National Technical Analyst [Open to External Applicants]

Background

In September 2023, the Government of Uzbekistan adopted the National Development Strategy of Uzbekistan (NDS) until 2030, also known as “Uzbekistan Strategy 2030”. The document outlines the country’s primary development objectives and pivotal reforms across various sectors to be realized by the end of this decade. This marks the third NDS that has been adopted by the government since 2017, with the preceding two covering the periods of 2017-2021 and 2022-2026. The NDS until 2030 encapsulates various sustainable development aims of Uzbekistan, through creating education, healthcare, and social protection systems that align with international standards, and establishing a comprehensive environmental framework. The new strategy outlines a set of 100 priority actions that the government will take to advance progress across five key areas: fostering opportunities for individual self-fulfillment, ensuring the welfare of the population through sustainable economic growth, conserving water resources, protecting the environment, and crafting a public administration system that will focus on citizens’ needs.

The project aims to address the degradation of high value steppe grassland, shrubland, and forest dryland ecosystems, and support the restoration of these ecosystems where degradation has already occurred. As such, the key environmental threat addressed is ecosystem degradation, of grassland, shrubland, and forest ecosystems. There are multiple direct causes of degradation, including overgrazing, and excessive cutting of trees and shrubs (primarily for domestic energy use). There are a large number of root causes and drivers of these direct causes of degradation. Key drivers of degradation include uncontrolled animal husbandry, increasing demand for industrial and fuel wood, uncontrolled harvesting of non-timber forest resources, and expansion of agriculture into forests (especially riparian forests).

The objective of the project is to scal