The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Tajikistan (MoEDT) jointly with the United Nations on July 28 hosted a roundtable to review the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2016-2022  evaluation.

According to the UN Resident Coordinator Office in Tajikistan, high-level representatives of major state institutions and the heads of UN entities participated in the roundtable, and discussed the lessons learned of the past five years of joint action towards the national development priorities and the SDGs.

The independent evaluation team reportedly presented the findings and proposed a set of actionable recommendations for the government and the UN to take forward jointly.

In addition, the evaluation also reviewed the joint response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the efforts to integrate COVID-19 response and development assistance in 2021 and looking forward into 2021.

The recommendations proposed by the independent evaluation team also included an attention on important areas of focus for the government and the United Nations as they begin to work on the design of a new cooperation framework to be launched on 1 January 2023.

Ms. Sezin Sinanoglu, UN Resident Coordinator in Tajikistan noted in her opening remarks: “These independent evaluation recommendations have been carefully reviewed by the UN and the government.  We have developed a Management Response to apply the lessons and recommendations in the final year of implementation of the current UNDAF and the design of the next UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework – which will be a partnership platform for strategic cooperation between the Government of Tajikistan and the UN but also all other national and international development stakeholders.” 

In his opening statement Mr. Zavqi Zavqizoda, the Minister of Economic Development and Trade thanked the UN for productive cooperation and ensured deeper engagement of the state partners in all stages of the design, implementation and evaluation of all development interventions with the UN, engaging civil society, private sector and non-traditional partners for inclusive and comprehensive development programming.

During the meeting, the participants from various government agencies reportedly provided their feedbacks and in conclusion, endorsed the final UNDAF evaluation report and the management response.