Background

At present, Uranium legacy sites across Central Asia represent a significant risk. Former Uranium mining and processing sites remained abandoned and pose an ongoing threat to the people and environment. UNDP was the leading organization of the first regional project on Uranium tailings in Central Asia, implemented together with OSCE and UNEP through 2009-2012 within the framework of the Environment and Security Initiative.  The success of this project triggered the formulation of Stakeholder Engagement for Uranium Legacy Remediation in Central Asia Phase I (2014-2018), followed by Phase II (2019-2023).
 

Objectives

The overall objective of the 3rd phase of the project is to reduce the risk of negative impacts resulting from uranium waste on people, livelihoods, and the environment by raising awareness and supporting people-centric, gender-sensitive, and risk-informed solutions in uranium legacy sites at the local community level in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Achieving this objective involves the implementation of a focused public advocacy and outreach campaign, building upon the successful awareness-raising efforts of the previous two phases. Additionally, the project aims to strengthen national and cross-border cooperation in uranium legacy remediation while executing targeted socio-economic interventions at the community level to reduce the risk of Uranium Legacy Sites (ULSs) in vulnerable communities.
The proposed project will concentrate on the following key components, which complement each other:

Output 1: Engaging, capacity-building, and raising awareness among local stakeholders in participating countries for uranium legacy sites remediation.
Output 2: Improved socio-economic conditions in target communities driven by local participatory planning, gender-sensitive solutions, business development, and strengthened regional cooperation.

Approach

Phase III builds on the outcomes and impacts of the preceding two phases, moving away from ad-hoc capacity building activities towards establishing and strengthening an institutional base for long-term ownership of ULSs in the three participating countries, which will contribute to the sustainability of project results. UNDP and OSCE will collectively focus on creating synergies across the two project components to maximize the development impact.