UK Embassyand UN office in Turkmenistan Hold a Briefing for Civil Society

On Friday, 13 September 2024, high-level guests Sarah Cooper, FCDO Regional Development Director for Central Asia, and Dr Undala Alam, FCDO Regional Climate Change Adviser, who participated in the Turkmenistan Investment Forum (TIF 2024) in Ashgabat on 10-11 September, held a “Joint British Embassy-UN RCO Briefing and Q&A Session on UN-UK Potential Collaboration with local NGOs in Turkmenistan”

About 30 representatives from various organizations, including Civil Society Organizations, Environmental projects (Aarhus Centre of Turkmenistan, CAREC ECO, USAID, WWF/CEPF), the UN, and Economic Societies attended the meeting.

The meeting aimed to discuss the areas for enhancing project cooperation between Turkmenistan and the UK in the areas, such as tackling climate change, environment protection, supporting and empowering women and girls.

– The UK government is actively working to improve the environment in the Central Asia region, including combating climate change, promoting economic development, the quality of life of  people with disabilities (PwD), creating an inclusive society, –  noted Sarah Cooper. – We have a new regional program covering all five Central Asian countries, focusing on energy and water aspects. Additionally, there are specialized programs in each country, such as the wetland protection program in Kazakhstan. The UK has a specific strategy to support gender and inclusivity in Central Asia, and we would like to intensify this work.”

Dr. Undala Alam then spoke, proposing from the outset to transition the meeting into an open discussion format, sharing information about organization’s activities, and inviting questions. She spoke about her organization’s vision for collaborating with civil society organizations in Turkmenistan in the near future.

– We are launching a new regional climate change programme that covers all 5 countries in the region. And we look at this program as a problem in the Aral Sea Basin. The programme has 4 components: 2 internal management components and 2 core components, – Dr Undal Alam stated. – The first component is our funding to the World Bank, where there is a fund called – Central Asia Water and Energy Programme (CAWEP). We have been funding this program since 2010 and it is in its 4th stage. The aim of this programme is to improve the water and energy sectors in individual countries, but also to establish collaboration among countries on this issue. The second component consists of 3 parts, championed by GIZ: the first part is a grant program, the second and third parts are investment policy-enhancing relationships between government and private investors.

Continuing her speech, she added that the programme was based on regional themes. The donor will not focus on one country only, it is interested in a consortium, in this case it is necessary to include in the project organization(s) from another country. The reason for this approach is to improve cooperation between countries, share experiences, successes, work on mistakes, etc. The topics are very broad – climate change, energy and water sector. There are no obvious restrictions, the most important thing is to pay attention to the problem of climate change, water supply issues taking into account sanitary norms, etc.

The grant for the program will be awarded for two years, with a budget ranging from 25,000 to 500,000 British pounds. It was emphasized that the main direction is gender, inclusiveness and improvement the quality of life of PwD. Each project should positively influence these issues. Gender equality and PwD will be included as a requirement of the project. The program, which is scheduled to launch by November this year will be implemented on a competitive basis for public associations, research institutes and others from five countries. There is no specific budget allocated to any country.  

Dr. Alam also informed participants about a forthcoming program to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Central Asia, with a focus on women-led SMEs engaged in Green Growth. This program aims to create a conducive environment for women entrepreneurs in the green economy. The program is called «Support of women entrepreneurs in the aspect of «Green Growth». And next year, they plan to develop a separate strategy for the development of inclusiveness.

Participants discussed various aspects of the program, including organizational-legal forms for eligible organizations, project registration procedures, and risk analysis.The organizers of the briefing took into account all suggestions and comments of participants, and agreed to report on further actions to achieve the objectives.

Ayna Atayeva.