Development finance assessment

Capacity-building
Strengthen Uzbekistan’s national statistical system and improve the GoU’s capacity to 
effectively monitor SDG progress, the national action strategy as well as their financing.
Multiple international observers point to Uzbekistan’s weak data ecosystem as 
undermining efforts towards more evidence-based policymaking. Understanding the 
financing landscape, and the progress being made in sustainable development, is 
a foundation for dialogue about the roles that different types of financing can play in 
achieving the SDGs. This requires sustained efforts to keep improving the quality and 
transparency of economic data, in line with the identified recommendations of the MAPS 
(2018) mission. 

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RECOMMENDATIONS
The DFA recommends that the Statistics Committee, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry 
of Labor, and the CBU consider agreeing on a roadmap to implement the following concrete, 
immediate opportunities for strengthening Uzbekistan’s data ecosystem in support of 
accelerating SDG financing:
„
The soon to be finalized implementation of the program-based budgeting reform is an 
opportunity to automatically connect public spending to development outcomes by 
integrating the nationalized SDG indicators into the PBB’s M&E framework. Having the 
SDG indicators linked with both the strategic planning and the state budget process 
would better align annual budgets to the national development plan. This would enable 
generating the necessary data to discuss the SDG alignment of the national budget. 
„
Plan for the 2022 population census to include survey questions that capture more 
granular information pertaining to SDG progress and specific SDG financing flows, 
such as Islamic finance practice, or household use of remittances. 
„
Adapt administrative systems to incorporate the tracking of public expenditure on 
cross-cutting issues such as gender equality or climate finance. 
„
Enhance efforts to build a policy culture that values the constructive use of evidence, 
starting with efforts to institutionalize monitoring and evaluation practices. Coordination 
between international partners for capacity building in this area—for both the GoU 
and civil society partners—is highly recommended.
Building capacity and raising awareness of Parliamentarians regarding the gender and 
environmental dimensions of SDG financing.
Meaningful gains in fiscal transparency can help underpin credibility and confidence 
in the management of public funds and enhance transparency, accountability, and public 
engagement. Building such capacity and accountability can catalyze the mobilization 
of diverse stakeholders, including the private sector and civil society, for financing the 
nationalized SDGs
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. A critical first step would be to enhance the role of the Parliament, 
particularly its Budget Committee, in scrutinizing and assessing the SDG alignment of the 
annual budget, as well as financing policies and development programmes of the GoU 
and other relevant actors. This could be complemented with encouraging civil society, 
the media and public oversight institutions to work with open budgets and integrated 
priorities like gender-sensitive budgeting.