The Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction, the Islamic Development Bank and UNDP held the first Project Board meeting

In the meeting were discussed the implementation of Component B of the IDB Sustainable Rural Development Project: Engineering Services and Strengthening Capacity Infrastructure in Management

Component B of IsDB Sustainable Rural Development Project: Engineering Services and Strengthening Capacity Infrastructure in Management Project Board, which was launched in October this year, is holding its first meeting to discuss the project's achievements in a short period.

This project is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction, Islamic Development Bank, OPEC Fund and UN Development Programme and aims to achieve favourable living conditions for rural residents and ensure their access to basic infrastructure, health and education services through strengthening local government processes based on broad people participation in target regions.

In her welcoming remarks, Doina Munteanu, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Uzbekistan, highlighted that rural development in Uzbekistan is a priority for UNDP, as more than half of the country's population lives outside cities, in remote villages and communities. “By paying more attention to rural development, we aim to achieve better living standards for the rural population,” she said.

In particular, the project envisages the construction and overhaul of social and infrastructure facilities in 170 makhalla communities in 20 districts of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, Navoi, Khorezm, Bukhara and Navoi regions.

To explore the needs for social infrastructure development during 2022 UNDP conducted 78 workshops with 3126 participants in target regions with the support Community Mobilization Facilitators hyred by UNDP. Participants included 1,849 men, 1,277 women, including 429 youth representatives.

Now based on priority community needs, UNDP will have already presented 22 Community Development Plans (CDPs) in 78 mahallas of four regions by the end of this year.

UNDP supports the Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction to implement one component of the IsDB project: “Engineering Services and Strengthening Capacity Infrastructure in Management,” whose objectives are:

1) Strengthening the capacity of local communities to identify and represent their interests and needs;

2) Training representatives of local architectural and design institutes and regional construction departments;

3) Capacity building of the construction sector and architectural design to implement innovative IT solutions and digital transformation from a gender perspective;

4) Involving local communities in decision-making processes.

IsDB Field representative for Uzbekistan Khusan Khasanov, head of Project Implementation Unit Zokir Rakhimov and UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Uzbekistan Doina Munteanu all made welcome remarks at the event. In particular, Khusan Khasanov, noted the importance of the project to leave no one behind and cover all the needs of the people living in the rural area.

Furthermore, IsDB, PIU and  UNDP made presentations on the project’s realization and further plans for its implementation.