Uniting for future generations

With the support of OSCE the Fund initiated establishment of an institutional framework to discuss development prospects in the Aral Sea region entitled Aral Sea Region Development Assistance Platform. The initiative is launched as a follow up to the International Conference Problems of Aral: Impact on the Gene Pool of Population, Flora and Fauna and International Cooperation for Mitigating Consequences hosted in Tashkent in March 2008, and one of its major recommendations emphasizing the need for harmonization and better coordination of technical and financial assistance, formulation and implementation of a common Aral Sea region rehabilitation and development strategy, creation of respective infrastructure and mechanisms.

The Platform aims at uniting all development partners including but not limited to the government agencies, donors, business, NGOs, and academia to achieve sustainable socio-economic development and environmental security. The Platform members will gather on a regular basis to discuss best practices, main bottlenecks and lessons learned to identify future areas for intervention in the region. The opportunity to get together provides a simple and transparent mechanism for formulating common agenda and occupying specific niche by each development partner in compliance with the mandate and priorities of the partner-organization. The Platform will also facilitate consensus among counterparts, advocacy and increasing efficiency of utilization of technical and financial assistance in the region.

In order to ensure sound analytical background for discussions and develop a new project portfolio a comprehensive on-line data base of statistical and analytical data will be developed within the framework of the initiative. This will allow to estimate the impact made by the implemented projects on environment and living standards of the population, major bottlenecks appeared during the project implementation, so that the Platform members could identify urgent priorities and tools for project implementation in the Aral Sea region.