Major donors of Tajikistan are here to help the country reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development

On October 10, 2006 the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, for a third time, took a critical look at the social and economic impact of their development assistance to Tajikistan. The two initial joint portfolio reviews took place in 2004 and 2005. The meeting was attended by the Government’s key Ministers and heads of the units and agencies implementing projects funded by both international financial institutions in Tajikistan.

The primary objective of both institutions in Tajikistan is to help the Government in reducing the poverty and building better future for next generations of Tajik citizens. Both Banks are present in Tajikistan since the 90-ies and the volume of funds allocated ever since rounds up to USD 690 million. This amount which includes both grant and soft credit financing is a part of Tajikistan’s Public Investment Program (PIP). So, for instance, in 2005 disbursements under the projects financed by the two IFIs have made up to 2.5 percent of GDP or 66 per cent of the total PIP disbursements.

“We came together today to look back and see what results we managed to  achieve by implementing our projects in Tajikistan and what we should do further to improve our performance to benefit this country and its citizens”, - said Mr. Cevdet Denizer, the World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan.

The joint portfolio of both Banks in Tajikistan comprises 27 projects (of which 16 are WB-funded  projects and 11 are ADB-supported ones). The major part of the projects is in agriculture and rural development (33%), energy sector (17%), transport (17%), social sector (16%), water supply (9%) and public administration (4%). Prudent macroeconomic management and financial sector get 3% and 1% of overall financing respectively.

“I am happy to state that overall we are satisfied with the program of two Banks in Tajikistan”,  said Mr. Matlubkhon Davlatov, State Advisor to Tajik President on Economic Policy, adding the following: “There are however few issues which remain  unresolved or activities requiring our more serious attention. These include taxation of projects, project selection and endorsement procedures, more effective evaluation and monitoring arrangements and few others”.

Participants to the meeting reviewed the joint portfolio of the World Bank and ADB operations in the country, discussed the implementation status of the Action Plan adopted as a result of the similar meeting held last year, raised generic issues which need to be addressed over the coming year to improve the quality, pace, sustainability and impact of projects, and came up with the draft Action Plan for 2007.

Project sustainability and institutional impact was one of the generic issues brought to the discussion of the meeting. Particular emphasis was given to the Paris Declaration adopted in March 2005 by the donor community and the recipient countries, which calls for building greater capacity within developing countries by gradual and studious transfer of project implementation functions from the Project Implementation Units set up for this particular purpose to the relevant Government ministries and agencies. A comprehensive analysis of the project implementation set up under the WB-funded projects was presented at the meeting by Mr. Aziz Khaidarov, World Bank Country Officer for Tajikistan.

Insufficient impact orientation of projects, portfolio management, and harmonization between ADB and WB were also discussed. In particular, it was proposed to put strong emphasis on improving monitoring and evaluation frameworks both on the Bank’s and Government’s parts and to ensure proper linkage of the portfolio management and performance tracking with the second PRSP currently under development. Harmonization of WB and ADB at procedural and policy levels was encouraged. Fоr instance, better mission information sharing mechanisms should be established and a joint fiduciary mission to Tajikistan was proposed to find the country-specific optimal ways of harmonizing procurement and financial management procedures.

The discussed resulted in overall agreement on the joint time-bound Action Plan to be approved by the country’s Prime-Minister. The action plan sets forth the measures needed to be undertaken both by the Banks and the Government to address the generic obstacles impeding smooth implementation of projects and constraining their sustainability and impact.