Date: March 24, 2023
Venue: GBAO local authority conference hall
Participants: Representatives of various regional divisions of the public administration system, as well as representatives of civil society organizations.
The organizers are the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Local authority of GBAO.
The main purpose of the Round Table was to discuss the conceptual aspects and content of the draft of the second voluntary national review. The Round table was attended by about 30 people representing regional and district government agencies, donor organizations and civil society of GBAO.
The program of the round table consisted of two parts. The first part is a presentation of the main aspects of the preparation of the draft of the Second Voluntary National Review of the Republic of Tajikistan, providing information on the achievements and prospects of development within the framework of the country's commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals. The second part of the program was devoted to discussing with the participants proposals for the successful implementation of the SDGs, in relation to the peculiarities of the development of the GBAO region.
The moderator of the Round Table was the Head of Department on Monitoring of the National Programs Kamoliddin Boziev.
At the very beginning of the event, the participants were greeted by representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan and the local authority of the GBAO region.
The first speech of the Ministry representative was devoted to the issues of the history of the development of international standards for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the commitments undertaken by Tajikistan to implement them. Kamoliddin also provided detailed information on the inclusion of the SDGs in the main state and sectoral development programs of the country, on the main aspects of the first voluntary national review of the Republic of Tajikistan, the developed and approved Strategy for the development of the "green" economy in the Republic of Tajikistan for 2023-2037.
The second presentation of Boziev Kamoliddin was devoted to the development and execution of the draft of the second voluntary national review, its stages and main content. During the presentation, both the processes of organizing the project development and the substantive aspects of the voluntary national review project were highlighted. During the presentation, the results of a preliminary detailed analysis of the implementation of individual SDGs related to food security, health, education, access to clean water, industrial development and energy, innovative development and climate were presented. The discussions focused on the implementation of the main objectives of these SDGs in the period after the preparation of the first national voluntary review.
During the discussion, the participants very actively expressed their opinion on the implementation of the SDGs. At the same time, the participants noted that despite the positive developments in economic development, a number of problems that hinder the sustainable development of the regions have not yet been solved on the ground, which include:
o Logistics of agricultural production.
o Shortage of teachers and preschool and school educational institutions.
o Gender disparity in universities and colleges.
o Low provision of districts with doctors and medical institutions.
o Low availability of clean drinking water in rural areas.
o High water capacity of agricultural production.
o Limited supply of electricity in winter
o The need for extensive development of alternative energy and, first of all, solar.
o Low wages in vacant positions.
o Disproportion in the development of extractive and manufacturing industries.
o The revival of the silk industry in the region.
o Irrational use of state property (industrial enterprise territories are empty)
o There is no international railway connection.
o Innovations , climate change and its negative impact on waterlogging and salinization of lands, reduction of groundwater horizons.
o Problems with financing in the socio-economic sphere.
The event as a whole made it possible to identify the opinion of various segments of the population on the essence and content of the voluntary national review. A number of participants expressed their desire to prepare proposals for the implementation of the tasks of specific SDGs in their region, and representatives of the local authority expressed their readiness to assist in collecting proposals from participants and sending them to the Ministry of Economic Development. In general, it was a good opportunity to hear the participants' opinions on various aspects of regional development, which will be taken into account when preparing the final version of the second voluntary national survey of the Republic of Tajikistan.