LocationsMonitoring visit to Nukus by European Union experts
March 16, 2023
Today, a group of experts from European Union institutions visited the Republic of Karakalpakstan. The purpose of the visit is to meet with national partners, discuss prospects for further cooperation and monitoring of the EU funded projects within the programmes “Unleashing young people ’s and vulnerable citizens’ creativity and innovation by strengthening their adaptive capacity to address the economic and food insecurities in the exposed communities of the Aral Sea region”, Joint programme of UNDP and UNESCO “Addressing the urgent human insecurities in the Aral Sea region through promoting sustainable rural development” and UNDP, UNICEF and FAO’s Joint programme “Empowering youth towards a brighter future through Green and Innovative Development of the Aral Sea region”, funded by the MPHSTF for Aral Sea region.
According to the visit agenda, the team of the Joint Programme made a general introduction and presented the results achieved within the above projects. During the visit, both sides discussed the importance of supporting the Aral Sea region as the most climate-vulnerable region of our country. The consequences of the Aral Sea crisis affect all aspects of the life, therefore, requiring a systematic approach to mitigate the consequences in the region.
At the meeting, UNDP’s cooperation with the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade on the integrated roadmap for the development of the Aral Sea region to promote the system thinking approach, ongoing joint work with the Islamic Development Bank and Ministry of Economy and Finance on rural infrastructure development programme and Biodiversity Conservation initiatives implemented jointly with the Ministry of Nature Resources were outlined, highlighting the importance of the holistic approach to tackle the Aral Sea crisis consequences.
At the end of the visit, an exhibition of the Joint Programme beneficiaries’ products was held for EU representatives.
The delegation made a visit to the startup laboratories to see the results achieved and their effect on young people. The winners of startup projects shared their achievements and presented new ideas for startup projects.
At the meeting, the startup winners presented their projects and team leaders spoke about the difficulties they faced during the implementation of their projects, the results of which they have achieved to date, as well as plans for the next year. In particular, Alpamis, the leader of the “Intuza Academy Programmers School” project, said that today their project has grown into a full-fledged training centre for freelancers and today more than 50 graduates of their courses are working as freelancers in the IT field. Gulnara, the leader of the “Bilim” project, said that two more projects have grown within her project and today she is the leader of the community of young girls "Qiriq qiz". In turn, the leader of the project "Improving water technologies in Muynak district" Adilbay told about his plans to introduce his technology in other districts of Karakalpakstan. The participants of the meeting had the opportunity to ask the teams the questions they were interested in, as well as get very detailed answers from them. In addition, several teams that are just starting their startup projects also had the opportunity to present their ideas during the meeting.
Within the framework of the Joint Programme, in order to create conditions for the development of innovative start-up ideas among the youth of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, together with the Agency for Youth Affairs of Karakalpakstan, created a start-up accelerator and a start-up laboratory in Nukus Youth Center. In this accelerator, the youth of Karakalpakstan receive the necessary knowledge, as well as generate new innovative ideas to create their own start-up projects.
To date, Joint Programme organized start-up trainings, and project development mentorship for 72 youth and established Startup platforms. A contest on Startup projects was organized and 6 projects were financially supported by Joint Programme. Currently, leaders of 6 startup projects together with their teammates are successfully implementing their project activities in order to achieve the goals envisioned.Concluding a visit to Karakalpakstan, representatives of the delegation visited the Perinatal Center in Nukus to get acquainted with the results achieved and the impact on the health situation in Nukus. The UNDP, UNFPA and FAO Joint Programme on “Unleashing young people’s and vulnerable citizens’ creativity and innovation by strengthening their adaptive capacity to address the economic and food insecurities in the exposed communities of the Aral Sea region” funded by the UN Multi-Partner Human Security Trust Fund for the Aral Sea region in Uzbekistan was launched in January 2021. The programme has a thematic focus on “Youth”, “Innovation” and “Health” with a significant orientation to address vulnerabilities exacerbated by COVID-19 in the Aral Sea region.
