Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 10 November 2021 UNDP in Uzbekistan in cooperation with the Center of Economic Research and Reforms and the Ministry of Employment and Labour relations, organizes a workshop on the Future of Work, which aims to present and discuss recommendations for a design of medium-term portfolio of support measures to the Government of Uzbekistan in area of employment. 

The support measures proposed in the portfolio aim to contribute to the Government’s goal of reaching the upper middle-income level by 2030, reduction of poverty by two times by 2026, and other important development priorities outlined by Mr. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the newly elected President in his inauguration speech on 6 November 2021.

In designing the portfolio, UNDP recognizes that changes are happening at the high speed and single-point solutions cannot tackle the complexity and uncertainty. Therefore, UNDP promotes a whole-of-system approach to employment considering issues of digitalization, green transition, labour market transformation, enhancing job creation, improving the business environment, and creating entrepreneurship opportunities, especially among the youth, women, returning migrants, people living with disabilities (PwD) and other vulnerable groups.

In the next five years and more, UNDP programmatic approach towards employment will be focused on attracting resources, developing policies and interventions in three areas of ‘Responsive Entrepreneurship and Labor Market’, ‘Social Resilience’ and ‘Green Transition’. As a result of interrelated interventions, market competitiveness of Uzbekistan should increase at regional and global levels, while measures to improve working environment and increase social resilience will prepare against future shocks and disruptions. Proposed measures should also enable to effectively utilize environmental resources in a sustainable manner and practices to support creation of green jobs and enable green transition.  

As part of the portfolio design process, UNDP also conducted a series of consultations in June 2021 with the Government counterparts, development partners and beneficiaries. As a result of these consultations, a report was prepared, which provides a set of recommendations for strategic directions for UNDP’s engagement. 

The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations provided inputs for workshop discussions by an overview of current employment policies and priorities of cooperation with international development community. Dedicated discussions by the workshop participants, which include representatives of ministries, international community, international financial organizations, development agencies, private sector and civil society organization, are organized in three parallel interactive sessions so that each participant can provide feedback to report findings and contribute with ideas to the elaboration of support package.

The workshop discussions will enable UNDP to work further with the national partners on developing concrete sets of linked interventions, resource mobilization and expanding partnership.