24 February, TASHKENT - UNDP Uzbekistan has begun co-hosting a series of digital workshop sessions to facilitate activities of the Working Group on Sustainable Investments of the Advisory Committee on Sustainable Development of the Aral Sea Region in Uzbekistan. These sessions will nurture systems thinking capabilities that will create a portfolio of investments and guide the local navigation of complex, interconnected development issues in the region.  

On the initiative of UNDP, three working groups have been created under the Advisory Committee on Sustainable Development of the Aral Sea Region of the UN Multi-Partner Human Security Trust Fund for the Aral Sea (MPHSTF). Of these, UNDP has been entrusted to co-chair the working groups on Sustainable Investments, and on Data and Assessment. UNDP has swiftly commenced operations of these working groups, by arranging a series of workshop sessions. The first kick-off session was organized within the Working Group on Sustainable Investments, initiating discussions to identify the root causes of problems in the Aral Sea region, and connecting these causes up to what influences the problems. Interactive discussions also focused on how such investments had been made in the past, and how they might be altered to better tackle these interrelated issues.

As part of its SDG Integration Initiative, UNDP has already extended support to the Government in drafting and fine-tuning the concept note on the transformation of the Aral Sea region into a zone of ecological innovation and technologies. Two UNDP missions by multidisciplinary teams were undertaken in September and October 2019, seeking to design integrated support in the Aral Sea region, for the integration of SDGs in the region.

The kick-off session opened with welcome speeches by Deputy Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Mr. Badriddin Abidov, and by UNDP Resident Representative in Uzbekistan Ms. Matilda Dimovska. Mr. Abidov proposed that “the Multi-Partner Human Security Trust Fund for the Aral Sea should serve as a unified platform to join efforts of all friends and partners that care for the future of the Aral Sea region.”

In turn, Ms. Dimovska underlined the event’s importance in having the potential to be a turning point in how we collectively look into and work together to address the tragedy of the Aral Sea. “As a way forward, it is important to combine evidence with a systems approach and identify strategic intervention points, and thus unlock financing that will transform the region in a way that supports resilience and livelihoods at scale.”  

The kick-off session was attended by 50 experts and specialists from relevant government ministries, agencies, NGOs, international development partners and potential donors, all of which are part of the Working Group on Sustainable Investments in the Aral Sea region.

All following sessions will also be conducted digitally through Zoom, thereby allowing the participation of working group members from around the world. These series of sessions will serve to assist participants in creating a portfolio of project investments that are appropriate to the complex and persistent challenges in the Aral Sea region.

The series of sessions will be facilitated in two phases. During the first phase, UNDP will facilitate two Systems Mapping sessions to identify the critical intersections between problems in the region, and to map the drivers of these problems. During the second phase, UNDP will facilitate two Portfolio Strategy sessions to design a set of options to shift investments in the region, and to test how each option could positively impact the lives of the region’s people.

“The key is to nurture systems thinking capabilities and proposals on how to shift investments toward high impact integrated issues,” said UNDP Resident Representative Matilda Dimovska.