EDB Expands Cooperation with UNDP

Almaty, 25 April 2011. Igor Finogenov, Chairman of the EDB Executive Board, and Kori Udovicki, UNDP Regional Director for Europe and the CIS, signed a memorandum of understanding.

This document lays the foundations for cooperation and seals the parties’ agreement to strengthen and coordinate their joint efforts in energy efficiency and saving, environmental protection, food security, water management, and rural development.

Particularly, the EDB and UNDP name as areas of common interest programmes and projects to harness renewable energy resources in rural areas in Central Asia with an emphasis on small hydropower plants, studies of the problems of joint water management on cross-border rivers, and support for Russian-Kazakh cooperation in preserving ecosystems in the Ural basin.

Additional Information

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a UN system organisation concerned with assistance to member states in development. In many aspects, the UNDP is the UN’s main unit at a country level. The UNDP cooperates with partners in many countries in sustainable development, poverty eradication, improving women’s conditions, good governance, and rule of law. The UNDP assists governments in studying natural resources, founding educational institutions and energy development; provides advisory and expert services; trains specialists; supplies equipment; etc. This assistance is provided on a free-of-charge basis. The UNDP’s financial resources are formed of voluntary contributions of its members who are the members or observers of the UN or other international organisations.