DUSHANBE, March 26, 2015, Asia-Plus – The FAO resident Office in Dushanbe says that one of the conditions of effectiveness of the World Bank’s US$22 million Agriculture Commercialization Project in Tajikistan was to build a capable Project Management Unit (PMU) at the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), an ambitious task that was given to FAO and successfully completed last week.
Along with a major capacity development work on the ground, the MoA with FAO”s support produced the Project Operational Manual, five Value Chain Analyses (apricot, lemon, tomato, dairy and beef), review of extension schemes and input supply market, prepared the ground for the baseline survey and much more. Ministry”s staff and future PMU colleagues were reportedly trained on monitoring and evaluation, financial management, procurement, value chain analysis coupled by two study tours to Iran and Moldova to learn from other countries how to be completive on the global market.
Last week there was a round table at the MOA with the participation of representatives from the WB, FAO, newly appointed Director of the PMU and PMU staff to hand over the work done during the last six months. The preparation was funded by the Europe and Central Asia Capacity Development Multi-donor Trust Fund and delivered under an agreement between the MOA and FAO. The Agriculture Commercialization Project has now been declared effective and will be implemented during 2015-2021.
