AM PARTNERS

The Baseline Survey for developing monitoring and evaluation indicators for measuring progress of Pension Reform Implementation Program intervention was commissioned by the Chemonics International implementing for the USAID-funded Pension Reform Implementation Program (PRIP).

The Survey aims to reveal the public awareness level and attitude to pension reforms, particularly to the funded pension system, as well as awareness and expectations about the social services system reforms at the initial stage of PRIP implementation.

The Survey targets, inter alia, the awareness and perception level of pension reforms among women. The social and statistical baseline data on the issues above enabled the PRIP to provide more target information on pension reforms with the aim to raise awareness among women.

This Survey provides baseline social and statistical data on the following issues:

1. Public awareness of the mandatory funded pension system,
2. Public awareness of the voluntary funded pension system,
3. Public attitude to the funded pension system,
4. Public awareness of the social services system reforms.

The Baseline Survey was implemented among households through face to face interviews. The interviews were held in Yerevan city, Ararat and Kotayk marzes (regions). In total 1,200 interviews were conducted and persons aged 18-62 as of the date of the Survey were interviewed.

The Survey results indicate that only a few people are fully aware of the funded pension system. Respondents showed relatively increased awareness of some features of the funded pension system, e.g. system start date, participants and funded contribution rates, as compared with other features, e.g. individual pension accounts, pension funds and fund managers. Therefore, we can state that the respondents lack full awareness of the pension reforms.