WASHINGTON, June 6, 2025 – The World Bank has approved additional financing from the International Development Association (IDA) to benefit local communities, including youth, women, and vulnerable groups, in the Districts of Republican Subordination, Khatlon region, and Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) of Tajikistan.
The $25 million grant will extend the Tajikistan Socio-Economic Resilience Strengthening Project (SERSP), which uses a community-driven approach to enhance local governance, improve infrastructure, and expand livelihood opportunities in targeted districts and jamoats (i.e., village-level administrative divisions) of the country.
The additional resources will implement priorities defined by the communities, including climate-resilient infrastructure improvements, such as the rehabilitation of schools, health clinics, and water supply systems, as well as the integration of renewable energy solutions. The project will also support entrepreneurship and business development training to beneficiaries, and provide individuals, groups, and micro and small enterprises (MSEs) with grants based on market assessments and business plans.
“The involvement of communities in planning and decision-making empowers them to help solve social and economic problems,” said Wei Winnie Wang, Acting Country Manager for the World Bank Group in Tajikistan. “It is a part of the World Bank Group’s larger effort to support Tajikistan by helping people get better access to jobs, enhance local facilities and services, and thus improve their livelihoods."
The SERSP was first approved on June 20, 2019, with an IDA grant of $37 million and is being implemented by the National Social Investment Fund of Tajikistan. The additional financing will expand the coverage of SERSP’s community-driven investment and livelihoods approach to additional districts and jamoats in the Rogun Hydropower Plant Project (HPP)-affected area and in jamoats from other parts of the country with high shares of people living in poverty.
The project will cover jamoats in three districts (Faizobod, Nurobod, and Danghara districts) and two cities (Rogun and Tursunzoda cities) that include resettlement villages under the Rogun HPP’s second phase of resettlement. It will also provide support to other jamoats in these five districts. Furthermore, jamoats in two additional districts (Qubodiyon district in Khatlon and Roshtqal’a district in GBAO) will receive support under the project.
The World Bank is currently financing 26 projects in Tajikistan, totaling $1.9 billion.
