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National Development Council Meets to Discuss Progress and Challenges of Development Strategy for Tajikistan. Photo courtesy: Administration of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan
Dushanbe, 6 July 2018
President Emomali Rahmon pointed out that despite the overall positive tendency in the economic situation of Tajikistan, poverty remains a lingering issue and affects all aspects of the population’s life in the country, as he spoke at the National Development Council meeting earlier this week. The meeting gathered the heads of donor organizations, diplomatic missions, ministries and governmental institutions, and other stakeholders to discuss the National Report on the progress of the National Development Strategy 2030 and Mid-term Development Program 2020.
“Extreme poverty according to the data from international organizations is at the level of 14 per cent, while the percentage of the middle class has reached 24. High economic grown of 7 per cent annually and increase of social sphere expenses lie at core of this achievement. As a result, the average life expectancy has gone up to 73.5,” Emomali Rahmon said, noting that poverty is nevertheless an unsolved issue for the country.
A series of thematic consultations was held prior to the council meeting to ensure an inclusive data collection and evaluation process of the national priorities alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. The consultations were co-organized by the government of Tajikistan and the United Nations.
At the preparatory stage, the UNDP provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the Agency of Statistics under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan in developing an inventory of the national and global SDG indicators. The coalition of public organizations “From Equality De-Jure to Equality De-Facto” made valuable recommendations on improving the gender sensitivity of certain parts of the National Report based on an independent review.
According to this report, other development issues prevailing in the country are employment, food security and access to quality products, energy independence, country’s connectivity, corruption, effective governance, environmental protection and demographic risks.
At the council meeting, the UN Resident Coordinator Pratibha Mehta, World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan Jan-Peter and the Head of the European Union Delegation to Tajikistan Hidajet Biščević noted a significant progress in the government’s socio-economic oriented development activities, yet reminded of the challenges ahead of the country to ensure no vulnerable groups are left behind.
“SDGs is a bold and ambitious commitment which will require creative ways to mobilize resources domestically and by tapping into new sources of international financing. A recent report commissioned by UN, estimates that nearly 118 billion US dollars will be required to implement the NDS and the SDGs by 2030. This will require stronger public finance management, a plan to invest the anticipated hydro- energy revenue from Rogun in social spending; use of large sums of remittances for development by building people’s confidence in banking system and giving incentives to people to invest remittance in small businesses rather than using it only for consumption; it will also require reforms for incentive-based and rule-of-law led private sector development, which can also contribute in diversifying economy and in creating job, especially for youth.”- UN Resident Coordinator in Tajikistan Pratibha Mehta said.
