Astana, February 21. The Committee on Ecology and Environmental management of Mazhilis of Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan has formed a national working group for strengthening the Platform for Cooperation of Representatives of the MFA and Parliaments of Central Asia and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan at the national level, and in fulfillment of the Work Plan of the Platform for 2018-2020.
The primary task of the national working group is to preserve the information obtained during the regional meetings of the Platform, to promote the experience and knowledge, and also to prepare the members of the Platform for its regional meetings (if necessary, preparation of documents, references, information handouts about Kazakhstan, etc.).
The national working group of Kazakhstan was composed of 9 people - deputies (members of the Committee on Ecology and Environmental Management of the Mazhilis of the Parliament), representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Energy of the Republic.
The working group will allow consolidating already obtained results of the work of the Platform, and will also promote more productive work in the future. The group will provide the necessary thematic and expert support in preparation for regional meetings, and will also promote the decisions and results of the Platform's work at the national level in their departments.
The cooperation platform for the representatives of the MFA and Parliaments of the countries of Central Asia was established in 2016 as part of the EU-CAREC project "Promoting dialogue for conflict prevention related to the environment, water nexus issues in Central Asia. Central Asia Water- Nexus Cooperation (CAWECOOP)". Within the framework of the project implementation, five meetings of the Platform took place at the regional level, and during the sessions, a draft roadmap for cooperation was developed.
In late 2017, the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) joined the initiative. In the framework of the SIWI contribution, another regional meeting of the Platform was held (January 26, 2018). During this meeting, the Roadmap for Cooperation was finalised, and the Platform’ Work Plan for the period 2018-2020 was drawn up. Besides, thanks to the support of SIWI, representatives of Afghanistan were involved in the work of the Platform.