Representatives of the ELS project, UNDP, Mahalla Foundation in Karakalpakstan and Namangan, the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Ministry of Economy, the State Committee for Environment Protection of Karakalpakstan, the Geographic Information Center in Nukus, “Tahlil” Research Center, International Water Management Institute, the Asian Development Bank, and German Agroaction took part in the roundtable.

Living standards maps are relatively new to Uzbekistan. In other countries these maps (also called poverty maps) are used for targeting key policy and development interventions where the poor are concentrated. These maps have proved useful for establishing priorities among alternative poverty alleviation measures and improving the design of these programmes to enhance their impact on the lives of the poor.

In Uzbekistan living standards maps may help policy makers and development actors to see better the geographic concentration of interventions aimed at the improvement of peoples’ living standards and improve coordination and monitoring. Considering the regional nature of the problems in Namangan region and in Karakalpakstan, the maps can do a lot to help authorities, donors and communities to target and concentrate resources where they are mostly needed. The maps can also help to understand better the relationship between environmental resources, their use and people’s lives.

The round table served as an opportunity to share the participants’ experience on various aspects of cartography and its application in improving living standards. The representatives from the Ministry of Economy gave a presentation about the lessons learned on poverty mapping during a visit to Tanzania organized in December by the UNDP Bureau for Europe and the CIS and supported by the ELS project.

The national centre of economic research Tahlil recruited by the ELS projects to conduct a rapid assessment of living standards in six pilot districts of Namangan and Karakalpakstan, presented the centre’s methodology for collection and analysis of data that will be used serve to create digital regional and district maps. The methodology revolves around the use of Millennium Development Goal based targets and indicators in line with the national MDGs included in the Welfare Improvement Strategy Paper. The data collected by the centre is to be stored in a database to be retrieved for future use.

In the preparation of the maps the ELS projects is also working together with the Nukus Geographic Information System Center housed in the Karakalpakstan State University. The Nukus Geographic Information System Centre, created thorough a grant form NATO, will help the ELS projects to produce the maps.