Consulting company

Interim assessment of the activities of the GIZ program “Green Economy and Sustainable Development of the Private Sector in Kyrgyzstan”, results of 2021

Location:

Jalal-Abad , Osh , Chui and Issyk-Kul regions of the Kyrgyz Republic

Beneficiaries: enterprises in the fruit and vegetable, livestock and tourism industries.

Objective of the project:

Evaluate the program’s progress in achieving its goals:

  • confirm assumptions and understand the contribution of the program in terms of creating additional income and creating new jobs;
  • identify the bottlenecks and problems faced by program beneficiaries.

 Project Tools for Program Evaluation:

  1. Desk research, study of program materials.
  2. Quantitative survey on a random sample from the general list of beneficiaries:

beneficiaries – 133 , non-beneficiaries – 88

  1. Qualitative, in-depth individual survey of Program beneficiaries. Within the framework of this method, 91 beneficiaries were interviewed

Additionally, 2,033 were surveyed via social media.

  1. 2 Focus groups

Technical support:

  • Processing and analysis of quantitative data was carried out using a specialized package of application programs for statistical processing of information SPSS for Windows 22.0.

The F2F survey was conducted in the field using CAPI technology using the specialized Simple program Forms.

  • All in-depth interviews and focus groups were recorded on a voice recorder and subsequently transcribed.

Some program evaluation results:

Component: Institutionalization of the Green Economy Model

To evaluate the outcome using the green policy development modeling, 7 in-depth interviews were conducted, including with the technical group – employees of the Ministry of Economy and Commerce of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The green economy model of Kyrgyzstan, created by international expert Andre Bassi using the “Venzim” software application, consists of a set of indicators interconnected by mathematical formulas. When inputting data, the model provides economic development forecasts under different scenarios. The model has undergone verification through historical statistical data input, and the resulting outcome aligned with real economic indicators.

Currently, using this tool, modelers are analyzing 15 pilot interventions in agriculture and tourism, with the support of the GIZ project.

Component: Definition and approval of green economy measures

All measures for the tourism and agriculture sectors, which are included in the green policy, were discussed with the private sector and were presented to the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic.

From the selected measures, VAT has already been abolished for solar power plants, autonomous well pumps and their components, both domestic and imported. Manufacturers of energy efficient technologies and suppliers will be able to increase sales, as the canceled VAT will reduce the cost and price of such equipment.

Component: Expanding the network between stakeholders on GE issues

To assess the extent of network expansion among stakeholders, in-depth interviews were conducted with the Economic Club – a public discussion platform aimed at discussing pressing socio-economic issues of greatest interest.

The Club brings together the public sector, experts, business representatives, academic circles, and the private sector.

Component: Implementation of medicines traceability

In 2010, the Law on Mandatory Animal Identification was adopted in Kyrgyzstan. After which a program was developed to record animals and track their movements.

With the assistance of the GIZ program “Green Economy and Sustainable Development of the Private Sector in the Kyrgyz Republic,” the system was improved in terms of tracking medicines. The purpose of the revision was to trace medications as they are used in vaccination and treatment of animals.

Thus, the veterinary inspection received a proven and tested program for tracking medicinal products.

Component: Green practices in tourism

With the support of GIZ, a new direction of activity, the Almaluu – Art Residence for artists, has been established at the yurt camp.

At the Art Residence, 2 generations of artists met, young and older, who learned from each other, exchanged experiences and ideas on joint projects to raise the level of art and the involvement of the population in the country.

The art residence was visited by executives of large companies, bloggers, government officials, this helped promote the new brand of the yurt camp and arouse interest in cooperation, and also helped attract more tourists.

Green Yurt is a yurt camp, opened in 2021, located on a high mountain jailoo Boz Salkyn, on the southern shore of Issyk Kul, which uses green practices in its activities.

With the help of the GIZ program “Green Economy and Sustainable Development of the Private Sector”, 2 large-scale festivals and a blogger tour were held, which attracted the attention of a large audience of tourists to Green Yurt Camp , increasing its recognition.

Kol Fest The first music and art festival in Central Asia. The festival took place for the first time in June 2019.

The main idea of the festival is to promote the culture of Central Asian countries, therefore musicians from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and many other countries participate in the festival. Festival visitors live in yurt camps, hotel houses and camping sites.

The GIZ program “Green Economy and Sustainable Development of the Private Sector” helped organize the festival infrastructure using green practices:

  • organization of separate waste collection;
  • installed ecosan toilets, solar panels, electricity sources;
  • rehabilitation of an abandoned building as an exhibition space for artists from the Almaluu Art Residence.

The music and arts festival is becoming the hallmark of the South Bank, which can attract more than 1000 tourists over 3 days.

Destination Osh

Road Show & Info Tour

Tourism in the southern regions of Kyrgyzstan is of great interest. Destinations such as Lenin Peak, Arslanbab, Sary Chelek are very popular among foreign tourists. But the level and quality of service needs to be improved.

In Osh, tour operators and service providers are united in the Association – Destination Osh, which helps promote the interests of businessmen.

In 2021, from April 23 to 27, Destination Osh and the Tourism Development Council of the Osh Region, with the financial support of the GIZ program “Green Economy and Sustainable Development of the Private Sector,” organized a tour to the Republic of Uzbekistan, the participants of which were tour operators from the Osh region. And from June 7 to June 14, 2021, Destination Osh, together with the GIZ program, organized an information tour for tour operators from Uzbekistan in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions. In addition to tour operators, active bloggers from both countries took part in the info-tour, who subsequently covered the trip on their social pages.

Travel companies from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have concluded about 100 agreements of intent to form tourist groups and organize cross tours.

Component: Green practices in livestock farming

As part of the GIZ program “Green Economy and Sustainable Development of the Private Sector”, practical training on artificial insemination (AI) was conducted.

Of the 30 trained insemination technicians, 15 actively offer artificial insemination services, 100% of those surveyed (13 insemination technicians) confirmed that artificial insemination services are an additional activity and additional income for them.

Butcher shops

The GIZ program “Green Economy and Sustainable Development of the Private Sector in Kyrgyzstan” provides technical support to butcher shops. The purpose of this support is to introduce a system of “model stores” selling safe and high-quality meat that meets food safety requirements, HACCP elements, and has traceability with meat suppliers. 4 meat stores were surveyed, including a chain of stores in the Frunze and Globus shopping centers.

As a result of GIZ trainings, beneficiaries introduced standards for disinfection of display refrigerators, counters, tools (knives, saws, etc.), changed the storage and warehousing system, separating these premises.

Component: Green practices in early vegetables and plums

Early vegetables

As part of the interim evaluation, a survey was conducted among project beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries to investigate the agricultural practices used by farmers (including green practices). As a result, the evaluation confirmed that GIZ contributed to:

1) transition to the production of organic products, changing agricultural practices from traditional to organic and their certification;

2) development of an advisory service – foremen for training farmers in organic practices and inspectors for monitoring and support in obtaining organic certification.