Throwback to early May activities: Donor Coordination Meeting on «Water and Environmental Projects in Central Asia»
Early May was full of important meetings where CAREC was involved. One of the most important of them is the donor coordination meeting in Geneva on 5 May 2017 that gathered the representatives of international and regional organizations to discuss joint environmental projects and initiatives in Central Asia. The meeting was organized by the European External Action Service (EEAS), UNECE and UN Environment.
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The aim of the meeting was to discuss the condition and perspectives of cooperation among development organizations operating in Central Asian countries in the field of water resources and environmental protection.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the World Bank, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy in Central Asia (UNRCCA), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), DEVCO, Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea of Italy, German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Swiss agency for development and cooperation (SDC), the US government and others.
Participants exchanged information on ongoing efforts and discussed the potential for cooperation: how to use existing momentum for strengthening regional cooperation on transboundary water and environment and increase complementarity and synergy between existing initiatives and programs. The meeting, led by Mr Marco Keiner of UNECE with opening remarks by Ambassador Petko Draganov of UNRCCA and Ambassador Peter Burian of EEAS, once more highlighted the importance of the region in the context of global environmental cooperation. The participants pointed out the growing role of CAREC in this process.
Dr Iskandar Abdullaev - Executive Director of CAREC talked about potential ways to facilitate the regional cooperation in the field of water and environmental projects in Central Asia through existing projects of the organization. He presented the ongoing discussion about the launch of the process Environment for Central Asia (EfCA) and called all participants to support this. Inspired by the success of the process Environment for Europe, EfCA would help to coordinate the efforts of countries of the region, regional and international organizations working in Central Asia in the field of environmental protection, water resources management and sustainable development.
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This meeting took place against the backdrop of the upcoming Central Asian Environmental Forum (CAEF) organized by CAREC in cooperation with the Turkmen government and regional, international partners on 5-7 June, 2017 in Ashgabat.
This milestone event of the region is organized every year in different capital cities of the Central Asian countries. It is envisaged that this event could serve as an amalgamating platform to allow the exchange of ideas and knowledge, and efforts in tackling environmental challenges, also to foster the process EfCA.
CAREC presented the concept and preliminary agenda of the forum. Expressing their interest in this forum and reflecting CAREC’s work in the region, the participants encouraged CAREC to take the role of coordinator of all environmental activities in Central Asia. At the end of the meeting, the parties identified the next steps how to strengthen cooperation in the region and the coordination of efforts. As an immediate step, it was decided to elaborate the concept of coordinating efforts in the region that will be led by CAREC.