Regions and Countries

	Table of Contents
p. 12 of 19 BACK | NEXT I. Country Performance Assessment II. Country Operational Strategy III. Sector Strategies A. Agriculture B. Infrastructure C. Social Infrastructure and Environment D. Governance Dimensions of ADB Operations E. Gender Dimensions of ADB Operations F. Private Sector Development IV. Regional Cooperation V. Donor Activities and Aid Coordination VI. Cofinancing and Catalyzing External Resources VII. ADB’s Operational Program VIII. Economic and Sector Work Program IX. Local Cost Financing

Country Assistance Plans - Uzbekistan : III. Sector Strategies

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E. Gender Dimensions of ADB Operations

68. A study on gender and development strategy for Uzbekistan was undertaken in the economic and sector work associated with the preparation of the new COS. The study identified main issues in the context of women and education, health care, social protection, and social, economic, and political life and the Government's strategy on gender and development

69. The Basic Education Textbook Development Project is promoting equitable gender portrayals in textbooks through content analysis and training for authors, thus enhancing the image of women and encouraging women, especially in rural areas, to realize their full potential. Substantial capacity-building support has been provided by technical assistance in the areas of agro-processing, and small and medium enterprise from which women can benefit to gain necessary skills and training to facilitate their adjustments to the market-oriented economy. In the Basic Education Staff Development Project, ADB is addressing the issue on employment conditions, declining motivation and low morale of teachers, growing number of teachers leaving the profession, perceived inadequate remuneration package, incentives, salary and career structure, combined with low female representation in the administration. These are all important issues in themselves and particularly so for women as 80 percent of teachers in the basic and secondary education are women. ADB is assisting the Government in exploring ways in improving employment conditions of teachers and their opportunities for career development in a financially sustainable manner, upgrading teacher education and training, improving teacher utilization, and redeploying education staff in a more equitable and cost-effective manner.

70. Gender issues are also required to be addressed in the context of early childhood development and the project design of the urban social infrastructure sector, which is a new sector for ADB to be involved. Under RETA No. 5835: Enhancing Gender and Development Capacity in DMCs, a gender specialist consultant is posted in the Uzbekistan Resident Mission to help build the gender and development capacity in Uzbekistan and achieve quality improvements in the implementation of ADB-financed projects addressing gender concerns, and operationalize the ADB's overarching objective of poverty reduction in the project-specific context by (i) undertaking a substantive social analysis with focus on gender and poverty impact assessment, and (ii) collecting and analyzing gender disaggregated data and developing a gender and development data base.

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