UNDP Uzbekistan

Land degradation directly affects the livelihoods of the rural population by reducing land productivity, and by causing significant agricultural production losses. The Government of Uzbekistan has identified the land degradation as a high priority area for development of the country and established the Fund for Ameliorative Improvement of the Irrigated Land (further the Fund). The Fund is the state body accumulating target financial resources, allocated for improvement of ameliorative condition of irrigated lands. The UNDP CO in Uzbekistan jointly with the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan is launching a new project on “Capacity Building of the National Irrigated Land Reclamation Fund”. The overall objective of the new project is to strengthen the capacity of the Fund Management Department of the National Irrigated Land Reclamation Fund in policy planning and financing for more effective management of irrigated lands in Uzbekistan. The project comes to address the priorities outlined by the Government of Uzbekistan, and will be implemented along with other UNDP projects aiming at achieving ecosystem stability on degraded land, strengthening sustainability of national protected areas system and conservation of riparian (tugay) forests – all focusing on sustainable land use.

Overall objective of the project is to formulate an integrated approach to irrigated land management to improve environmental quality and agricultural productivity. The Project will address capacity building needs of the implementing organization, the Fund Management Department, to enable the National Irrigated Land Reclamation Fund to meet this objective.The focus of capacity building will be on streamlining institutional responsibilities, enhancing the technical capacity of the Fund Management Department staff with respect to irrigated land reclamation and management, modernizing project preparation and appraisal systems, improving the legal framework for irrigated land reclamation, demonstrating effective methods of land reclamation, and improving the Fund’s interaction with international donors.

The project will achieve its objectives through realization of four activities as discussed briefly below:
- Strengthen the capacity of the Irrigated Land Reclamation Fund so that it can meet its mandates and ensure that the Fund has adequate authority to carry out its responsibilities;
- Enhance the Fund's capacity to set project priorities based on sound principles of project preparation through improving project preparation and appraisal capacity;
- Support the development of legislation to improve the ability of the government, farmers and water users associations to better manage land resources to prevent land degradation;
- Pilot projects that demonstrate the relationship between effective land reclamation activities and improvements in land quality;

Kashkadarya
Oblast Hydro Geology Ameliorative Expeditions (OGMEs) staff traditionally has been engaged in development of land reclamation cadastre maps for many years to present and analyze information on land reclamation condition. The ArcGIS software package is one of the latest extensions to this ancient tradition. The package is developed by the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), one of the world’s leading companies in the field of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. During this training course trainees will get acquainted with three of such ArcGIS software products. These are the desktop applications ArcCatalog, ArcToolbox and ArcMap. Objectives of the training course are: - to acquire knowledge and awareness of the main concepts related to geo-information cycle; - to practise basic skills for understanding and using of this technology; - to learn practical application of acquired skills to develop land reclamation cadastre.