Uzbekistan Country Gender Assessment: Update

Uzbekistan:
Housing for Integrated Rural Development Program
. 
Social and Gender Survey
. Uzbekistan Resident 
Mission. p. 18.
158 
adB. 2015. 
Balancing the Burden
? 
Desk Review of Women’s Time Poverty and Infrastructure in Asia and the Pacific
. Manila. 
p. 7.
159 
external resources include lease of boundary and pasture lands, loans, and wage work in forestry. Internal resources 
include all types of household income.
160 
UN Food and agriculture Organization. 2017. 
Gender, rural livelihoods and forestry. 
Socio-economic and gender analysis 
of forestry sector in Uzbekistan
. 
tashkent. Under publication.
161 
UN Food and agriculture Organization. 2016. Central asia and the Caucasus association of agricultural Research 
Institutions (CaCaaRI). as
sessment of the Possibilities for Income Diversification through Rural Crafts Development. In support 
of Small Businesses and Job Creation for Women and Men in Rural Communities in the Republic of Uzbekistan
(in press).

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Mainstreaming Gender in ADB Operations, by Sector
53
products. Small farms have impaired access to credit on account of high fluctuations in 
profitability and scarcity of available cash flow. Combined with the natural vulnerability of 
farming businesses, aridity, and water deficiency, these factors might reduce the ability to repay 
a bank loan.
However, many mature women farmers successfully use bank loans. they are open to 
innovation, independently explore new kinds of agricultural production, use internet resources, 
and undertake study “tours” to gain knowledge of agricultural best practices. For instance, some 
female participants in field studies have launched different types of livestock production that 
are uncommon in Uzbekistan (e.g., rabbits and reindeer).
162 
a positive trend emerging among mature women entrepreneurs is the ability to use part of any 
surplus on philanthropic interventions focused on helping local low-income households achieve 
a certain level of sustainability in their business.
Self-identified barriers and challenges pertinent to female-managed micro, small, and medium 
enterprises (MSMes) include
• 
scarcity of financial, human, and time-bound resources and capacity;
• 
lack of start-up capital and property to use as a collateral;
• 
high cost of officially registering collateral;
• 
short-term loans (up to 1 year) that do not match the cash flows generated by a farm’s 
multiyear production cycles;
• 
ability to obtain cash loans from a bank; and 
• 
the large financial investment required to dig boreholes in regions with water deficiency 
(footnote 164). 
4. ADB Interventions
adB’s lending portfolio in the agriculture sector is valued at about $699.9 million (about 12.8% 
of adB’s total lending portfolio), including four ongoing loans totaling $320 million. adB 
focuses its assistance on (i) mitigating environmental, social, and gender impact; (ii) increasing 
energy efficiency; and (iii) promoting adaptation to climate change.
163
adB’s Horticulture Value Chain development project (HVCdp), which started in 
February 2017, supports interventions that optimize farm size (specifically for horticulture), 
assist in crop diversification, and enhance private sector participation in horticulture value 
chains.
164
the HVCdp’s expected outcome involves increased finance for horticulture to 
address inequities in rural employment, extend new loans by pCBs, and bring more unemployed 
people into the workforce as registered farmers.
162 
adB field survey in 2017 in preparation for this CGa update.
163 
adB. 2017.