On October 29 the first Management Board meeting of the Armenia National SDG Innovation Lab took place. The session was headed by the co-chairs of the Management Board: Acting DPM of Armenia Tigran Avinyan and the UN Resident Representative Shombi Sharp.
The SDG Lab Lead Stepan Margaryan presented the Lab history, the activities of phase I, and the vision for the upcoming activities during the meeting. He emphasized that the Lab's activities will include data analysis and implementation of behavioral experiments, as a result of which recommendations will be made to the Government and pilot projects will be implemented to improve public policy-making in various sectors.
In his speech, Tigran Avinyan mentioned that the vision of the development of the Government fully corresponds to the Sustainable Development Goals. In this sense, the SDG Innovation Lab will act as an R&D hub and its research and findings in various sectors, including education, tourism, renewable energy, as well as taxation, will be used to create policies based on evidence.
The UN Resident Representative in Armenia, Shombi Sharp mentioned that the knowledge products and project outcomes of the Lab's activities can be used to reform public policy-making and to generate innovative solutions.
The participants of the session agreed that the Lab will channel the best international experience to the public policy-makers and will build the capacity of the public servants.
In the end, the Management Board approved the Lab's workplan as well as assigned the Lab Management team to establish new partnerships and study how to involve new stakeholders in the activities of the Lab.