Ministry of Justice and UNDP are launching a joint project “Improved Public Service Delivery and Enhanced Governance in Rural Uzbekistan” with funding by the European Union. This new initiative is aimed to address the accessibility and affordability of public services by citizens, especially those who are part of vulnerable groups, e.g. women, children, people with disabilities, the elderly and those living in rural areas.

The joint project on improving public service delivery is expected to start its activities on July 2019 and to continue until December 2024. The total budget amounts to Euro 9,955,000.

The key areas of the joint project are following:

·         Build an enabling environment for improved public service delivery by streamlining regulatory framework and relevant policies, and encouraging data-driven and evidence-based policy making.

·         Enhance institutional capacities of the PSA, the MoJ and associated agencies to develop, plan, implement and monitor public service delivery policy implementation via the PSCs.

·         Build technical capacity of at least 5 PSCs in the pilot regions to showcase an exemplar model of public service delivery aiming to win public trust and overcome concerns with regard to the viability of one-stop shops.

·         Introduce and pilot participatory planning and governance systems in local government in the pilot regions to ensure that public service delivery addresses the needs of people, in particular of vulnerable groups.

The implementation framework of the outlined directions entails review regulatory and policy framework pertaining to public service delivery at the central and local levels, quality of service delivery assessment and development of proposals for streamlining delivery, functional review of government entities engaged in public service delivery, data analysis tools introduced across the public service delivery system, as well as prototyping blockchain-based solutions in public service delivery.

This project also aims to strengthen citizen participation through a variety of outreach and social accountability mechanisms that enhance people’s voice in decision-making processes and increase their access to information; effectively increasing the transparency of Uzbekistan’s local governance system.

By improving delivery of public services, the project will contribute to improving the quality of life of vulnerable sectors of the population in rural areas - such as women, youth and children, the elderly, and people with disabilities – by enhancing their access to public services and by increasing the quality of service delivery.

It is noteworthy that new joint project will also engage both national partners, such as the Office of the President, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministries of Innovative Development and of Information Technologies and Communications, the National Agency for Project Management under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan, and international partners, experts, academia and NGOs.