IFPRI CA NEWS DIGEST (OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 19, 2015)
News and Analysis
Europe and Central Asia Capacity Development Trust Fund (ECAPDEV)
(World Bank, 7 Oct 2015) The Europe and Central Asia region Capacity Development Trust Fund (ECAPDEV) has been established to build operational capacity in the region, and to support improvements in the quality and speed of project preparation in low income countries, informs World Bank for Europe and Central Asia. ECAPDEV is a Multi-Donor Trust Fund with an initial pledge of $23 million from the Government of Russia and has two main objectives including assistance for project preparation and capacity and knowledge building.
Kazakhstan plans $3 billion currency sales after tenge slide</p>
(AKIpress, 16 Oct 2015) Kazakhstan will sell $3 billion from its National Oil Fund on the market by the end of the month, prompting concern the tenge purchases will only delay a slump in the local currency, reports Bloomberg. The oil fund needs tenge to finance economic programs, the central bank said in a statement on its website Thursday. Previously, the transactions didn’t affect the exchange rate because they were conducted between the fund and the central bank, without foreign currency entering the market. The tenge strengthened for the first time in five days against the dollar, adding 0.1 percent to 276.34 at the close in Almaty.
Uzbekistan’s GDP grows by 8% in January-September
(UzDaily, 19 Oct 2015) Gross domestic product (GDP) of Uzbekistan grew by 8% in January-September 2015, the session of the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan dedicated to the social-economic development of the country in nine months of 2015 said. According to the Government, the growth of agriculture production reached 6.6% in the reporting period and industrial output – 7.3%. Uzbekistan increased production of consumer goods by 10.1% year-on-year in nine months of 2015.
Agro Food Tajikistan 2015 Exhibition kicks off in Dushanbe
(Asia-Plus, 14 Oct 2015) The 3rd International Exhibition for Agriculture, Food, Processing and Packaging, dubbed Agro Food Tajikistan 2015, kicked off in Dushanbe on October 14.
60 companies from more than twenty countries, including Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Germany, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and Uzbekistan, are participating in the exhibition that is taking place at the Kokhi Borbad State Complex.
Uzbek food industry plans to double exports by 2020
(UzDaily, 19 Oct 2015) Food industry of Uzbekistan is planning to increase the volume of exports twice by 202 and decrease imports of products by 80%. In 2016-2020, the Uzbek food industry plans to implement 300 new large investment projects for US$410 million. Along with large investment projects, it is planned to realize 5,000 regional development projects for US$500 million, which will allow to produce additional 100,000 industrial goods and 10,000 new jobs, mainly in rural areas.
Farmers receive more than 3 bln soms in form of soft loans since beginning of 2015
(24 News Agency, 19 Oct 205) At least 8,425 farmers (in Kyrgyzstan) received 3,256.5 billion soms in the form of soft loans since the beginning of 2015, the press service of the Ministry of Finance reported. According to it, 2.5 billion soms was spent on development of animal breeding, on processing, seed production, breeding and agricultural cooperatives - 355.2 million soms, on crop production - 335.5 million.
Publications
Declining opportunities: New UNDP report examines recent downturns in migration and remittances in Central Asia (Also available in Russian)
(A Eurasian Development Bank and UNDP Report, 13 Oct 2015)
The new report released by UNDP reveals that despite a drop since 2014, migration levels in Central Asia are likely to see a marked increase in the coming decade. Recent declines, according to the study, have been due in large part to the economic slowdown in Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as tighter implementation of migration regulations in Russia. According to UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS (RBEC)’s resident economist Ben Slay, “Prevailing demographic and economic forecasts strongly suggest that migration and remittance flows for the less wealthy Central Asian countries will continue to be quite significant in the next 15 years.”
(Y. Goryakin, L. Rocco, M. Suhrcke, B. Roberts and M. McKee. 2015. Public Health Nutrition. Vol.18 (15))
Abstract: The objective of the paper is to explain patterns of fruit and vegetable consumption in nine former Soviet Union countries by exploring the influence of a range of individual- and community-level determinants using cross-sectional nationally representative surveys and area profiles from 2010. Main conclusive remarks are, overall, fruit and vegetable consumption in the former Soviet Union is inadequate, particularly among lower socio-economic groups. Both individual- and community-level factors play a role in explaining inadequate nutrition and thus provide potential entry points for policy interventions, while the nuanced influence of community factors informs the agenda for future research.
(G. Hohberg, F. Kreczi and H. Zandler. 2015. Erdkunde. Vol. 69(3). pp. 233-246)
Summary: Energy supply is a key issue in isolated high mountain regions like the Eastern Pamirs of Tajikistan. This study uses an interdisciplinary approach to analyze the energy system of Alichur, an exemplary settlement in the region. Thereby, the local energy mix is evaluated, as well as the current and possible future supply of the two main resources used: Dwarf shrubs and animal manure. Finally, based on the energy system analysis, a locally adapted energy poverty index is developed. In contrast to assumptions made in the literature on the topic, we found that currently only 15 % of Alichur’s inhabitants are energy poor, 25 % are endangered by energy poverty and 60 % are energy secure. However, with decreasing access to dwarf shrubs in the future, the share of energy poor households and those endangered by energy poverty may increase to more than 70 %, leaving less than 30 % of Alichur’s households energy secure. In contrast to existing energy poverty indices, the adapted energy poverty index presented here considers social and environmental interrelationships of the case study region. It is therefore well suited for describing the energy situation of Alichur’s population.
(A. Hamidov, A. Thiel and D. Zikos. 2015. Environmental Science & Policy. Vol. 53(Special Issue))
Abstract: The irrigation sector constitutes the backbone of Uzbekistan's economy, providing social and economic stability in the region. The sector collapsed with the fall of the Soviet Union, due to worsening of infrastructure conditions causing tensions among resource users. Subsequent irrigation management reforms were implemented in a top-down manner. More than a decade after the initial reforms – which established local Water Consumers Association (WCA) and transferred operation and maintenance responsibilities for on-farm irrigation canals – the poor performance of these associations is still apparent, illustrating the heritage of the strong role of state agencies in Uzbek water management that still affects collective irrigation management today. This paper identifies the necessary and sufficient conditions for successfully managing common pool resources (CPRs) and, more specifically, irrigation canal maintenance in the rural Bukhara region of Uzbekistan. Fifteen WCAs were examined regarding conditions that may facilitate successful irrigation canal maintenance. Methods involved focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with the associations concerned. Data gathered was analyzed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The results indicate that two paths of local factors can lead to well-maintained irrigation canals: (1) the combination of appropriate chairmanship skills with sustainable resource appropriation or (2) the combination of appropriate chairmanship skills with the presence of effective participatory governance. The results also illustrate the role of path-dependence and traditional co-production of irrigation management in Uzbekistan.
(F. Mukhtarov, S. Fox, N. Mukhamedova and K. Wegerich. 2015. Environmental Science & Policy. Vol. 53(Special Issue))
Abstract: Institutional design for water governance assumes the possibility of intentional introduction of policy innovations into the new contexts or amending existing institutions. Such institutional design has been common in the water sector and examples include participatory irrigation management, integrated water resources management plans and water privatization programmes. With increasing application of institutional design across various political, socio-economic and cultural settings, the importance of the context is increasingly accepted. The key question is therefore how to reconcile institutional design and contextual variability. Based on our research on the introduction of water user associations in parts of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, we conclude that a top-down institutional design implemented nation-wide and not involving multiple stakeholders and engaging their views, is doomed to failure. As an alternative, we offer interactive institutional design, which is based on collaborative approaches to institutional design and treats design as works of assemblage.
Introducing decentralized pasture governance in Kyrgyzstan: Designing implementation rules
(Crewett, W. 2015. Environmental Science & Policy. Vol. 53(Special Issue))
Abstract: This article studies the design of rules for the creation of CBNRM governance bodies. Empirical data comes from a multiple case study on a recent pasture governance reform in Kyrgyzstan. The analysis builds on a modification of Kiser and Ostrom's three-leveled approach to the study of institutional change for which the actor component was specified. The study finds that multiple change agents were involved in a multi-phased rule design process under conditions of legal pluralism. It documents a case of institutional change which is triggered by exogenous (re)design of formal institutions leading to local-level institutional design which is strongly impacted by the distribution of authority among members of the local implementation network and the objectives of each actor group. It is a surprise that in the studied cases institutional bargaining did not determine institutional outcomes.
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