UNRC Ozonnia Ojielo's Speech at Strategic Prioritization Workshop on Cooperation Framework

Almaz Nasirdinovich Isanov,

Colleagues from the Office of the President, State Ministries, Departments and Institutions,

UN colleagues,

Felicitation,

It is my pleasure to add my voice to that of Almaz Narsidinovich in welcoming all of us to today’s workshop. The planning for this workshop has taken a while. We are grateful to the leadership of the Department of Political and Economic Research in the Office of the President for facilitating the approval by the Chair of the Cabinet of Ministers of the composition of this Technical Working Committee and in co-organizing this workshop. We salute the seniority and level of the participants of the technical committee and I am convinced that together, we can take our partnership and collaboration to much higher levels.

This workshop is central to determining what the UN does over the next five years starting from 1st January 2023. As we conclude implementation of the UNDAF, which will end on the 31st of December this year, we have to start the consultation around the UN’s support to the national development priorities over the next 5 years. There are three key foundations to determining what the UN does over the next five years. The first is a Common Country Analysis which looks at political, social, economic and environmental trends in the country, identifies challenges, opportunities and accelerators and makes recommendations on what the UN should focus on given the mandates of the 28 UN agencies that have projects and presence in the country. The second determining factor is the evaluation of the current programme of support, the UNDAF. The report and recommendations from the evaluation were presented at a technical level meeting we organized at Park Hotel in November last year. We will take forward all the key recommendations from this report. The third foundation is composed of the National Development Programme, the Action Plan of the National Development Programme, and all the key national strategies and policy documents that have relevance to the mandate and work of the UNDS agencies.

In preparation for this meeting, UN colleagues came together, looked at all three documents mentioned above, and building on the various bilateral and group consultations that have taken place between the UN and various state institutions, developed some initial ideas on the priority statements, outcomes and outputs that could inform our collaboration and partnership over the next five years. Please note that these ideas are mere proposals. We hope that you will agree with them and endorse them. Otherwise please feel free to modify and amend them. The most important criteria should be that the ideas proposed are central to the national development priorities, and second, fit within the mandate of UN agencies. For example, while many colleagues might want to see some infrastructure and road construction initiatives, the UNDS does not engage in such infrastructure projects. If the national priorities change in the future, the UN will also review and modify the outcomes and outputs to fit with the changed priorities.

Today’s workshop should be a conversation. It is not a question and answer workshop for you to only ask questions of the UN colleagues. Our hope is that we will co-create the new directions for the Government-UN partnership. Your views, comments, analysis and deep engagement in the work groups will be central to our achieving this objective of a co-created new partnership agenda. The duration of this workshop has been designed to allow for deep reflection, interactions and discussions. The voices of the government counterparts are the most important voices that should be heard at the working group discussions. 

So what do we expect of all participants at the end of today’s workshop:

1. Agreement on the priority statements
2. Agreement on the outcome statements
3. Agreement on the outputs

Today’s workshop will focus at the strategic level. It is not designed to look at the specific work or needs of each state institution or ministry. It is expected to bring together the elements of the work of all the state institutions in a strategic way. Therefore, it is not necessary that all of your colleagues in your ministries and institutions who work with different UN agencies on their projects are present at this meeting. The specific details of what will be done under each output will be for further meetings to be convened in March. At those meetings, your other colleagues may participate.

In conclusion, I wish to highlight one area that has increased in importance and relevance for the UN, and that is intangible capital. "Intangible" factors -- such as the trust among people in a society, an efficient judicial system, clear property rights and effective government - boost the productivity of labor and results in higher total wealth. According to one research, “human capital and the value of institutions (as measured by rule of law) constitute the largest share of wealth in virtually all countries." When one takes into account all of the world's natural resources and produced capital, 80% of the wealth of rich countries and 60% of the wealth of poor countries is of this intangible type. The bottom line: "Rich countries are largely rich because of the skills of their populations and the quality of the institutions supporting economic activity."

The late development economist Peter Bauer in his brilliant 1972 book Dissent on Development, wrote: "If all conditions for development other than capital are present, capital will soon be generated locally or will be available …..from abroad…… If, however, the conditions for development are not present, then aid [and development] will be necessarily unproductive and therefore ineffective. Thus, if the mainsprings of development are present, material progress will occur even without foreign aid. If they are absent, it will not occur even with aid."

The UN’s continued focus on its normative agenda is precisely to enable countries like Kyrgyzstan, to develop, sustain and consolidate these mainsprings of development so that it can continue to create opportunity, wealth, inclusion, cohesion, prosperity, peace, progress and development for its peoples.

Chon Rahmat.

Thank you.

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