The Enhancement of Living Standards (ELS) Programme

The philosophy of the project is to tap on locally available resources to improve living standards in a way that people can fell, touch and see. The programme piloted in Karakalpakstan and Fergana Valley, where regions have a lot in common in terms of infrastructure requirements, sanitation, power, electricity, and telephone communications – all of which need to be upgraded. In these regions, agriculture is an important source of economic growth. Small businesses, and rural enterprise, family-run tourism facilities and national handcrafts production and marketing, provide alternative sources of income. Banking on people’s resilience and ingenuity, the programme is determined to make the best use of EU resources and UNDP support and deliver the results expected by the donors and the local communities.

The project focuses on a number of activities related to:

- Development of regional and local strategies, which foster more active participation of people in the community, in the decision making process and dialogue with regional authorities for the preparation and implementation of joint local development strategies;

- Empowering local communities for improved social welfare by encouraging communities to implement self-help schemes and undertake rehabilitation of social services infrastructures;

- Income generation and diversification for improved quality of existing sources of revenue through income generation and diversification, support to job creation, financing for rural and urban micro-credit schemes and promotion and development of agricultural co-operatives.

The project promotes an integrated approach, whereby the three project components I) increased capacity for local development planning, II) improved access to basic services and III) increased opportunities for income generation work in synergy to support the national development strategy in the regions and the Millennium Development Goals.