Education Capacity Building in Water & Environmental Policy Analysis for Uzbekistan & Central Asia
Project Description
This program combines the academic fields of public administration and public policy analysis with the social, political and economic sciences. The theme is that effective environmental/water policy programs require greater expertise in (1) policy analysis, (2) social science, and (3) civic-oriented collaborative, participative institutions and processes. For Uzbekistan to move toward sustainable growth and economic development, the country has identified the need to establish a more productive and less environmentally damaging pattern of water and land use and management. Currently, Uzbek experts and educators, including those at the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers (TIIAME), the leading institution in Uzbekistan and Central Asia for higher education in water and associated environmental issues, have ample technical knowledge. However, they have little or no expertise in the kinds of policy analysis, decision processes, and institutions that many policymakers and scholars now consider essential for effective environmental/water policy programs.
The new approach to environmental/water policy embraces the social sciences as well as civic engagement and inclusive, participative problem-solving approaches. It reflects the belief that there is a clear need for better analysis of the economic, social, and environmental impacts of management and policy choices using social scientific frameworks in addition to technically grounded analytic methods. The new approach also reflects the belief that long-term environmental and natural resource policy success necessarily must involve citizens and community leaders from diverse social roles ultimately taking on the responsibility for translating sustainability theory into on-the-ground results in their own respective communities.
The transition now underway in the economy and governance of Uzbekistan provides an opportunity for a TIIAME--WSU partnership to help develop expertise in policy analysis and the practice of more democratic and collaborative approaches to environmental/ water policy decisions. TIIAME has taken some steps in this direction with the recent establishment of their new Ecology, Law and Policy facultet, and this grant will provide essential support and accelerate program development. It will also provide WSU faculty and advisors with an opportunity to improve their understanding of problems and processes in Central Asia so that their teaching and advising activities can be more realistic and effective.The goal is to build upon the ongoing WSU/TIIAME Partnership for Environmental Protection and Integrated Water Management (PEPIWM), and to extend it into the areas of policy issues, policy analysis, and the analysis of institutions and decision processes.
Main Categories of Activities
- Educational workshops (total of 9) on Environmental/ Water Policy, Public Policy Administration and Analysis, and Economic Analysis
- Annual coordination meetings at TIIAME (total of 3)
- Long- and short-term study tours to the US (12 TIIAME participants)
- Policy management training at TIIAME (Summers, Year 1 and 2)
- Communication and outreach (continuous)
Research projects in Uzbekistan (continuous) (total of 20) - English language training (continuous)
Policy forum at WSU with Uzbek and US team members - Program evaluation (annual reports end of project review by external review panel)
The long-term impacts of this program will include for TIIAME and Uzbekistan a graduate-level program able to produce leaders in the push for sustainable development, enhanced research capabilities on environmental problems, enhanced stature within the region with respect to environmental problem solving, improved libraries and communications facilities, and new knowledge about the effective administration of international projects. The US and WSU will benefit through the enhanced internationalization of WSU, an improved understanding of the political, socio-economic, and international dimensions of environmental problem solving, and the production of more graduates familiar with the environmental problems of Central Asia.
