Feature Story : Protecting the Environment Together with Communities in
Uzbekistan
"Please see the beautiful ceramic pot, it is handmade and one of a kind "
says Ibrohim, a local potter in Fergana region. In distant Karakalpakstan in
Uzbekistan, Suleyma is cooking a pot of national rice dish on her stove.
Although Ibrohim and Suleyma never met they have one thing in common. Together
they are in protecting the environment for today and tomorrow generations. How
can making pots and cooking on a stove help protect the environment? Well with
the help of the European Union (EU) and United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) in Uzbekistan it has become a reality which not only does help making
money and house chores easier, but also protects the environment.
Ibrohim, Suleyma and more than 500,000 people living in 300 communities have
worked with the ABD programme of UNDP in Uzbekistan to improve access to water,
gas, electricity and rehabilitate basic infrastructure including schools,
kindergartens and rural medical centers. Now communities with access to gas no
longer need to cut and burn trees as firewood for heating and cooking purposes.
Availability of gas supply in communities has helped the population to increase
their earnings by starting greenhouses, pottery shops and other small business
ventures.
Since 2005 UNDP and EU works in Uzbekistan to bring development closer to people
living in rural areas through the Area Based Development and the Enhancement of
Living Standards projects, the latter funded by the EU. These projects target
specific geographical areas of Uzbekistan – the Fergana Valley, Karakalpakstan
and Kashkadarya region, all characterised by complex development needs.
 The projects use the same approach, where the three project components -
increased capacity for local development planning, improved access to basic
services and increased opportunities for income generation work in synergy to
support the achievement of the national Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that
the Government has embraced as its development agenda . Similarly, they use the
MDGs as a tool to focus interventions in target areas by “localising” MDGs
through pilot interventions at grassroots levels.
Provision of access to basic services, one of the project components has made a
world of difference to more than 500,000 people, with 600,000 more beneficiaries
expected at the end of projects in 2010. The projects use participatory rural
appraisal to actively empower all groups in communities and help them identify
resource needs and sustainable approaches to improvement of living standards. In
this the projects and communities can collect socio-economic data which helps
bringing about a better understanding of how the community uses and manages its
resources. The process of collecting information is important as the data
itself, as it triggers dialogue with the community, NGOs, and local government
to examine existing resource use practices, problems and opportunities.
The projects meet with respected people of community, women-activists and
representatives of local authorities to gather and examine existing information,
discover new facts through field investigation, and community mapping. The MDGs
serve as a vision to reach community’s consensus on the magnitude of the
problems and measure the amount of work and resources required to solve them.
One of the important ideas about the projects is that the EU and UNDP have
chosen to share costs with local communities rather than cover all the expenses
from the project budget. Whereas local people are usually limited in funds, they
can contribute their labor, equipment and skills. In such a way the ELS project
joins hands with people and make them believe in their capacities to influence
their own development.
Governments, development organizations, civil society, politicians and media are
putting a tremendous work into achieving the MDGs by 2015. The EU-UNDP
partnership reminds to all of us that these important goals can be met with the
support, vision and hard work of people like Suleyma and Ibrahim.
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