Integrated Spatial Plan for Environmental and Socio-Economic Resilience: Khorog Tajikistan: Capacity Building Report

UN-Habitat has partnered with the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat and the government of Tajikistan, through the Aga Khan Development Network, for the ‘Integrated Spatial Plan for Environmental and Socio-Economic Resilience’ in Khorog Tajikistan. UN-Habitat’s Urban Lab, in a collaborative process with other units and branches within the Planning Finance and Economy Section and the Urban Practices Branch, aims to provide planning direction that can improve resilience and social stability for existing communities and sustainably accommodate the growing population in Khorog through:

• developing strategies, masterplans, interventions, and regulations.
• knowledge creation, capacity building, and guidelines.

More specifically, the project aims to provide environmental, legal, economic, spatial and infrastructure policies and projections, governance and management frameworks, with recommendations for transformative projects, and technical capacity building for stakeholders in planning. UN-Habitat provides planning expertise to guide the growth of Khorog, drawing on existing methodologies, toolkits and best practices in a collaborative and integrated way.
This project is the result of an assessment of resiliency that was undertaken for Khorog in 2017 and 2018 by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), with partnerships from the international community for the Khorog Resilience Investment Program, that include the European Union for resilient infrastructure, the Government of Japan, the IFC and World Bank.
The work of UN-Habitat in collaboration with AKAH is part of The Khorog Resiliency Initiative, supported by SECO, to drive resilient infrastructure investment and provision of basic public services. The initiative will promote Khorog as a model example of a resilient city in the country and localize the national commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Agreement on Climate, and the Dushanbe Declaration for the International Decade on Water Action.

Capacity Development is key to support the project’s various phases and activities. As part of the project scope, UN-Habitat has undertaken an assessment of capacity gaps and delivered technical training to key stakeholders during the mission to Khorog that was undertaken as part of the Diagnosis phase. The findings from the Capacity Needs Assessment survey have been used to develop recommendations for the strategy and action plans phase. These recommendations are to be taken forward by key partners, including national, regional and local governments, AKAH, and international development agencies working in Khorog and Tajikistan.