Tashkent, September 5, 2015 - The World Bank and the Government of Uzbekistan signed a Grant Agreement for US$450,000 to support social assistance and employment services in Uzbekistan through the Integrated Single Window Office Project.
The project aims to increase coordination across various social protection and labor programs managed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, strengthen the capacity of the Ministry in delivering services to the vulnerable and needy groups of the population in Uzbekistan, and improve coordination in delivering such services with the local communities (Mahalyas).
The project will design and establish a system of “Integrated Single Window Office” for social service delivery, including new service delivery model and a management information system to automate the operation of the two district employment centers of the Ministry on a pilot basis. It will also propose design of a centralized social registry of beneficiaries and support development of a reform roadmap for the national rollout of the Integrated Single Window Offices and the Social Registry system.
“The new project will improve quality of the social services delivery and increase their effectiveness in reducing poverty and providing employment opportunities to the people of Uzbekistan by increasing coordination across programs, awareness of the people, and transparency in the program management,” said Junghun Cho, Country Manager for Uzbekistan. “When rolled out at the national scale, the new concept of the Integrated Office and the Social Registry would allow for better national and regional planning for scarce public resources by enabling the Government to better monitor and allocate expenditures in the social sector at the district level. The system will also help reduce errors and fraud.”
The direct beneficiaries of this project are households and individuals using social assistance, social care, and employment facilitation services provided by the Ministry at district level. Additionally, both the Ministry and the local communities will benefit from this operation due to the simplifying and automating administrative processes and increasing the capacity of their staff.
The grant has been extended under the Rapid Social Response Multi-Donor Trust Fund, administered by the World Bank and financed by the governments of the UK, Russian Federation, Australia, Norway and Sweden.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection will be responsible for implementation of this Grant.
Uzbekistan joined the World Bank in 1992. The World Bank’s mission in the country is to improve people’s livelihoods through being a partner in economic reforms, supporting the modernization of the country’s social sectors and infrastructure, and sharing its knowledge and experience with the government and the people of Uzbekistan. Current World Bank commitments to Uzbekistan amount to about US$2 billion.
