Dushanbe, February 12, 2016 – The Minister of Finance of the Republic of Tajikistan, Abdusalom Qurboniyon, and the World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan, Patricia Veevers-Carter, today signed an agreement to finance the Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program for Aral Sea Basin (CAMP4ASB). Under this regional program, financing for Tajikistan includes US$9 million from the International Development Association.
“I am glad that Tajikistan is part of this regional initiative, which will address climate change challenges through regional cooperation and community-level investments,” said Patricia Veevers-Carter, World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan. “Natural disasters and other risks of climate change cause significant damage to livelihoods and economy in Tajikistan, so we are looking forward to supporting the country’s efforts to mitigate these risks in the future.”
Under the Program, financing will be provided to rural communities to address current threats to agricultural production and rural livelihoods stemming from climate risks such as droughts and weather extremes. Crop diversification, on-farm water resource management and efficiency improvements, rehabilitation of degraded lands, livestock production, agro-products processing, energy efficiency enhancements are some examples of measures to be financed under the project. These climate investments will help improve livelihoods and increase productivity in rural areas while also demonstrating climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts that can be ultimately shared and scaled up across the region. It is expected that these projects will benefit 91,000 people in Tajikistan.
At the regional level, CAMP4ASB will support a platform for sustained regional dialogue and knowledge sharing among all Central Asian countries on climate change across a broad range of sectors, including agriculture, disaster risk management, water, energy, etc. This platform will also make available to all countries in the region an integrated analytical system with improved data, information, and tools to inform policies and prioritization of climate-smart investments.
The Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program for Aral Sea Basin seeks to reap the benefits from regional cooperation and collaboration to address the mounting challenges of climate change, which often transcend borders in Central Asia. In November 2015, the World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors approved an allocation of US$38 million to finance the first phase of the Program, which supports Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as a regional organization, the Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (EC-IFAS). Preparation is already underway in the other Central Asian countries for their participation in the Program over the next two years.
