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A microcredit loan can make all the difference in transforming a failing small business into a flourishing one. A precarious enterprise run by a widowed mother of three in a remote, post-conflict community of Armenia has become a financially viable business, thanks to a microcredit loan provided through an IFAD-supported project. The business has also stimulated the local economy, providing small-scale dairy farmers with added income.

When is an equity investment fund more than just a money machine? When it focuses on development rather than quick riches. That’s exactly what a unique IFAD project has been doing in Armenia since 2009, with investments in the country’s food-processing sector designed to expand markets and improve the economic prospects of smallholder farmers. Known as the Fund for Rural Economic Development in Armenia (FREDA), the initiative combines elements of both development assistance and banking.

In the cold mountain regions of Armenia, keeping warm has traditionally been a time- and resource-consuming business. But today, people in upland villages are able to keep warm more easily thanks to the availability of cheap and environmentally friendly piped gas.

Lusik Harutinunyan trained and worked as a teacher before the collapse of the Soviet system and the civil war that followed. Like many other people who lived through these events, her life changed radically. She lost her job and her assets and was forced to abandon her profession and turn to farming to feed and support her family.

Hundreds of shoppers went along to Oxfam’s very first trade fair held in Armenia. Many of the producers at the fair are former teachers or engineers who earn very little. They have decided to sell traditionally-prepared food products to supplement their income.

Two microprojects funded by donations given by the public to TeleFood '97 are helping disadvantaged Armenians to plant fruit trees and vegetable gardens.

After 1991, the price of healthcare soared and facilities started to deteriorate. The knock-on effect was that people's health gradually got worse and many people, especially those living in remote villages, were cut off completely from basic healthcare for years.

Oxfam's health programmes first started in 1995/6 in response to the need. Over the years it has expanded, and now, Oxfam's partner organisation Support to Communities, helps people in 100 remote villages in southern Armenia.

Armenia TV: Minister Oskanian, you were in the United States recently, where you talked about a new Armenia-Diaspora program. What is this program?

Vartan Oskanian: It's a very broad effort to eradicate rural poverty in Armenia. The strategic objective of this program is reducing poverty in rural Armenia's border villages through an integrated approach. The program will provide the necessary intervention in the form of infrastructure and technical support, and in partnership with the residents of the village, the program will support economic development in order to enable the sustainability and viability of rural communities.