The Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD) has published a Working Paper “Technical Assistance of International Financial Institutions and Development Agencies in Eurasia”. The purpose of this analytical document is to review technical assistance projects (TA) implemented by international financial institutions (IFIs) and development agencies in 2009–2021 in 11 Eurasian countries, including six EFSD member states, as well as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, with a detailed thematic and institutional breakdown. The document employs data collected by the EFSD as a part of its major initiative, EFSD Sovereign Financing Database.
Before that, there were no aggregated information on TA projects across all the institutions in the region. The EFSD database includes about 2,900 TA projects from public sources. TA projects differ significantly in duration and cost - from short-term consultations-seminars to multi-year projects accompanying structural transformations in the economy. A large number of projects testifies to the need of the countries of the region to improve skills and competencies as well as to accompany investment projects.
In Eurasia, 1,590 TA projects were implemented in the EFSD member states in the analysed period, while Azerbaijan, Georgia, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan accounted for a total of 1216 TA projects, and 64 projects covered several countries of the region.
In terms of institutions, almost two thirds of TA projects were implemented by IFIs (65%), with the remaining one third by development agencies (35%). The EFSD analysts identified 15 issues of technical assistance projects. The most common in the sectoral context were public administration (709 TC projects), macroeconomics (667 projects) and economic development (238 projects). In total, they accounted for 56% of the total number of TA projects. Accordingly, on other sectoral topics - 44%. Among them, health care and agriculture stand out.
Despite the large number of TA projects implemented, the EFSD recipient states still face a range of unresolved structural, economic, and social issues, which call for further concerted actions by the donor community.
According to the EFSD 2022–2026 Strategy, an important component of the Fund's activities is provision of TA to its member states and transfer of regional and global expertise.
The full text of the Working Paper is also available at the EFSD website.
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