Consuelo Vidal Bruce, UN Resident Coordinator a.i. in Uzbekistan: Opening remarks at the kick off session of the VNR Twinning Programme

The UN has been an active supporter of Uzbekistan’s strong commitment to and the implementation of the global 2030 Agenda. Not only has the UN facilitated the nationalization of the SDGs and integrating it into national policy making, but we have also supported the establishment of an integrated national financing framework (INFF) to finance national sustainable development priorities.

The UN family in Uzbekistan is also proud to acknowledge its support to Uzbekistan in establishing a bi-cameral parliamentary commission on SDG oversight in 2020, as well as the assistance in drafting the UN Resolution on enhancing the role of parliaments in accelerating the achievement of the SDGs, which was adopted just over a month ago.

Furthermore, the UN has been at the forefront of supporting the national efforts to monitor and report on the national SDG progress, including through capacity building for statistics and data collection, as well as for UN ECOSOC’s High-level Political Forum and the Voluntary National Review mechanism.



The UN has also been working with the private sector in Uzbekistan to harness its interest and resources for sustainable development.

Today we’ve gathered to kick-start a very exciting exchange of knowledge and experience on how the three countries of our region – namely Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia – have approached the SDG implementation, what challenges and success stories they have, and how they are going to reflect on them in their next Voluntary National Reviews.

The countries of our region, while all unique in their own ways, share similar global and local sustainable development issues, such as climate change and energy shortages, food insecurities, poverty and employment, gender inequalities, connectivity issues, and so forth. The five-day study tour will serve as an excellent opportunity to share best practices and lessons from each of the three countries.

Uzbekistan has a lot to share as it has managed to withstand and navigate through very challenging three years of external turbulence, first caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic, then by the events in neighboring Afghanistan, and more recently by the Russia-Ukraine war and the sanctions on Russia.

I’m glad to note that the challenging circumstances have not undermined Uzbekistan’s commitment to national SDGs, and its medium-term national goal of becoming an upper middle-income country by 2026.

Using this opportunity, I’d like to express my appreciation to the Government of Uzbekistan for hosting this unique tri-partite twinning study tour, which is also a manifestation of commitment to the South-South cooperation for sustainable development.

I wish everyone a productive and interesting exchange of knowledge and experiences and look forward to continuing our collaboration on preparing, reviewing and finalizing Uzbekistan’s 2nd Voluntary National Review.