CENTRAL ASIA INVEST Networking Meeting – Experts

Detailed description of project Back

In the framework of the Regional Strategy Paper for Assistance to Central Asia 2007-2013, the “Central Asia Invest” Programme has been launched to strengthen private sector development in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan). The Programme is providing policy-support by co-funding the OECD-led Central Asia Initiative, part of its Eurasia Competitiveness Programme. The majority of the Central Asia Invest funds are however being used to co-finance partnership projects between Central Asian and European business intermediary organizations. The projects are selected through restricted Call for Proposals. Up to now, two Call for Proposals have taken place, with the first one in 2008 providing co-funding for 12 projects and the second one in 2010 for 9 projects.

A networking meeting is planned to take place on 20.-21. September 2011 in Almaty / Kazakhstan to bring together representatives from all Central Asia Invest projects. In the past years the EuropeAid Cooperation Office has frequently been organizing networking events in connection with the Asia-Wide programmes. These events have been very successful in terms of knowledge exchange, results dissemination, lessons learnt and new partnerships for future projects activities. It is therefore an important support activity for projects funded by EuropeAid, which helps improve the quality and sustainability of the implemented activities.

The specific objectives of the mission are:

• Define in detail the agenda of the stakeholders event, in line with the overall thematic focus defined by the programme manager of the Central Asia Invest programme;
• Provide input to the technical discussions in the working groups and the plenary sessions, including project presentations;
• Facilitate / moderate the discussions in the working groups and the plenary sessions, including project presentations.

Type of services provided

PROMAN provides the services of one Team Leader and two facilitators. Core services include:

• Contribute to the design of the agenda;
• Elaborate and implement methodology for presenting the 20 grant projects funded under Central Asia Invest;
• Moderate the plenary sessions, including project presentations;
• Provide specific introduction to working group discussions and define concrete questions to be answered;
• Facilitate working group discussions, leading to a presentation of the recommendations given by each working group in the final plenary sessions;
• Facilitate working groups in coordination with the other speakers and facilitators;
• Brief the other facilitator on the concept of the meeting agenda and its methodology, in order to agree on a common approach;
• Summarise the findings and recommendations provided in the workshops / plenary discussions in the final report.

PROMAN HQ provides overall backstopping and quality control.