About the project
The World Bank’s Rural Infrastructure Development Project (RIDP) aims at enhancing the infrastructure of 300 villages across five regions of Uzbekistan, through a demands-driven approach that actively seeks to ensure the project best serves the community’s needs.
The CRE supported the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights in developing a community-led monitoring system, to ensure genuine community engagement. Our partner conducted capacity-building sessions for local monitors, who were then equipped with the skills and knowledge to conduct site visits, assess the project’s progress, and gather feedback from local residents. The monitors were able to conduct site visits in 17 villages and to produce a wealth of documentation, including photographs and video interviews, that captured the experiences and expectations of local community members.
Monitoring the project impacts
The Uzbek Forum for Human Rights also prepared a series of reports, highlighting both the successes and challenges of the RIDP project, which served as an important advocacy tool for these remote communities. For instance, while residents expressed optimism about the expected improvements in their quality of life, they also identified critical concerns (e.g.: lack of operational facilities for drinking water and electricity). The documentation compiled by the monitors helped raise these concerns with the project implementers and local authorities.
Monitors encountered several challenges during the monitoring process, including: difficulties in reaching remote villages; lack of cooperation from local officials; and security incidents, with the police threatening monitors or ordering them to leave the project sites. However, they were able to navigate these challenges thanks to their relationships with local activists and community members.
This project led to several positive outcomes, including:
● Increased awareness among residents regarding RIDP’s objectives and progress;
● The data collected by the monitors was used to engage in discussions with local authorities and construction companies, advocating for swift action to address the community’s concerns.
● The project helped ensure stakeholder engagement in a deeply authoritarian country, where civil society voices often go unheard, and the World Bank invited the monitors to meetings to shared their experiences;
● Monitors emerged as important players in ongoing and future development project monitoring. The skills and knowledge they acquired through this project (about the responsibilities of lenders and clients, community’s needs, and community-led monitoring processes) will allow them to continue playing a key advocacy role and to support the community in articulating their concerns.
● Sharing the findings with key stakeholders at the World Bank opened up opportunities to discuss community-driven initiatives, in order to influence wider policy frameworks and funding choices, and to ensure development strategies align with local communities’ actual needs and priorities.
Further resources