LocationsOpening Remarks by
Dr. Pratibha Mehta,
UN Resident Coordinator a.i.
16 December
MEDT
Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Mr. Tojiddin Jurazoda,
Distinguished Government partners,
UN colleagues, development partners,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure on behalf of the UN in Tajikistan to welcome you all to the presentation of the first Vulnerability and Resilience Atlas for Tajikistan. The Vulnerability and Resilience Atlas is a joint initiative of the UN Country Team and Government of Tajikistan and I would like to acknowledge active participation of WB and EU.
Let me start by thanking the Deputy Minister and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Tajikistan for leadership in excellent coordination government agencies for entire Atlas preparation process. Atlas is a joint UN inter Agencies project (UNICEF, UNDP, UNHCR, UNWOMEN and WHO) and would like to acknowledge the technical lead of WFP for technical and financial contribution. But the ATLAS would not have been done without the substantive involvement of line ministries, and state organizations. Tajikistan has drastically reduced income poverty but there are large discrepancies between district gender and age groups.
The Vulnerability and Resilience Atlas is a unique product that will inform evidence-based policies, strategies and programming, economic wellbeing, food security, nutrition, health, education and other sectors. Targeting vulnerable population in various locations and assist in planning and budgeting to ensure bridge inequalities and no one is left behind.
I would like to draw your attention on some key outcomes from Atlas preparation process. First, data is a challenge and it was also noted during the preparation of the VNR and first National SDG report. We need to combine our efforts to ensure availability of national indicators for NDS/SDG reporting and most importantly, those indicators that reflect vulnerability and disaggregated. Second, data should be accessible and constantly updated. I believe in 2020 we can quickly update Atlas with the new information and continue to do it regularly with support of the Ministry of Economic Development and trade and other line ministries; and last but not least ownership and sustainability have to be ensured from the beginning of process. The process was well organized through establishment of UN Inter-Agency Working Group, excellent coordination with the Government, quality assurance was provided in validation workshop conducted in 2018 and timely support from all state organizations in Atlas preparation and finalization.
The 2020 year will be the 5th year of NDS and SDGs implementation, UN has announced 2020 – 2030 as decade of Actions to accelerate SDG projects. We hope that the Vulnerability Atlas of MTDP 2016-2020 and from the next year will work on preparation of the new MTDP 2021-2025. Similarly, UN system will design its new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for 2022-2026. Atlas data will be a timely source to inform the national planning and the SDGs and “Leave no one behind”.
At the end I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all our partners, government organization, development partners for their collaboration in Atlas preparation and look forward to hearing your views on future targeting our assistance.
Thank you.
