Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Ministry of Finance and the extra-budgetary Pension Fund met with representatives of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on 11 April this year.

From the GIZ side the meeting was attended by Susanne Lane, Head of the Adaptive Social Protection Innovation and Training component of the GIZ project in Germany, Saurav Bhattarai, Digital Social Protection Advisor, Cornelia Becker, GIZ Project Manager in Uzbekistan as well as Aziza Umarova, National Consultant.

The meeting began with a presentation by the Ministry of Finance on the current state of the social protection system in the Republic of Uzbekistan, with a particular focus on social assistance. The meeting considered the latest reforms to digitise social benefits for low income families through the 'Single Register of Social Protection', how the information system works, and the introduction of child benefits for low income families. 

Regarding other areas of social protection, the latest changes in the way pensions are granted and granted were discussed. The discussion gradually moved to the expected reforms, during which the envisaged measures to improve social protection within the National Social Protection Strategy 2022-2030 were discussed.

In turn, GIZ representatives put forward a proposal for cooperation in the follow-up of the social assistance sectors. In particular, it was proposed to initiate joint work within the GIZ social protection innovation and training programme on adaptive social protection to strengthen social assistance programmes capable of adapting to shocks and crises.

The Ministry of Finance and the extra-budgetary Pension Fund made proposals for cooperation in the implementation of the social insurance system, social cards for the provision of social benefits, as well as capacity building of information technology specialists of the Ministry of Finance on database management.

At the end of the meeting, the two sides agreed to hold another meeting in an online format to discuss areas of possible cooperation in more detail.