News

Update from Central Asia: On the way to Rio+20

24.05.2012

22-23 May, 2012. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

 A two day national conference “Sustainable development of Kyrgyzstan: on the road to RIO+20”,  with active participation of 120 representatives from government agencies, leading NGOs, business sector, and national and international experts wrapped up on May 23, 2012 with adoption of the Resolution integrating inputs from the multi-stakeholder discussion process for finalization of the draft document –the Kyrgyz Government position on Green Economy presented by Mr. Sariev, Minister for Economy and Anti-Monopoly at the conference.

 In his opening speech Mr. Avanessov, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative to the Kyrgyz Republic said, that during RIO+20 Kyrgyzstan will highlight the problems of mountain countries, and  equally for Kyrgyzstan, support to mountain countries is important as 33% of population lives below the poverty line. ‘This is a strong initiative and I believe that it will be supported’, he said.

 The conference was organized by CAREC Kyrgyzstan Office, MP member, with support from UNDP Kyrgyzstan and in cooperation with the Kyrgyz Government: Ministry of Economics and Anti-Monopoly and State Agency for Environmental Protection and Forestry.

 The drafting process for the background document and the position paper involved the UN-Government-CSOs joint Working group, to which the MP Central Asia Hub staff took active part for ensuring the mountain context was maintained for national development perspective formulation. Relevant documents including the MP position on Mountains highlighting Water-Energy-Food nexus, Regional report on Central Asia, Paragraph 94 of the Zero draft document have been shared and referenced extensively for positioning the republic as the mountainous country with specific development needs.

 At the conference, the Regional Report on Central Asia for Rio+20 was launched and a briefing on Mountain Pavilion and other side events has been provided for the national delegation and NGOs heading to Rio urging for the national delegation’s active participation. The regional report copies in English and in Russian languages have been handed out to the Kyrgyz officials, members of the national delegation.

 May 14, 2012. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Under the lead of UNISON, active MP member, civil society groups and government representatives gathered for a National Dialogue titled “Rio+20: What it means for the Government and NGOs of Kyrgyzstan” to review the national preparatory process for Rio summit.

An eight-point recommendation has been developed for consideration by the national delegation.

Dushanbe, Tajikistan. 

In Tajikistan, the National Report “Tajikistan: On the road to green economy” was released on May 08, 2012. The report was prepared by the Ministry of Hydrology and Irrigation, with support from the UNDP Country office. According to some media sources, the report underwent strong criticism for the lack of civil society participation and local voices in the report production process. ( http://www.ecocentre.tj/ru/index/index/pageId/1140/4 )