Uzbekistan Country Gender Assessment: Update

Uzbekistan:
Housing for Integrated Rural Development Program
. Gap progress reports. Uzbekistan 
Resident. Mission.
143 
adB. 2016
. Uzbekistan: Housing for Integrated Rural Development Program
.
 Social and Gender Survey. 
Uzbekistan Resident. 
Mission.

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48
Uzbekistan Country Gender Assessment Update
• 
lack of knowledge about banking systems and skills to work with banking 
“documentation (women who register loans in their own name often rely on their 
husbands to help them prepare the loan documentation and, further, and to manage 
and file the payments); and
• 
co-signing of the average HIRdIp loan by both spouses (as borrower and
co-borrower), with equal rights and responsibilities. However, there are formal 
impediments to joint registration of real estate (footnote 145).
5. Good Practices and Lessons Learned
project outcomes included rural housing schemes for moderate- and lower-income 
beneficiaries, improved local government ability to prepare and implement integrated rural 
development plans and investment promotion strategies, and enabling environments for MSes 
to establish or expand women-focused businesses in the rural areas.
Gap outputs were targeted at increasing rural women’s access to housing finance, ensuring 
women’s participation in all project interventions (through set quotas), and broad outreach 
interventions with a sharper gender focus. Indicators included in all dMF outputs served 
as good initial practice for mainstreaming gender in diverse components of the project and 
contributing to overall project success. Gap implementation supported capacity development 
for gender sensitization in the HIRdIp’s credit evaluation processes, and also helped obtain and 
assess sex-disaggregated data on the performance of pCBs’ housing loan portfolios.
the HIRdIp had a major positive impact on women through easier access to rural housing 
finance and better housing conditions, together with all basic social infrastructure, and also 
provided a range of employment opportunities for women.
144
Box 9 highlights the key gender 
and development outcomes achieved under Gap implementation.
6. recommendations
Recommendations made under Gap implementation and the social and gender survey 
conducted by adB were included in the next phase of aRHp 2017–2020, and the 
implementation of one indicator—on gender policies in the participating banks—became 
mandatory. Upon broad consultations with pCBs, a 27% quota (8,700 houses) was set in the 
SaRHp dMF for women’s ownership of housing loans by 2020, thus contributing to gender 
balance in the exercise of property rights.
the scope and impact of pCBs’ corporate gender policies go far beyond the HIRdIp, and this 
model is recommended for replication in other adB interventions in the region.
144 
adB. 2016. 
Completion Report: Uzbekistan
: 
Housing for Integrated Rural Development Investment Program. 
Manila.

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Mainstreaming Gender in ADB Operations, by Sector
49
Box 9: Housing for Integrated rural Development Investment Program—
Outcomes of the Gender Action Plan
after women in the program areas were encouraged to apply for housing loans, 28.6% of all applications in 
2015 were submitted by women.
Most outreach campaigns under the gender action plan and participating commercial banks gender policies 
were implemented in close consultation and coordination with the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan and 
its regional branches.
applicants were ranked on a 19-question scorecard, which gave preference to women by awarding extra 
points to teachers and health-care workers (female-dominated professions), widowed and divorced women 
with children, and persons with home-based businesses (also mostly women). In 2012
–
2015, women 
became the registered owners of 4,300 houses (26.5% of the total) constructed under the Housing for 
Integrated Rural development Investment program (HIRdIp).
a
the availability of piped water inside the house and access to sustainable, high-quality electricity and 
natural gas allowed families to purchase time- and labor-saving home appliances, significantly reducing 
the household workload and time burden of women beneficiaries. Many female HIRdIp beneficiaries used 
their increased spare time to start home-based businesses (e.g., sewing, baking, and poultry and livestock 
growing).
Better feeder roads and streetlights, social infrastructure (including pre-schools), shopping centers, food 
markets, bakeries, and hair salons generated new jobs, mostly for women.
In many cases, spouses are co-borrowers of loan. Consequently, they assume equal responsibility for loan 
payments. Besides repaying their mortgage, spouses need to calculate their family expenditures. Joint 
financial commitments strengthen family relations and encourage entrepreneurial activities.
b
In 2015
–
2016, women established 9,723 (31.2%) new small and medium enterprises (SMes) in the rural 
areas, and they owned 823 of 2,003 (41.1%) SMes established by HIRdIp home buyers. In 2016, women 
received 413 of 1,009 (40.9%) micro-loans and 368 of 796 (46.2%) micro, small, and medium enterprise 
(MSMe) loans issued to HIRdIp home buyers.
Indoor toilets, bathrooms, and hot water in new buildings improved health and hygiene. Children benefited 
from having their own space where they could lay, read, or do their lessons.
Rural women, particularly young wives, said that living in houses built under the HIRdIp is a dream goal for 
many families. Higher education for married women has been more strongly encouraged, as families become 
more aware of its benefits and value for the future of the family.
c
another important outcome was pCBs’ (the National Bank of Uzbekistan, Qishloq Qurilish Bank, and 
Ipoteka Bank) adoption of gender policies (part III, Section 1).
a
adB. 2016.