An agreement intended to support a new project financing of the Green Development in Uzbekistan was signed by Mr. Vincent Caupin, director of Central Asia Office of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Mrs. Charlotte Adriane, European Union (EU) ambassador in Uzbekistan, and Mr. Anas Fayyad Qarman, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative in Uzbekistan, as reported by UNDP’s press service.
A new project aims to help the government of Uzbekistan in establishing an integrated approach towards identification, assessment, and integration of potential sources of financing for achieving the country’s green priorities and objectives, further mainstreaming green considerations into the budgetary process through a full-scale introduction of green budgeting methodologies, streamlining and using public finance more effectively as well as piloting and introducing new innovative financing instruments.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance of Uzbekistan is expected to act as a national implementing partner for this project.
As a part of this agreement, a grant of €600,000 is provided by the EU and will be implemented by AFD through technical assistance to the government of Uzbekistan for the implementation of the joint project with UNDP on “Support to Financing Green Development in Uzbekistan” during 2024−2026.
“By integrating green priorities into financing and using innovative instruments, we’re paving the way for a budgetary process that champions sustainability,” Mr. Anas Fayyad Qarman at the signing ceremony noted.
The new project will be built on the results and achievements of the previous joint initiative of AFD and UNDP on “Strengthening the national capacities towards introduction of SDG (Sustainable Development Goals — ed. note) and Green budget tagging methodologies and practices in Uzbekistan” successfully implemented during 2022−2023. As a part of a fruitful collaboration between AFD and UNDP, a substantial support was provided to the Ministry of Economy and Finance in designing and developing relevant methodologies based on international good practices, carrying out research activities as well as strengthening the institutional and individual capacities of the national partners in SDG and Green budgeting.
Key milestone results achieved so far include a climate budget tagging exercise that was conducted for the first time in Uzbekistan and tagging outcomes presented in the relevant publications of a Citizens' Budget. In addition, Uzbekistan’s first Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review was developed to analyze and identify the extent to which climate change issues were integrated into the policy direction of the country, whether they were supported by a strong institutional framework, and reflected in the government budget.
“Those outputs provided a solid basis for strengthening the dialogue and communication of the government with the parliament and civil society on the importance of climate change issues and green development for Uzbekistan,” the message noted.
