On April 5, 2019, the Fourth Regional Steering Committee (RSC) meeting was held in the framework of the “Program for Adaptation to Climate Change and Mitigation in the Aral Sea Basin” (CAMP4ASB) in Tashkent. The meeting was attended by representatives of national coordinating agencies of the Central Asian countries, as well as representatives of the World Bank, the Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea and the Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia (CAREC).
The main tasks of the Regional Steering Committee are to provide advisory support, work out future directions, identify annual priority areas for climate investment, and monitor the implementation of the program.
The meeting participants are provided with overview reports on the progress and activities of the regional and national components of the project during the reporting period.
The coordinator of the Regional Coordination Group, Irina Bekmirzaeva, presented a review on the work done, in which she particularly noted the upcoming modernization of the monitoring systems for climate processes in the participating countries of the project. The meeting participants also discussed the progress of implementation of individual subcomponents of the project, including the possibilities for increasing the capacity of the staff of the hydromet services and the installation of additional software, the possibility of learning international experience, and other issues.
The national coordination groups provided information on the progress of the project activities for each of the participating countries.
Abdugayur Jamolov, credit expert of the Project Implementation Center under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Tajikistan, made a presentation and presented information on the progress of Component 2 (Regional Climate Investment) in Tajikistan, a brief overview of the credit line of the national component of project in Tajikistan. He revealed that since the moment of the implementation of the credit line on March 1 of the current year, funding was provided for participating companies for 2,719 sub-projects totaling $ 5.48 million, which represents 54% of the funds allocated for this subcomponent for the final term of the project. Of the loans provided, World Bank funds amounted to $ 4.45 million and the share of beneficiaries was $ 1 million. In the course of the project, 6,713 hired workers were involved. Credit funds were used on 7236 hectares of land. Beneficiaries of sub-projects amounted to 20,671 people (50% of whom are women)
Ganiyev Gayrat, Deputy General Director of the Agency for the Implementation of Projects in the Field of the Agro-Industrial Complex and Food Supply of the Republic of Uzbekistan, made a presentation and presented information on the implementation of Component 2 (Regional Climate Investment) in Uzbekistan. He reported that the project, in terms of crediting climate investments was mastered by 90%. Due to the fact that in the project regions for 2019-2020, a program was approved to attract funds from IFIs to improve the business climate and further develop entrepreneurship in the regions affected by the negative impacts of climate change in order to meet the growing demand of agricultural projects for credit and grant resources additional financing from IDA loan funds, as well as to raise funds from the GCF grant.
The meeting participants discussed plans for further work within the project, and also expressed interest in further cooperation and dialogue.
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Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program for the Aral Sea Basin (CAMP4ASB)
