Asian Development Bank

JFPR 9010: Innovative Poverty Reduction in Karakalpakstan Project
Republic of Uzbekistan (UZB)

UZB - Innovative Poverty Reduction near the Aral Sea

Project Summary

Counterpart loan/project(s)

• Loan 1799 - Uzbekistan: Small and Medium Enterprise Development Project
• Loan 1842- Uzbekistan: Urban Water Supply Project
• Aral Sea Area Disaster Relief (proposed project)
• Medium-Term Strategy for Improving Living Standards (Proposed Technical Assistance for 2001)

Budget

Executing Agency

Ministry of Macroeconomics and Statistics (MMES)

Implementing Agency

The Implementing Agencies of the Project will be the

• Business Women's Association (BWA) and Daulet NGO in Karakalpakstan) for the microcredit and small finance subcomponents
• National Bank of Uzbekistan for the small loan subcomponent
• Business Incubator and BWA for the equipment leasing and business training subcomponents
• Chamber of Commodity Producers and Small Enterprise Development for the collateral fund subcomponent
• mahallas (local self-governing bodies for providing social assistance) for the livelihood and social infrastructure support component
• various national and international NGOs for the safe drinking water component

The Project will cooperate and have parallel financing arrangements with UNDP, Joint Development Associates (JDA, a United States based NGO operating in Karakalpakstan) and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.

Coordinating Body/ Steering Committee/ Project Advisory Board

A steering committee comprising MMES, the Council of Ministers of Karakalpakstan, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, and an ADB representative will serve as the coordinating body.

Scope

The livelihood and social infrastructure component will focus mainly on the seven poorest rayons (districts) in the province, two of them in the immediate Aral Sea area. The Project will directly benefit 50,000 people in Karakalpakstan, and indirectly (through employment generation and water usage) about 296,000 more. The Project will be implemented over three years starting in January 2002.

Objectives

Reduce both income and non-income poverty in Karakalpakstan.

Provide the poor household in Karakalpakstan with income-generating and employment opportunities as well as access to safe drinking water and other community-based social infrastructure.

Improved income-generating opportunities through microcredit and small finance; Small enterprise employment generation; Provision of safe drinking water; and Livelihood and social infrastructure support

Main Project Components and Activities

The Project has five components as follows:

• income generation, which has three sub-components:

  1. microcredit ($20-$150 equivalent per borrower)
  2. small finance ($150- $500 per borrower)
  3. small loans to legal entities ($500-$10,000)
  
  

• small enterprise employment generation in the form of

  1. business training
  2. equipment leasing
  3. a collateral fund with banks for guaranteeing small enterprises' credit needs
  
  

• livelihood and social infrastructure support that will be coursed through the mahallas and has two sub-components:

  1. livelihood contests, and
  2. community-based social infrastructure
  
  

• provision of safe drinking water to drought-affected areas in Karakalpakstan through a competitive approach; it has three sub-components:

  1. feasibility study contests
  2. piloting contests
  3. replication contests
  
  

• project management office, which, aside from being tasked to administer and implement the Project, will also undertake poverty reduction, gender, and labor market impact assessments of the various component modalities as well as provide for a contingency fund

Any Other Relevant Information

• News Releases

Contact Information

Uzbekistan
Mr. Furkat Baratov
Deputy Minister
Ministry of Macroeconomics and Statistics
Mustakilik Maydoni 5, Tashkent, 700008
Tel: +99871 1326410
Fax: +99871 1398143

Lourdes Adriano
Agriculture, Environment & Natural Resources Division, East and Central Asia Department
Tel: +632 632 4154
Email: ladriano@adb.org