Declaration of Participants of the Conference “Climate Change Problem and Public Participation” and recommendations of Public Organizations on realization Pilot Program of Climate Resilience in Tajikistan

Tajikistan’s public organizations are satisfied with Tajikistan’s willingness to participate in the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) and support its goals: integration of adaptation issues and climate sustainability into national policy and development plans aimed at poverty reduction and sustainable development.

Priority sectors that are most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change have been defined as a result of cooperation between PPCR Consultative Group, Multilateral banks and governmental organizations. 

Unfortunately, neither public organizations nor NGOs were involved into the development of Phase 1 and were quite late invited to mechanism of consultations. Only several Tajik NGOs were invited to consultations and their involvement had formal character (participation in two seminars) since they had no preliminary access to required information that would allow them to introduce constructive proposals and comments to Phase 1. Thus, there was a concern over quite poor cooperation between Maltilateral banks and civil society organizations.

In their assessment of the project’s Phase 1 public organizations pointed out insufficient attention paid to involvement of target groups and reduction of vulnerability of population. They also mentioned that principal directions of program activity were mainly aimed at further implementation of existing projects of ministries and multilateral banks with slight “climatic rebranding”.

It should be noted that substantial experience of both NGOs and communities, which includes traditional knowledge about the use of environment, preservation of biodiversity, forest protection, water saving technologies, renewable types of energy and etc, is not taken into account and insufficiently assessed.

Public organizations also showed that very important directions, which are closely linked to protection of population of the country from climate threats and which include public health, access to clear drinking water, food security, reduction of socio-economic losses for farmers and population, were simply “dropped out” of the PPCR. Public organizations have also expressed concern over energy saving issues, energy efficient construction, development of alternative energy sources and delivery of energy to remote energy users as well as programs of wide development of greenhouses, establishment of insurance mechanisms in agriculture and disaster risk management.

In the course of preparation of the draft version of the Strategic Program for Climate Resilience (SPCR) representatives of public organizations were invited for discussion of investment programs of Phase 2 which were developed by multilateral banks and governmental institutions without participation of public organizations. The investment pack included 6 project proposals worth 50mln USD. These projects are planned to be implemented within the next 3-5 years.

Principal recommendations are listed below:

General:

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• Organization of regular and more wide and constructive consultations and discussions by Multilateral banks and responsible governmental structures with representatives of civil society, communities and etc. 

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• Lack of design of the majority of projects in Phase 2 does not allow to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed actions or their impact. Logical frameworks of all project proposals should be based on achievement of sustainable human development and reduction of vulnerability of population. These aspects require concrete indexes and indicators to demonstrate both social and economic benefits for target groups.

Benefits can be shown in the form of economic calculations and expected data on the number of vulnerable communities, women, villages, energy users, users of climate information and etc. 

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• Development of SPCR’s coordination mechanism, which involves civil society organizations into decision making mechanism is another important achievement of a dialogue between PPCR Mission, the Government and community. 

However, there is a need to develop functions and authorities for coordinating and public committees, develop cooperation between all chains of the Coordinating mechanism: interministerial committee, secretariat, multilateral banks, technical group and coordinating committee. This mechanism will ensure effective use of funds, share of experience and knowledge, transparency in decision making procedures and overall efficiency. 

NGOs believe that representatives of Health Ministry and Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, Civil Defense and Emergency Situations Committee should be invited to the Coordinating Committee. 

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• Monitoring should be performed by coordinating committee, which should include representatives of public organizations, multilateral banks, Government and other stakeholders on equal basis, not by the secretariat (which ensures coordination, reporting, links and education). 

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• In River Basin Management  (Climate Resilience Approaches to River-basin Investments) and Land Management projects (Agriculture and Sustainable Land Management) it is important to attract communities to assessment of vulnerability, risk analysis, planning and implementation of project activity. Both knowledge and potential of local communities will play important role for mapping and inventory of vulnerable sections as well as for planning and management of land resources.   

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• In river basin рек (Climate Resilience Approaches to River-basin Investments) and land management projects (Agriculture and Sustainable Land Management) we should encourage best practices and initiatives of farms, community-based organizations and NGOs on land management, introduction of water saving technologies and provide small grants for land resource and river basin management programs. These original and unique practices, innovations and practices of traditional sustainable use of environment should be distributed at the expense of SPCR’s funds. 

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• Projects on strengthening and improvement of services and climate, weather (Improvement of Weather, Climate and Hydrological Service Delivery) and modeling (Climate Science and Impact Modeling Partnership) should focus on access of population to climate related information, short and long-term forecasts and agroforecasts. To do that, rural population and farmers should be provided with these forecasts through radio broadcasts, mobile phones and other simple forms. It is also important to create climate change models in a format that would be used at both academic and local level by local government structures, communities and private investors. 

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• In the project aimed at strengthening of adaptation in energy sector (Enhancing the Climate Resilience of the Energy Sector) it would be more useful to create a new infrastructure for development of small hydropower sector, solar energy and implement a series of practical projects in the field of energy saving or renewable energy sources, e.g. “1000 warm buildings” or “1000 solar photovoltaic roofs ”. 

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• In terms of capacity building for adaptation (Building Capacity for Climate Resilience) and raise of awareness on climate change it would be useful to use experience and skills of NGOs which implement their climatic programs in collaboration with international organizations at community and youth level as well as among responsible organizations and decision makers. Creation of demonstration plots and information and education centers in communities would also let improve the country’s adaptation potential.  

Tajikistan’s public organizations are interested in constructive dialogue on the development of SPCR in Tajikistan and are open for cooperation with multilateral banks, Government and international organizations for implementation of the program and its monitoring.   

Participants of the “Climate Change Problem and Participation of Society” conference:

Dushanbe, October 30, 2010

Public organizations of Tajikistan:

Latifi Alikhon - Club of Ecological NGOs of RT

Yuri Skochilov - Youth Ecological Center 

Nabiev Umed - Youth Ecological Center   

Timur Idrisov - «Little Earth» 

Alikhanova Tatyana - Club of Ecological NGOs of Tajikistan

Burhanova Muazama - NGO “Fund supporting civil initiatives»

Jumaeva Svetlana – “Climate change and disaster risk reduction center”

Partoev Kurbonali - «Cooperation for development»

Ulugov Umed - «Youth of 21^st century»,

Blagoveshenksaya Svetlana - «Kukhiston» fund

Kabutov Kurbon - «Oftob»

Gupalov Аndrey - «Zumrad»

Novikova Tatyana - NGO «Noosphere»

Prudskih Dmitry - Youth group on environmental protection, Hudjand

Kajumov Djamshed - Development agency «Nau», Hudjand 

Khotamova Toshburi., NGO «Hamdilon», Shaartuz

Bobobev Hamza, Development center of communities, Nosiri-Husrav

Mamadaliev Bahrom – “Tabiati Toza”

Kaumov Abdulhamid – International Institute of Human ecology

Sharipov Azizbek – National Association of farmers of RT

Chino Badoyan – “Mehrangez”, Bohtar

Roziya Alieva – “CAMP – Kuhiston”

Aminov Umed – Society of Red Crescent of RT

Mahmadalieva Muhabbat – “Zan va Zamin”