Tashkent, February 11, 2021 – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Embassy of Switzerland deliver IT equipment to the State Committee of Statistics of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Today, the Embassy of Switzerland and the UNFPA handed over 41 desktops, 31 black and white printers, 1 color multifunctional printer, 1 camera, 15 LCD monitors, 15 Smart TV sets, 15 table-top microphones, 15 web-camera and 15 Wi-Fi routers to the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Statistics to support the ongoing preparation of the population and housing census. This equipment will cover basic needs of newly organized census departments and facilitate communication between the central office and the regional amidst the pandemic.
This is a part of the financial support from the Embassy of Switzerland to the preparation of the census amounting to USD160,000 through UNFPA. Other support includes national and international consultants to provide key technical support to the census preparation such as questionnaire design and pre-testing, methodological documents development, and training on census preparation and management, among others.
During the ceremony, H.E. Mr. Olivier Сhave, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Swiss Confederation welcomed and supported the Government of Uzbekistan's decision to organize a National Census adhering to the highest professional standards. He emphasized that: “This is a very significant step towards remedying the absence of reliable data basis in the country; these databases are indeed essential for good policy generation in all sectors.” He also commended excellent preparatory work made already by the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Statistics despite the constraints imposed by the COVID pandemics.
“UNFPA highly appreciates the timely support from the Embassy of Switzerland to the preparation of the population and housing census in Uzbekistan, which was the first donor responded locally. We call for more support and partnership as the census is among the most complex and massive peacetime exercises a nation undertakes and Uzbekistan’s most recent experiences were 3 decades ago” - said Mr. Yu Yu, Representative of UNFPA in Uzbekistan.
The Population Census is planned to be held in November-December 2023 and the pilot census currently scheduled in November 2021. Census data are critical for good governance, development planning, risk reduction and crisis response, social welfare programmes and business market analyses. The last census of Uzbekistan was conducted in 1989.
UNFPA has been working in Uzbekistan since 1993 and is starting to implement its fifth Country Programme (2020-2025) together with national partners.
The Swiss cooperation with Uzbekistan began in 1992 when Uzbekistan joined the Swiss-led constituencies at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The Embassy of Switzerland in Uzbekistan oversees implementation of three national and four regional projects in water, educational and cultural sectors.
