VISTAA Expert Center Consulting NGO

VISTAA Plus is a company with limited liabilities (LLC) carrying out its activities in the Republic of Armenia.

VISTAA is one of Armenia’s very first and longest serving post-independence business service providers specializing in agriculture, environment, and natural resources (water, forests, land, etc) management, policy development and adult education (specializing in Vocational Education and Training).

Present in the field since 1996 it has accumulated the skills and the know-how in the local public and private environment, as well as a profound understanding of national and international developments in a number of fields. Its experience of more than 15 years and in-depth knowledge of its primary focus areas allow offering expertise and technical advice in a number of sectors and initiatives, such as:

●   Agriculture (High Value Agriculture);

●   Environment and Natural Resources Management;

●   Institutional development;

●   Policy planning; Education reforms/Training;

●   Agribusiness development and marketing;

●   Modern Irrigation Technologies;

●   Community Development;

●   Monitoring and Evaluation;

●   Impact evaluations, marketing and sociological studies;

●   Management Consultancy and Capacity Building

VISTAA has been helping change agriculture and environment through activities in the private sector. It does this in two ways: through individual consultancies and through competitive contracts from different funding agencies and private enterprises.

In recent years VISTAA has expanded the scope of its activities and has engaged in such areas as institutional development, policy planning, strategy design, and legal framework development that embrace education and civil service in addition to its main focus on agriculture and natural resources.

In addition VISTAA has conducted numerous sociological surveys, marketing research and evaluations for more than 15 local and international organizations/companies. These projects have been focused in the technical areas of agribusiness development, value chain/market development, training, and policy advice.

VISTAA has collaborated with many international and local organizations including but not limited to ACDI/VOCA, The QED Group (USA), MCA-Armenia, FAO Armenia, Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation – Armenia, AEAI,European Commission Delegation (ECD), CARD, USDA MAP, ACH Armenia, World Bank projects, number of European companies namely Mott MacDonald, Cambridge Education (UK), Euroconsult Mott MacDonald, Ecorys, SPAN Consultants, ECFDC (The Netherlands) and others. Some highlights of VISTAA’s current and past assignments include:

●   Farmer to Farmer project – USAID funded, in partnership with ACDI/VOCA (USA): 5 year technical assistance in the sphere of agriculture stressing producers organizations, agribusinesses and agricultural cooperatives;

●   Final Evaluation of the EU-funded “Mitigating social consequences of labour migration and maximising migrants’ involvement in local development” project, funded by UNICEF;

●   Evaluation of the Family Support Services and Stakeholders Contribution to Related Services/Systems, funded by UNICEF;

●   Institutional Development Studies for Irrigation System Modernization Project (ISMP), “Water Sector PIU” SA, funded by the Eurasian Development Bank;

●   Training Component of Water to Market Activity – MCA Armenia, in collaboration with ACDI/VOCA and Euroconsult Mott MacDonald: 46 000 farmers over 5 years throughout the country received training in On-farm Water Management and High Value Agriculture;

●   Institutional Strengthening of Irrigation Management Entities (44 WaterUsers Associations and 3 Water Supply Agencies) – MCA Armenia;

●   Technical Due-diligence of Sevan Hrazdan Hydropower Cascade – funded by ADB/EBRD in collaboration with Mott MacDonald (UK);

●   Mid-Term Programmatic Evaluation of the USDA Caucasus Agriculture Development Initiative in Armenia – funded by USAID, in collaboration with The QED Group;

●   Initiative on Soaring Food Prices (ISFP) Technical Cooperation Program (TCP) beneficiary satisfaction and impact assessment survey – UN FAO;

●   Situation Analysis of Children of Armenia – EuropeAid, in collaboration withCambridge Education (UK); Curriculum Development and Training of Trainers – World Bank;

●   Monitoring of civil society participation in Armenia’s Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – OSI, Soros Foundation;

●   Energy consumer survey in all sectors of Armenian economy – USAID.