USAID/Armenia Pension and Labor Market Reform Program (PALM)

The United States Government, represented by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Yerevan, Armenia, intends to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) from qualified organizations interested in implementing a technical assistance program to support Pension and Labor Market Reform (PALM) program in Armenia. USAID plans a single award for 3-year cost plus fixed fee, completion type contract with a total estimated cost in the range of $5 to $6 million for the implementation of this activity. To achieve this, the PALM program will target two key social protection areas: (i) pension reform implementation build the Government of Armenia (GOAM) institutional and human resource capacity to implement a multi-pillar pension system that will provide an adequate income for its elderly population in an environment that is fiscally sound and sustainable, with reformed current pay-as-you-go (PAYG) scheme and the newly created private retirement savings system; and (ii) labor market interventions help the GOAM and the most vulnerable individuals to mitigate the economic and social consequences of the global economic crisis by assisting the government and the private sector to: 1) give greater attention to countering the effects of the economic downturn which significantly affected the already inefficient Armenian labor market, 2) catalyze new linkages at the local level between the private sector, local authorities, and vocational training institutions to address labor market gaps, and 3) improve the countrys workforce.