BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 29. The continued collaboration between USAID and KazAID enables both agencies to gain greater understanding of regional development issues and possibly engage in future joint programming in Central Asia, the USAID official told Trend.
On June 24, 2021, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Kazakhstan Agency for International Development (KazAID) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cooperate on development assistance to foster social, political, and economic stability and security in Central Asia and Afghanistan. The MOU’s main idea is to allow the two agencies to cooperatively work towards promoting democratic principles and good governance, protecting human rights, expanding economic prosperity, ensuring social stability, improving health and well-being, and eradicating poverty in the region.
Following the signing of the MOU, USAID and KazAID developed a Roadmap that laid out concrete actions for 2022 that have produced the following results:
- USAID/Central Asia held joint webinars with KazAID on the structure of development assistance, priorities for the region, strategic and budget planning, project design, and monitoring and evaluations.
- In August 2021, USAID and KazAID, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Commerce, hosted a Women’s Summit for women leaders, entrepreneurs, activists, women-owned small-and medium-sized enterprises, women-led business associations, and relevant non-government organizations including over 100 participants from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and India. The summit was organized to establish a high-level dialogue and provide a networking opportunity to highlight the contribution of women from Central Asia and India in addressing post-pandemic challenges to improve incomes and create new jobs.
- In August 2022, USAID and KazAID hosted a round table to exchange knowledge and discuss the water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus and integrated water resources management tools for the development of curriculum for Central Asian universities
- In April 2022, USAID/Central Asia and KazAID held a workshop on organizational capacity building to identify priority areas for providing development assistance in a more efficient way. The workshop focused on program development and management, performance management, organizational governance and sustainability, and budget development. As a result of the workshop, both agencies came up with the specific areas of direct government-to-government cooperation and technical assistance, program exchanges and visits to learn more about regional programming and implementation. This helped both agencies to enhance greater donor coordination and leverage Kazakhstan as a leader to forge peer-to-peer learning and regional connectivity and integration in Central Asia. Operationally, it was an important opportunity to shape the Government of Kazakhstan's approach to include key development principles such as transparency, inclusion, and sustainability.
- In May 2022, USAID/Central Asia and KazAID conducted a field visit to Uzbekistan to see USAID’s regional economic development activities in Tashkent and Samarkand. Both agencies mutually benefited from the visit as it enabled them to gain a better understanding of the needs and opportunities in the region so they can ascertain how best to engage in trilateral cooperation with USAID.
- USAID also hosted KazAID's senior leadership in Almaty for a week to exchange strategic approaches on regional economic development.