrum.

“Big Data” mining, including analysis of public databases, to map the skills and profile the Armenian diaspora in the United States and France, reveal emigration patterns of skilled diaspora.

MigApp: a multilingual global online platform, which serves to provide useful information to migrants about countries they plan to visit or reside in.

Application of behavioral science to policy making is another approach UN is taking to better understand human nature and improve the lives of Armenians, including:

Behavioral experiment aimed at decreasing plastic bag consumption at the supermarkets, with the most successful incentive – financial incentive letter - decreasing plastic bag consumption by 40% and confirming that both financial bonus and environmental nudges serve as effective policy instruments to reduce disposable plastic bag purchase.

Doughnut economics: A new model developed in partnership with Yerevan Municipality to support more inclusive and green recovery of Yerevan from the COVID -19 crisis. Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia, embarked on this challenging journey of “meeting the Doughnut”, being one of the pioneers, in fact, the first city in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), to pilot the downscaling of the Doughnut economics model on the city level.

Social Behaviour Change Pilot Campaign (SBCC) in five schools and with 680 children to increase the uptake of healthy breakfasts among children and parents. The campaign evaluation found increase in the uptake of healthy breakfast among parents (from 52% to 87%) and children (from 62% to 95%).

Behavioral experiment aimed at increasing take-up rate of the national cervical cancer screening program. 

© RA Ministry of Health
“RA Government is putting the emphasis on preventive healthcare to increase the well-being of its citizens and decrease fatalities. The behaviorally informed intervention resulted in unprecedented impact - a six-fold increase in visits. In light of this success, it is expected that the methodology of this intervention, in addition to awareness campaigns, will be scaled up not only on national level but also for promoting other screening and immunization programs.”
Lena Nanushyan, First Deputy Minister of Health