On 3 April in Dushanbe, Tajikistan the Inter-State Commission on Sustainable Development (ICSD) composed of Ministers of the Environment of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan adopted a decision inviting UNECE to provide assistance to the institutional and legal strengthening of the Commission. ICSD is part of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS). UNECE, on the basis of a mandate provided by the 2009 Summit of IFAS, has been actively engaged in the institutional and legal strengthening of IFAS in recent years.
UNECE will, among others, assist in improving donor coordination and fundraising by ICSD and the development of a unified information space for Central Asia that will improve information management in the field of environment protection, water resources management and hydro-meteorology.
The support from UNECE will be organized in the framework of the “Regional Dialogue and Cooperation on Water Resources Management in Central Asia” programme (Phase II), financed by the Government of Germany through the German Agency for International Cooperation under the Berlin Water Process.
Note for editors:
The International Fund for saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) was established in early 1990s by five Central Asian States — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — to implement in a coordinated way the practical measures and programmes to overcome the impacts of the Aral crisis and to improve environmental and socio-economic conditions in Aral Sea Basin.
The German Agency for International Cooperation is an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations, which supports the German Government in achieving its development policy objectives. The German Agency for International Cooperation is an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations, which supports the German Government in achieving its development policy objectives.