MDGs in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus
| Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic: 19-20 July 2007 |
Purpose | Expected Outputs | Background | Participants | The ESCAP-UNDP-ADB Partnership
The Bishkek MDG Forum will address MDG progress and challenges for improving living standards in the region. It will facilitate exchange on four major themes relevant to the MDG discussion in the region:
- pro-poor growth and sub-regional economic cooperation
- environmental sustainability through water and land management
- social services delivery and institutions
- nationalizing MDG data and monitoring
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The final output of the conference will be a regional road map on the MDGs, under which countries can indicate their national priorities to move the MDG agenda forward with international support.
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Under the Soviet period the Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus Region countries had relatively high achievements in the areas that are today covered by the MDGs. These were challenged by economic collapse following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
The governments in the region have embraced the Millennium Declaration to accelerate and secure peace and democratization, show better results on development and poverty reduction, enhance environmental sustainability, and strengthen global partnership in the new Millennium. However, when the countries localized the MDGs in national MDG and poverty reduction strategies it became apparent that there is a need to redefine the targets.
The region has drawn up detailed programs for growth and poverty reduction in medium and long-term strategies. Effective implementation of these programs is essential to achieve pro poor growth and improving living standards. However, the linkages between programs and budgeting processes and effective reforms are still weak. Even for resource rich countries, implementing the programs while avoiding the resource curse will be a major challenge. Major problems remain on income poverty, access to tertiary education, HIV/AIDS and addressing environmental poverty (soil and water). It is worrisome that some countries show regressing and slow trends.
Regional cooperation has been recognized as important mechanism to stimulate growth, encourage regional trade and labor markets. However, so far these have not translated into major pro-poor growth in all countries.
Read the complete summary of key issues .
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The Bishkek MDG Forum will bring together about 100 high-level policy makers from the region involved in poverty reduction and social policy planning and finance, as well as national focal points on MDGs. In addition to government leadership and sector experts, the country delegation may also comprise representation from civil society, media and academe. Donors are also invited to participate.
Participating countries will include Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Neighboring regional cooperation countries such as the People’s Republic of China, Iran, Mongolia and Russia have been invited as observers.
View the list of participants .
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In 2004 the Asian Development Bank (ADB), United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations – Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) engaged in a regional partnership to accelerate progress towards accelerating the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Asia and the Pacific. The partnership will support
- monitoring MDG progress
- raising awareness and develop capacities
- improving policies and institutions for achieving the MDGs
Major activities are regional reports, technical papers, MDG data base improvement, and dissemination and advocacy. The partnerships produced various technical reports, as well as overview studies.
To accelerate knowledge and learning on progressing toward poverty reduction and MDG achievements in the region, the tripartite partnership suggested a series of sub-regional forums to discuss more country-specific and regional MDG issues. The outcomes of the sub-regional forums will feed into the preparation of the Regional Road Map on MDGs and the third Regional MDG Report, due to be published in 2008. The regional forums are suggested to cover
- South Asia (Katmandu, Nepal, 11-12 October 2006)
- East and Southeast Asia (Hanoi, Vietnam, 1-2 March 2007)
- North and Central Asia (19-20 July 2007 in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
Read more on the tripartite partnership.
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