Innovations in Land Management and Land Use Planning to Support Land Policy Reforms and Green Growth Transformation of Uzbekistan
Basic Information
Grant ID: K-194
Region: Europe and Central Asia
Country: Uzbekistan
Approval Year: 2022
Grant Year: Year 10
Amount Approved by Donor: $500000.00
Main Product Line: Lending
Sector: Urban
Grant start/completion: March 20, 2023 - December 31, 2024
Grant Status: Active
TTLs: Rosanni NittiNadege Orlova
Grant Activities
Project Summary:
The objective of the requested Grant is to support the achievement of the project PDO by supporting the land reform to ensure that the current challenges in land management and forward-looking land-use planning do not become barriers to the creation of urban land markets and efficient delivery of urban infrastructure and services. To this end, the Grant will aim to (1) provide support and capacity building to the public stakeholders of the land sector by promoting environmental, economic and social sustainability of land for sustainable urban development; and (2) provide institutional, analytical, and knowledge-sharing support to the dialogue on land and urbanization reforms between the Government of Uzbekistan and the World Bank. The grant would contribute to the green resilient and inclusive development (GRID) by enabling sustainable economic and social transformations, through efficient allocation and use of land resources. The grant is well aligned with the “Green” Pillar of the WB GRID framework and will provide support and capacity building to the public stakeholders of the land sector by promoting environmental, economic and social sustainability of land for sustainable urban development. It will also support the design and preparation of a proposed new investment operation in Uzbekistan that would build upon both the experience of the ongoing Medium-size Cities Integrated Urban Development Project and that of the “Modernization of Real Property Registration and Cadastre Project” (closing in August 2023) to support the ongoing land reforms in the country through improved land management in support of sustainable and green urbanization models. The design of this integrated land management pilot intervention would be based on the good international practices of such type of reforms to demonstrate how improved land management practices in Uzbekistan could lead to a more efficient and greener urbanization.
List of Activities:
Acitivty 1. Building institutional capacity through piloting of Integrated Land Management and streamlining urban land market-creation process - This Activity will aim to build the capacities of relevant government agencies responsible for urban land reform using supporting them in the development of a modern land management system and instruments, and apply them in the design of implementable pilots that could ground-test the proposed approaches and instruments to initiate an iterative learning process that would support the scale-up at country level of the urban land reform. Activity 2: Technical assistance and knowledge-sharing to inform the preparation of a potential new investment project on Urban Land Management and Green Urbanization - This activity will aim to inform the design and preparation of a proposed new investment operation in Uzbekistan that would build upon both the experience of the ongoing Medium-size Cities Integrated Urban Development Project and that of the “Modernization of Real Property Registration and Cadastre Project”. The project is already included in the Country Partnership Framework 2022-2026 and would be expected to support the ongoing land reform in the country through improved land management in support of sustainable and green urbanization models.
Outcomes:
Both activities to be financed by the KGGTF will support and complement Component 2 of the MSCIUDP for Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Building for Sustainable Urbanization, and its subcomponents 2.A and 2.B. The project implementation so far demonstrated that sustainable and green urbanization Uzbekistan is hindered by outdated land management systems, complete lack of urban land markets and absence of modern instruments for efficient mobilization of urban land for sustainable urban development. Weak and outdated/Soviet-era land management and planning tools are also contributing to inefficient urban sprawl and backlog in expansion of urban services and infrastructure. Eventually, the expected outcomes from the program would include a direct contribution to the holistic roadmap of land reform for the government or Uzbekistan and support to operationalize such roadmap through a pilot project that would demonstrate innovative country models for improved land management in support of sustainable and green urbanization.
Collaboration with K-Partners and Others:
In implementing the proposed grant, the World Bank will be working closely with Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), Korea Real Estate Board (KREB), National Geographic Information Institute (NGII) and Korea Land and Geospatial InformatiX Corporation (LX). The proposed program will include a number of capacity-building and knowledge-sharing events with LH and KREB for its input in the valuation of the real estate and land for developing new towns in areas like coordination among agencies on ICT systems and big data gathering to strengthen resilience, citizen participation for better public service, and real estate development for various purposes. Moreover, the TA will also include discussion sessions with experts in the Presidential Committee for Balanced National Development which will be able to share its vision and history that provided the groundwork for the implementation of projects carried out by such organizations like LH. For the activities related to the NSDI the team intends to collaborate with National Geographic Information Institute (NGII) and Korea Land and Geospatial InformatiX Corporation (LX).