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Today, on 11 November 2015, the Ambassador of Switzerland to the Kyrgyz Republic H.E. Ren? Holenstein, and the UNDP Resident Representative in Kyrgyzstan, Mr. Alexander Avanessov, have signed an agreement for the implementation of the “Cross-border Cooperation for Sustainable Peace and Development” project in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

The goal of the project is to create a more conducive environment for the promotion of sustainable peace and development in cross-border areas of Kyrgyzstan and of Tajikistan. Peacebuilding interventions will focus on Batken oblast of Kyrgyzstan and Sughd oblast of Tajikistan with the aim to build a constructive dialogue between cross-border communities. In the framework of the project, cooperation on infrastructure development in the cross-border villages will be enhanced to ensure that disputes over access to natural resources are managed better. Such issues have in the past provoked several incidents.

 

The signed agreement provides a framework to implement activities related to the Kyrgyz component of the project while a similar agreement has previously been signed for activities in Tajikistan. The Swiss Government through its offices in Bishkek and Dushanbe provides equal contributions in the amount of USD 1 million to each of the national components of the project. The project is the next step in the implementation of the sub-regional program launched through seed funding from UNDP’s Bureau for Programme and Policy Support (BPPS) in response to cross-border tensions in 2014. The project will work in six geographic clusters of villages from both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.