DUSHANBE, February 10, 2016 – During January 31 - February 9, 2016 a series of capacity building workshops were organized with World Bank support for civil society organizations (CSO) in Dushanbe and Khujand, Tajikistan. The workshops were financed by the World Bank's Korean Trust Fund Program on Citizen Engagement, and implemented by a local CSO, Globus. The workshop brought together over 40 participants from various regions of Tajikistan.
The workshops, taught by international and local trainers covered research methodology, independent monitoring and evaluation and data analysis and reporting themes. The goal of the workshops was to promote stronger participation of civil society in development projects, including those financed by the World Bank.
"Participation of civil society, beneficiaries and local communities in projects that affect them, yields stronger results and makes implementation of a project more efficient and transparent,” said Patricia Veevers-Carter, Country Manager for the World Bank in Tajikistan. "Therefore, the World Bank has been incorporating Civil Society Engagement in a number of projects, mainly in the rural development and education sectors with the goal of all our projects incorporating Civil Society Engagement by 2018. Civil Society Engagement does not only involve consultation with the population affected by the project, but involves actives participation of CSOs in project design, implementation it or monitoring through independent verification.
“The training workshops exceeded my expectations. I realized how labor- and time-consuming the monitoring and evaluation work is”, - stated one of the participants from Sughd region. "The knowledge that I gained based on the international and local examples will help me enhance the monitoring and evaluation system in my organization. I now also better understand how civil society can complement the public sector efforts to bring better services for the population."
The World Bank, supported by the Korean Trust Fund Program on Citizen Engagement for Better State-Society Relations Program in Central Asia, works to support citizen-state relations in Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan.
In Tajikistan, the ongoing Country Partnership Strategy calls for engaging civil society in all operations supported by the WBG in a wide range of capacities, from consultation on the design of new projects to implementation of a project component.
The World Bank’s active portfolio in Tajikistan includes 21 projects with a net commitment of US$ 323.4million (including regional projects) that aim to support economic growth through private sector development, while investing in better public services for people, such as education, health, municipal services and social protection. Since 1996, the World Bank provided over US$1 billion in grants and highly concessional credits from the International Development Association and trust fund resources to Tajikistan.
The World Bank Group is committed to continue supporting Tajikistan as it strives to improve the lives of its people and meet the aspirations of its young and growing population.
