Locations18th August 2020
Esteemed representatives of the Government, Private Sector and Development Partners
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for your participation today at this virtual meeting devoted to review preliminary findings of the assessment of COVID-19 impact in Tajikistan conducted by UNDP in close cooperation with several Government entities and private sector. I would like to particularly thank Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the State Committee on Investments and State Property Management, the Agency of Statistics, Chamber of Commerce of Tajikistan, National Association of Business Women, and many partners from the civil society and private sector who guided and contributed in designing and implementation of the Assessment in the field. I would also like to acknowledge Z-Analytic Group and our international and national consultants who are helping us with the overall assessment process.
This Assessment was launched by UNDP in May 2020 at the request of the Government of Tajikistan to help assess impact of COVID on socio-economic situation in Tajikistan and how the global and regional situation may further impact Tajikistan. The Assessment is aimed to examine the impact of pandemic on poverty, inequality, human development and informal and formal employment in urban and rural areas of Tajikistan with a particular focus on most-at-risk population groups, including women, youth and migrants. The Assessment focusing on COVID impact on MSMEs, livelihoods and lives across Tajikistan included a sample of more than 1000 households and 700 MSMEs particularly to understand
o Impact of COVID 19 on lives of people, particularly women, youth, migrants, people living with disabilities their consumption pattern and distribution of essentials in the family.
o How has it affected micro, small and medium business and is the impact different on different sectors?
o How COVID19 has impacted informal sector and casual workers?
o What medium and long-term policy and planning measures are needed to mitigate the adverse impact on economy, jobs and lives of people and how lessons from pandemic can help build resiliency in the short and long term.
Pandemic across the globe has impacted demand, supply and logistics. Even though, like most countries, Tajikistan did not fully locked down, sickness and deaths; high risk of infection; closure of borders and airport, has had significant impact on people and businesses and urgent action is required to protect people from falling sick, loosing income and spiraling back to poverty; help businesses so they don’t lose their productivity and competitiveness and promote economic recovery with right policies and innovative practices such as digital economic and governance platforms.
COVID19 across the globe has also amplified fault lines in socio-economic development models which are based on over consumption and fast growth, disregarding environment sustainability, social justice and inclusion of all people. Corona virus does not distinguish between rich and poor; powerful and powerless; rural and urban, young and old; men and women; we need to learn from every challenge and lessons from this virus and build a new model of sustainable and equitable socio- economic development, and strive even harder to achieve all 17 SDGs.
Thank you for your attention!
