Regional Nexus Dialogue Central Asia // First National Nexus Consultations in Kazakhstan

The meeting was attended by representatives of state agencies such as the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, nongovernmental and commercial organizations and experts who work were able to provide analytical and research data being involved in water, land, energy and natural resource management. This meeting is the first in a series of national consultations in Central Asian countries to be implemented under the framework of the project "Central Asia Nexus Dialogue project: Fostering Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus Dialogues and Multi-Sector Investments". The participants discussed the following issues:

• What intersectoral cooperation platforms exist in Kazakhstan?
• What difficulties can affect implementation of the WEF Nexus approach?
• What existing practices can support multi-sectoral cooperation?

Existing Basin Councils were mentioned as platforms with high potential to take over an active role in multisectoral cooperation. Basin planning was identified as a highly effective method, based on integrated water resource management principles, which in addition considers economic development trends, demographic forecasts, and climate change impacts. At the same time, Kazakhstan has approved the concept for transition of the Republic of Kazakhstan to green growth and adopted the action plan. The council for transition to the “Green Economy” under President Nursultan Nazarbayev was started in order to support the partnership programme "Green Bridge", approved at the United Nations Conference for Sustainable Development is implementing. As obstacles towards multisectoral cooperation participants identified the unbalanced development of sectors, fragmented management and insufficient evidence base. It was recommended to include the private sector, as well as international development banks into the Nexus Dialogue activities to attract private investments. Consultations are arranged within the framework of the project "Central Asia Nexus Dialogue project: Fostering Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus Dialogues and Multi-Sector Investments". The project is funded by European Union and implementing by the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) in cooperation with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In case you need more information please contact: Balzhan Zhumagazina, Project specialist, The Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC), bzhumagazina@carececo.org, +7 (7172) 265 43 33 ext. 187