In full partnership with the Government, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, the UN family in Uzbekistan is focusing its efforts on the formulation and implementation of the Welfare Improvement Strategy, which is the national version of the PRSP (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper). UNDP contributes to this process through coordination of the national and international partners, formulation of the Strategy, and a participatory consultation process within the government, donor community and the public. The strategy will be finalized later this summer, and it will serve as the country’s overall mid-term development strategy, that is oriented towards sustaining the economic growth, and channeling it into broader employment generation and faster poverty reduction.

Since Uzbekistan signed the Millennium Declaration, we also focus on assisting the Government to achieve the MDGs by 2015. The UN agencies in Uzbekistan took a lead role in translating the eight global goals into the national context, generating national MDGs with a set of concrete targets and baselines. Last year, the first National MDG Report was published, which outlined the development context for each national goal. The Report discovers, for instance, that the goal of universal access to education has already been achieved in Uzbekistan, and elevates the challenge to improve the quality of education.

In line with MDG reporting and monitoring, we support a joint advocacy campaign for MDGs with close involvement of the youth in Uzbekistan.  Through a spate of mini-projects, students make highly visible contributions in creating cells of MDG consciousness in universities and organize workshops for their peers on MDG topics. Spurred on by the inspiration of young people, the UN Country Team supports "Youth-Led Development", through innovative ideas and proposals.

Why is there so much focus on Ferghana Valley?

The Fergana Valley perhaps best illustrates the urgent need for cooperation among Central Asian Republics and with international community. This region is the most populous and fertile region of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.  It thus forms the heartland of their agriculture and industry. Due to the high population density, the intensity of agricultural and other economic activity, the Ferghana Valley commands much attention.  Resource use is high – especially, water, a very precious resource in arid Central Asia.  As a fertile valley, it has been settled since the early times.  Hence, one finds culture and customs with very deep roots.  The communities in the valley had co-existed in ways that made good use of the local conditions.   However, the creation of rather artificial borders during the Soviet period had started fragmenting these centuries-old ways of life.   And after the Soviet dissolution, a more strict enforcement of the borders has made life hard for the people who live in this vast valley.   Those who have had the privilege of traveling in this region will notice how often enclaves of one country jut into the territory of another – the result of borders that carve up the region like a jigsaw puzzle. 

We need to improve the lives of the people in Ferghana Valley by promoting better sharing of common resources like water, facilitate cross-border trade so that communities can still make the best use of their comparative advantages and prosper together, and help with creation of productive jobs to improve living standards.  At the same time, we should prevent the passage of "problems without passports" through the borders.  As our previous Secretary General used to say, communicable diseases, pollution, narcotics and security problems do not respect borders and spread to infect many more.

In that regard, let me mention a joint project of UNDP and European Union on border management and drug control (BOMCA/CADAP).  It is supporting enhanced border security while facilitating legitimate trade and transit. It helps to rehabilitate and better equip border crossing points as well as to train border guards on modern security methods. BOMCA supports construction and provides equipment for border crossing points such as Karasu in the Andijan region.

Another collaboration UNDP has with the EU to addresses people’s welfare in Fergana Valley is the Enhancement of Living Standards (ELS) project.  Its overall objective is to improve livelihoods of local communities through supporting the authorities in creating and implementing local development strategies, as well as income generation and job creation. ELS helps to increase and diversify access to finance and business services by the poor farmers. The project has mobilized selected Fergana communities around the Millennium Development Goals to identify their main problems and how to overcome them.

Soon, we will celebrate the World Environment Day - Can you tell us a little about the environmental and water problems of Uzbekistan?

Degradation of water resources and related salinization of arable land and mineralization of water has been identified by UNDP as one of the priority areas of environmental concern. Uzbek economy and its environmental sustainability significantly depend on availability and quality of the water resources.   As with many countries in Central Asia, there are three major challenges related to water supply: ensuring that the usage fully reflects the value of water as a scarce resource; rising of water table, leading to land degradation; and pollution of drinking water sources.

The fundamental reason for rural and urban water problems is the failure to recognize it as a precious resource. Among the Central Asian countries, Uzbekistan is the most dependent on irrigation water as the country has the largest arable land, the biggest rural population (over 14 million) and the highest population density.  Hence, the proper use of water in agriculture is essential for Uzbekistan.

Given that the overwhelming percentage of water is used in agriculture, and that 80% of agricultural runoff waters contain high amounts of salts and pesticides, we can see the adverse effects of irrigated agriculture on the environment.  Due to the long-periods of intensive irrigated agriculture during the Soviet period, and the excessive use of agro-chemicals, productivity of arable lands has decreased and rural population faces health hazards.  Addressing those issues has become a critical condition for the successful development of the country.

Globally, the shrinking of the Aral Sea and its delta is recognized as one of the largest man-made environmental disasters.  That impacts on the northern regions of Uzbekistan.  The ongoing unsustainable practices in water management and agriculture, coupled with the local population’s intensified demands on the already denuded natural resources have made life very difficult for the people living close to the Aral Sea.

UNDP is emphasizing that time has come to use integrated water resources management to face the challenges.  Yes, Central Asian countries have made some efforts in collectively addressing regional water problems. However, their different water endowments, different seasonal demands and continuing overdependence of their economies on Soviet-era products and processes prevented active cooperation and failed to yield tangible results.  Effective regional cooperation over water resources, as well as proper national water management practices, should go hand-in-hand with sustained growth through economic diversification and deepening.