Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

UNDP Uzbekistan is committed to promoting new approaches to understanding and addressing poverty and multidimensional inequalities, while building policy coherence and financing mechanisms for development that align with national SDGs.

To support inclusive growth and sustainable incomes, UNDP works to enhance sustainable employment opportunities for youth, women, and people with disabilities, promote inclusive business models, investment, and trade, support capacity building for evidence-based policy research to address the needs of the most vulnerable, and facilitate financing for the achievement of SDGs.

As Uzbekistan rebuilds forward from the COVID-19 pandemic, UNDP’s Inclusive Growth portfolio is helping to establish national policies that enhance the economy’s resilience, promoting inclusivity and equality.

Scope

UNDP's Inclusive Growth Cluster supports Uzbekistan's efforts to improve economic governance by focusing on poverty reduction and addressing inequalities through the following areas:

• Creating opportunities for decent employment
• Facilitating financing for sustainable development
• Promoting a green and digital economy through capacity/skills development
• Managing the Future of Work portfolio
• Integrating a systems thinking approach for inclusive growth

Specific activities under this program include:

• Introducing strategic, SDG-aligned, transparent, and people-centered financing using the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for monitoring;
• Supporting the Government’s efforts in modernizing skills development programmes and implementing active labour market policies aimed at reducing youth and women unemployment;
• Supporting Uzbekistan’s WTO accession process;
• Developing an SDG Financing Strategy that emphasizes green and gender-equal development, focusing on increasing the efficiency of existing financing resources (PFM reforms).
• Mobilizing new financing solutions, including innovative and blended finance, green/gender bonds, nature performance bonds for afforestation programmes, risk insurance, and sukuks;
• Improving inclusive entrepreneurship, decent employment opportunities, digital and green economy, trade and export capacities of MSMEs, as well as access to finance for digital entrepreneurship projects and startups;
• Working with IFIs (WB, AfD) to support developing and operationalizing a Green Growth Strategic Framework towards 2030, implementing the relevant parts of the Poverty Reduction and New Uzbekistan Development strategies; and
• Applying best practices at the regional levels, particularly in Fergana, Aral Sea region, and Surkhandarya regions.