As part the EU SWITCH Asia Funded project: Resource Efficiency in Agri-food Production and Processing (REAP) the project team organized a National Policy Roundtable on SCP that took place on 12 July 2022 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The policy roundtable aimed to introduce the concepts of SCP, project goals to policy makers and catalyse the uptake of SCP at the legal level.
Government agencies, development organizations, associations, NGOs and MSMEs participated in the event, in particular: the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Tajikistan, The Committee on Environmental Protection under the Government of Tajikistan, GIZ, Tajikstandard, Institute of Economics and System Analysis of Agriculture Development of the Tajik Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Agrarian University of Tajikistan, Tajik Beekeeping Association, Badakhshan Agribusiness Association, Tajikistan Customs Brokers Association.
The event was launched with a presentation of the project, its objectives, an explanation of the main areas of support for increasing resource efficiency in agri-processing MSMEs by the senior project manager of National Association of Small and Medium Business of the Republic of Tajikistan (NAMSB RT), Ms. Nasibakhon Aminova.
Ms. Nilufari Farrukhi, Junior project manager, NAMSB RT presented practical benefits of the measures implemented by the project in agri-processing MSMEs in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on reduction of the consumption of resources in processing and the use of waste generated in production in other processes, i.e. such as fertilization, thereby reducing the need to procure other resources. This was followed by a summary of the legal framework for SCP, highlighting as well the national programmes and strategies relevant to SCP and the main national and international stakeholders by Ms. Madina Karimova, Project Manager, NAMSB RT.
The event continued with group work on prototyping SCP policy mechanisms to strengthen SCP update among industries in Tajikistan. Ms. Aikena Orolbaeva, Analyst, adelphi gGmbH, provided stakeholders with background information and benchmark examples of successful SCP policy mechanisms applied internationally to enable participants to better manage the task.
Subsequently, step-by-step group work was carried out with moderation of the project team and guiding questions. Each group developed and presented to the audience their own locally adapted policy mechanisms/solutions prototypes to facilitate the process of implementing SCP practices at different institutional levels. These included:
- Development of a national strategy or plan for SCP which encompasses awareness-raising among producers and consumers
- Establishment of an educational school on SCP to function as a knowledge and skills centre, providing training and other information required for both MSMEs and the general public
- Establishment of a credit union for MSMEs aiming to implement resource-efficient technologies in their production.
- Replication of the REAP project approach in training local technical consultants to provide services in a wider geographical area, with the possible creation of associations of technical consultants or integration of the latter into existing business associations