DUSHANBE, October 15, 2009, Asia-Plus — Implementation of a joint project of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Community Development through Employment Creation and Improved Migration Management, has helped raise living standards of 50,000 residents of the Rasht Valley in eastern Tajikistan (the total population of the area is 280,000), the UNDP Tajikistan Country Director Mr. Rastislav Vrbenski, remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe yesterday.
According to him, young people constitute 42 percent of the population of the Rasht Valley and many of them are outside the country seeking better employment opportunities. Some 80 percent of the local population works in the agrarian sector. “Infrastructure is undeveloped here, there are no industrial enterprises, no working places,” Mr. Vrbenski noted.
Under the project, potential labor migrants have taken training courses on various specialties, basics of the Russian languages and the necessary minimum of norms of the migration legislation.
Moreover, support has been provided to families of labor migrants that have been left in homeland. “For example, 95 families from five jamoats in the Tavildara district received loans for creating new jobs,” said the UNDP Tajikistan country director, “In 15 other jamoats, we helped direct labor migrants’ remittances at development of local communities in order to ensure sustainable income for families. It is a good example of cooperation between the UN agencies and the Government of Tajikistan.”
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Anoaytsho Muborakshoyev, Chairman of Trade Unions of Builders of Tajikistan, noted that the project had helped train 100 people that had been going to travel to Russia for seasonal work. “They have been trained in specialties of bricklayer and welder,” said Muborakshoyev, “On completion of the training, they have been given certificates meeting Russian standards.” However, after taking the training course, many of those young men have found good jobs in Tajikistan itself, Muborakshoyev said.
According to Beate Andrees from the ILO”s head office in Geneva, 360,000 U.S. dollars have been provided for implementation of the project of ILO. A total budget of the project, Community Development through Employment Creation and Improved Migration Management, which is implemented in various regions of the country, is more than 1 million U.S. dollars. The project is funded by United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security.
