LocationsDevelopment as a path to resilience: the view from the Aral Sea region
October 15, 2026
Crises today rarely come one at a time. Climate change, water scarcity, economic pressure and environmental degradation reinforce one another, and their effects can last for generations. Experience from many countries shows that sustained investment in development is the most reliable path to resilience. Communities with reliable services, stable incomes and strong institutions withstand pressure better, and acting early costs less than responding late. This is the principle behind UNDP's Action Agenda, Moving Beyond Crisis.
In Uzbekistan, this is most visible in the Aral Sea region. The sea has lost around 90 percent of its volume over the past half century, and the consequences have accumulated over the same period, affecting water, soil, air, health and incomes at once. The region shows that where environmental pressure is long-term, development is how recovery happens.
Uzbekistan has placed this region firmly on the international agenda. At the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, the country highlighted the Aral Sea as a lesson for the world, noted the greening of the dried seabed and the introduction of water-saving technologies, and expressed its ambition for the region to become a place where environmental solutions are developed and demonstrated. At the national level, the President's visit to the region in September reaffirmed this priority.
The Aral Sea is also a reminder of why multilateralism matters. No country can address challenges of this scale alone, a point Uzbekistan made clearly at the General Assembly, noting that the United Nations is needed more than ever. The region itself is multilateralism in action. In 2021, at Uzbekistan's initiative, the General Assembly declared it a zone of ecological innovations and technologies. Together with the Government, international development partners contribute to national programmes in the region. As a partner of Uzbekistan for more than 30 years that also implements programmes on the ground, UNDP delivers this support where it is needed, connecting global knowledge and partnerships with national priorities and local needs.
In practice, this means working across three areas of action at once: preparing for and preventing future risks, responding and recovering where services and ecosystems have been lost, and supporting transition and transformation through stronger systems, institutions and economies. The Aral Sea region of Uzbekistan shows how the three come together.
Prepare and prevent. Water in the region is expected to become scarcer. By 2050, the flow of the Amu Darya, its main source of water, is projected to decline by 15 percent. Preparing for this means managing water more efficiently today. Together with national partners and the Government of Japan, UNDP supports the modernization of irrigation infrastructure, the introduction of digital solutions for water management, and the adoption of water-efficient and climate-resilient agricultural practices. In recent discussions, the regional water authorities raised a further priority: local water storage, so that water can be kept when it arrives and used when it is needed.
Respond and recover. Some of what the region has lost can be restored, and restoring basic services comes first. In Kegeyli district, a reconstructed desalination plant now provides safe drinking water to a remote community. Recovery also extends to the natural environment. In Nukus district, a local initiative supported through the GEF Small Grants Programme is working to conserve the biodiversity of the Amu Darya. UNDP works with local communities and partners to conserve ecosystems, protect biodiversity and promote the sustainable use of natural resources. Our partners in the environmental sector have set further priorities, from monitoring water and air quality to protecting wetlands and documenting the biodiversity of the Ustyurt plateau.
Transition and transform. Lasting change depends on the conditions around people: infrastructure, institutions and economic opportunity. With the support of the Islamic Development Bank and OPEC fund for International Development, inclusive schools, preschools, roads and bridges are being built according to priorities identified by communities themselves, so that no one is left behind. Economic opportunity grows when more value is added locally. In Kegeyli district, a new workshop processes local melons into dried fruit products, linking farmers to processing and markets and reducing post-harvest losses. In Nukus district, a beekeeper who received processing and packaging equipment now supplies kindergartens, hospitals and local markets, has created new jobs and is preparing to export. He received a state award during the President's visit. Local value chains of this kind turn agricultural production into stable income and employment, including for women and young people.
These three areas of action reinforce one another. Efficient water management sustains agriculture. Restored services allow families to stay and invest in their communities. And local value chains generate the income that makes these gains last.
National and local partners in the region define their priorities clearly. The next step is to bring proven solutions to scale, and that depends on how they are financed. International support is most valuable when it demonstrates what works, so that national programmes, development banks and private investors can take it further. Uzbekistan has already taken steps in this direction at the national level, including its first sovereign green bonds, which channel investment into areas such as water-saving technologies and measures against wind erosion, and a green financing strategy under preparation. Instruments of this kind can help bring solutions tested in the Aral Sea region to scale. UNDP will continue to support this work, guided by the priorities of national and local partners. The experience of the region shows what national leadership and multilateral partnership can achieve together.
This work on the ground is only possible because of a shared commitment to the Aral Sea region. None of these solutions could scale without the leadership of our national and local partners in Uzbekistan and the generous support of our global allies.
We are deeply grateful for the technical assistance of the European Union through the French Development Agency (AFD) in helping us build the frameworks for SDG and green sovereign bonds; to the Government of Japan for bringing critical water-saving and digital technologies to life; to the Islamic Development Bank and OPEC Fund for International Development for investing in inclusive, community-driven rural infrastructure; and to the Government of Russian Federation for powering climate-smart agriculture. We also thank the GEF Small Grants Programme for backing our local conservation heroes on the ground.
It is proof that when global commitment meets local ownership, real, lasting resilience is possible.
