LocationsLocal leaders are moving beyond emergency response and are now focused on building climate resilience to face tomorrow’s challenges.
The Faces of Resilience (Part 1): Building a Climate-Smart Namangan City
October 2, 2026
A landscape view of Namangan, Uzbekistan's pilot city for urban climate resilience.
UNDP Uzbekistan.
We all want to build a safe and resilient future for our families: a tree-lined, shaded street where our children can play safely, a cool stream of clean water when we turn on the tap, and a family fully prepared for when sudden mudflows sweep down from the surrounding hills. But as the climate shifts across Central Asia, keeping these simple promises is becoming a daily struggle. In Namangan City, local leaders are refusing to wait for a crisis to strike, they are working together to protect their community today.
This resilience is not the work of a single leader, but a tapestry of people, each bringing unique strengths to the table. To turn these individual efforts into a unified force, Namangan City has been selected as the pilot city under a joint initiative supported by UNDP and funded by the Government of Japan.
The collective goal is to turn vulnerability into strength by combining climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) into a single, unified strategy.
From Blueprint to Bedrock: The People Behind the Plan
Last year, Namangan established a Technical Working Group (TWG) uniting municipal authorities, utilities, emergency services, and technical agencies. This year, they officially endorsed a localized Action Plan for disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, integrating it directly into the city’s official "Socio-Economic Development Programme." This landmark step means the plan now has real funding and support from local policies.
To make this plan a reality, Namangan brought together experts from different fields. The Technical Working Group is a coalition of leaders from the Hokimiyat, regional experts, and local utility leaders like Dilbar Abdullaeva, who leads the city’s water utility branch, Namangan Suv Taminoti.
Dilbar Abdullaeva, Head of the Namangan City water utility branch (Namangan Suv Taminoti), standing proudly in front of local utility infrastructure.
UNDP Uzbekistan.
Dilbar didn’t inherit her leadership role from behind a desk; she built her expertise in the field. Joining the water utility in 2003, she spent years working directly with local neighborhoods, diagnosing infrastructure issues and talking face-to-face with families before taking charge of the entire city branch.
When asked how this hands-on journey shaped her approach to city planning, Dilbar doesn't hesitate:
"When a leader starts from the bottom, they understand the true reality of every street, family, and pipe in this city,” said Dilbar. “I worked my way up from inspector, talking face-to-face with residents at their doorsteps. That hands-on experience teaches you how to listen to families, understand their daily struggles, and build infrastructure that truly protects their lives."
In Central Asia, women manage their household water, family hygiene, and community safety. Disasters are never gender-neutral; when infrastructure fails under climate stress, the daily burden falls disproportionately on local women. Dilbar’s presence on the TWG is a powerful step forward for inclusive governance, showing that when women are active at the decision-making table, climate plans are structurally designed around the real, daily vulnerabilities of every household.
Translating Risk into Action
When asked how such a diverse group of leaders agreed on a single Action Plan, Ismoil Fahritdinov, a Senior Specialist from the Namangan City Hokimiyat and TWG member, explained:
"In our initial draft, we had nearly 80 potential activities covering a broad regional scope,” Ismoil notes. “But when we sat down together in the working group, we agreed to reduce the scope to focus strictly on what our city needs. We consolidated those ideas into 18 targeted, city-level action points so that every single project delivers immediate, practical benefits to local households."
Rather than creating new funding channels, the Action Plan makes use of a mechanism Uzbekistan already trusts: the participatory "Initiative Budget" (Tashabbusli Budjet). It shifts the power back to the people by giving local mahallas (neighborhoods) the agency to propose and vote on local projects, from neighborhood roads to water and sewage systems. Since 2019, UNDP supported the Government of Uzbekistan in launching and scaling participatory budgeting and today it is one of the country's most prominent examples of citizen engagement in public finance.
The real shift in Namangan lies in how this budget is being targeted. Instead of working in silos, the city's Technical Working Group is sitting down with mahalla communities to map out local climate risks – from summer heatwaves to blocked drainage and waste. From there, they help residents draft practical proposals for disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, ready for the public vote. By doing so, a well-loved civic tool becomes a direct path to community-driven climate resilience.
Below, the officially approved Action Plan 2026-2028 for the City of Namangan on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA). Approved by the Mayor (Hokim) of Namangan City. UNDP Uzbekistan.
Looking Ahead: The Foundation for the Future
With the support of UNDP and the Government of Japan, Namangan is proving that proactive, locally owned climate action works.
But policy is only the beginning. As the ink dries on the Action Plan, city leaders are already passing the torch to the next generation, mobilizing local youth to bring these green initiatives to life on the streets.
Namangan is setting a new standard for Central Asia. When asked what other cities should learn from their journey, Ismoil summed it up perfectly:
“Real resilience isn't just about infrastructure—it's about changing how people think,” Ismoil says. “By teaching disaster preparedness in our schools and universities and continuously greening our city to combat heat, we are ensuring our children grow up safe, prepared, and proud of Namangan.”
Local students participating in a disaster preparedness and climate awareness session in Namangan.
UNDP Uzbekistan.
This article is Part 1 of a three-part storytelling series, "The Faces of Resilience," exploring how Namangan, Uzbekistan is pioneering localized, inclusive climate action. By locking in municipal funding and building inclusive leadership, heroes like Dilbar and Ismoil have laid the bedrock for a climate-smart city. But as Ismoil noted, real resilience depends on the next generation. In Part 2, "The Green Generation," we will meet the local youth and students taking up this mantle to bring Namangan's green, climate-prepared vision to life on the streets.
This series is produced under the regional initiative, "Enhancing Urban Resilience to Disaster Risk and Climate Change in Central Asia," funded by the Government of Japan and implemented by UNDP.