1. What is, in your opinion, the situation with achieving MDGs in Uzbekistan? Is it possible to achieve the goals set? Have World Bank, UNDP, other TA agencies and GoU reached consensus on the ways of achieving these goals?  The Government with the help of UNDP is finalising a study which looks at how Uzbekistan is doing in terms of attaining the MDGs. The purpose of this study is to put the global MDGs into the specific context of the economic situation in Uzbekistan. In several areas, Uzbekistan has already made significant progress towards the MDGs (such as in access to education or increased access to basic infrastructure services); however there is a need in many instances to refine the MDGs and establish a clear process for monitoring progress. The MDGs are unlikely to be achieved without external assistance. This is why the WB's next Country Assistance Strategy, which is currently under preparation, will have a strong focus on support for the MDGs.
2. In what way does the World Bank assist in global poverty reduction process? To what extent are these efforts can be found effective, meaning that the aid provided to the poor only for improving their living conditions leads to further spread of poverty. The situation can be changed by targeted support in qualitative increase of human potential. To what extent do existing support mechanisms aimed at development solve the problem? Is it necessary to improve them? This is a pretty broad question which covers issues of aid effectiveness and evidence on what mechanisms are most effective in reducing poverty. Research at the World Bank points in two directions: First, countries are more likely to reduce poverty if they can sustain economic growth. At the same time, the same growth rate can lead to very different outcomes depending on whether there are big inequalities in the distribution of income and the extent to which a country's policies and institutions take the specific needs of the poor into account. If you want to enhance the capabilities of the poor you need to act in ways that target their special needs by, for example, investing in education, health and other interventions aimed at upgrading so-called human capital - a society's assets in the form of healthy, well-educated citizens. You also need to improve their access to economic opportunities through better infrastructure, transport and so on). Second, international assistance to fight poverty and bring about sustained economic progress tends to work best in countries that have good governance and public institutions that do their job well. What to do in countries that do not do well on these two counts - and where consequently aid may not be used effectively - is a critical challenge. Clearly the solution cannot be to ignore such countries but to find ways of building their institutional capacity. 3. Last year the International Finance Corporation stated that it is considering the issue of including human rights into the list of criteria determining sustainable development. Consequently, this affects activity carried out by private banks providing funds for projects in developing countries. How does the World Bank consider introduction of these criteria? Can such an approach lead to reduction of investment flows to the poorest countries that need them the most? This is an issue still under debate. Some shareholders would like the World Bank to pay closer attention to human rights issues, but at present concerns over the protection of human rights are not considered a reason for the World Bank to disengage from a country. It should be noted that the protection of human rights can be good development policy. For instance, in an era where ideas and innovation are crucially important, the protection of people's right to speak their mind can be an important motor for development. Indeed, the Bank already contributes directly to the fulfillment of many rights articulated in the Universal Declaration. Through its support of primary education, health care and nutrition, sanitation, housing, and the environment, the Bank has helped hundreds of millions of people attain crucial economic and social rights. In other areas, the Bank?s contributions are necessarily less direct, but perhaps equally significant. By helping to fight corruption, improve transparency and accountability in governance, strengthen judicial systems, and modernize financial sectors, the Bank contributes to building environments in which people are better able to pursue a broader range of human rights. 4. How does the World Bank promote poverty reduction in Uzbekistan? How productive is cooperation with GoU in this area? The World Bank has been active in Uzbekistan since 1993 and has total commitments amounting to US$ 599 million. These funds have been invested in areas as diverse as maintenance of the country's irrigation system, municipal infrastructure, improvements in water supply in urban and rural areas, reform of the primary health care system, and support for private sector development. Poverty reduction initially did not feature prominently on the agenda of cooperation with the GoU, although many of the projects funded by the World Bank directly benefited the poor. For instance, the US$ 30 million Health I project, helped to build and equip hundreds of rural health stations, so that poor people in rural areas now no longer need to travel long distances into towns to get basic health care. In 2001, the World Bank prepared the first poverty assessment for Uzbekistan and since then, poverty reduction has become a more important theme in our dialogue with the authorities. The GoU is now finalising an Initial Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper which will provide the basis for the Bank's new Country Assistance strategy. The new strategy will be closely linked to helping the country achieve the MDGs in areas such as health, basic education, access to clean drinking water and the environment. The World Bank will also continue the policy dialogue with the GoU to create the conditions for sustainable economic growth, which as argued above, will ultimately be key for the reduction of poverty and improved living standards in the country. 5. The World Bank provided assistance to Uzbekistan in the area of developing energy and water-supply complexes. What are the results of these projects, and what projects related to improvement of natural resource utilization and environment protection does the World Bank intend to launch in the nearest future? The World Bank has given a lot of attention to the improvement in water supply in Karakalpakstan, Khorezm and more recently through the newly started project in Bukhara and Samarkand. Moreover, the Bank has made important investments in the rehabilitation of the country's irrigation infrastructure and was a key player under international efforts to help mitigate the environmental consequences of the Aral Sea disaster. The Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Health project, with US$75 million in WB financing, has provided drinking water to several 100,000 families in the poor oblasts of Khorezm and Karakalpakstan and in 2001 provided emergency relief to poor families badly affected by the drought in that year. This project has not yet been completed but it benefits from huge support from the local population who often have for the first time reliable drinking water supply in one of the dryest areas of the world. In the future, additional investments in urban water supply projects are being considered. The investments to help mitigate the Aral Sea disaster have also shown important successes, such as the restoration of fresh water lakes in the pre-Aral area under the Water and Environmental Management Project (WEMP). Efforts are ongoing to undertake investments along the Syr Darya basin that would help deliver additional water into the Aral Sea area, not just in Uzbekistan but also in other riparian countries. However, key constraints remain including more effective regional cooperation and improvements in water management at the farm level. The World Bank will continue to work with national governments to undertake appropriate mitigating investments and provide support for greater regional cooperation. In the energy sector, our efforts so far have concentrated primarily on giving policy advice. Uzbekistan has the potential and has recently demonstrated the ability to attract foreign investment into its oil and gas sector and the World Bank has assisted the Government in restructuring Uzbekneftegas in preparation for privatisation. In the power sector, similarly, potential to attract foreign investment exists. Through a recent grant project, the Bank is advising the Government on putting in place systems of targeted social assistance to mitigate the impact of recent tariff increases. The World Bank will also carefully examine future investment opportunities in this area, depending on the size of its overall lending program. 6. How does the World Bank combine efforts aimed at stimulating economic growth and assistance to sustainable development? How often does the World Bank support environment related projects in various countries of the world? Sustainable development and economic growth need not be in contradiction with each other. The scope for efficiency improvements in the use of natural resources is huge and far from exhausted, particularly in the former Soviet Union. The Bank has a vast global lending program to promote energy efficient technologies and is a key supporter for the development of global carbon emissions trading under the Kyoto protocol. The Bank undertakes infrastructure investments to mitigate the risks to poor people from environmental disasters such as flooding or drought. Poor people are often inadvertedly agents of environmental pollution, for instance through logging in rainforests or the use of scarce plant growth for firewood. Enhancing poor people's economic opportunities can therefore directly contribute to reduced environmental damage. The Bank's strict environmental safeguards help orient its lending projects in environmental sustainable ways. In many of its activities ranging across diverse sectors the Bank demonstrates that concern for the environment and economic development should and can go hand in hand. |
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