As part of the “Diplomatic Perspective” project of the Uzbekistan National News Agency (UzA), interviews and conversations are being organized with the heads of international organizations operating in the country and ambassadors of foreign countries.

In the next project issue, we interviewed Ms. Sabine Machl, who was recently appointed as the UN Resident Coordinator in Uzbekistan.

– Ms. Sabine Machl, how do you assess the current state of our cooperation?

– Thank you very much for this opportunity. I’ve been in Uzbekistan for three months already. It has been a fascinating three months. As you know, we also had a visitor from our headquarters. The UN Secretary-General visited Uzbekistan on the 30th of June and on the 1st of July. Our cooperation is extensive and very big. We have 25 different agencies, funds, and programs working with Uzbekistan. 18 of them have their offices in Uzbekistan. It has been an interesting three months on many other fronts. So, this is not only from the SG's perspective on visits, but also from the work we are carrying out. I have already visited some of the regions in Uzbekistan. I was in Karakalpakstan, and I went to Jizzakh and visited Samarkand. I have participated in several forums. We had the Human Rights Forum in June. Then there were also some fantastic cultural events that I had the pleasure of going to, for example, the Maqom Festival, which was great. Also, the ongoing work, of course, is in many different spheres. So, we are all working towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. We do this through our various agencies, with funds and programs, where we are trying to find how we can support Uzbekistan's development trajectory. And this is on the one hand. We can look at the most vulnerable in society and how we can help them. This is the motto of our agenda, which is to leave no one behind, but how can we accelerate the development agenda of Uzbekistan.

– In mid-August, the UN delegation led by you visited Karakalpakstan. The partners agreed to continue efforts to support the development of climate stability in the Aral Sea Region. Could you please tell me what specific strategies are envisaged in the organization's new projects to solve the country's water scarcity and environmental degradation issues?

– This was an exciting visit to the Aral Sea Region, Karakalpakstan. We went to Nukus, Muynak, and several smaller villages because we have the Aral Sea Region Trust Fund, established by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, when they met in 2017. They thought of making a fund to look at the people in the Aral Sea Region. The motto of this fund is that the sea is gone, but people are not. So, these programs and projects coming under the Aral Sea Trust Fund are geared to the communities there. For instance, we look at health facilities and see how we can improve the maternal health of babies born prematurely and how they provide some of these clinics. With incubators, for instance, we were in one of the polyclinics where just a baby was born with only one kilo, and she survived, thanks to these provided incubators. We are looking at schools and how we can upgrade some of the facilities with wash. Wash means water, sanitation, hygiene areas, toilets, and running water, so the children in school also have drinking water. We are also looking at how we can support the negative consequences of the drying up of the Aral Sea Region and how to keep the soil in the ground so that more specific bushes are planted to keep the sand in the earth. It's about different programs and projects. When we went there, I also had colleagues from several agencies. I had colleagues from UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP, FAO, and the World Health Organization. We all went together and looked at these programs and projects. We hope to continue this work because the fund has been capitalized at $16 million with nine different programs, such as joint programs of the United Nations and the people of Karakalpakstan. But this is now coming to an end by the end of the year, and we very much hope that we can continue this work and that there will be a second phase. Again, thank you very much for the activities of this fund. This is one of the areas that we would like to highlight now, that we must continue to work with the population and the communities in Karakalpakstan.

– Let’s talk about the activities of the Trust Fund, which significantly contributes to solving the Aral Sea problem. What can you say about the next steps of the Fund in Uzbekistan?

– I hope the Uzbekistan government and the development partners will also take the following steps to continue and pledge some resources to implement programs and projects further. We have reached around 300,000 people with this fund so far, and as I said earlier, it's mainly related to health issues, education, access to education, and quality education. These are significant areas, but also, on the ecological side, we have been looking at innovative ideas. What can help improve the population's livelihoods, and how can we counter all these negative consequences of this ecological catastrophe? I'm hopeful and very much also believe that people will see the results of this work. Recently, a report came out with all these results specified. We can learn from these results, build on them, and continue working together.

– It is known that in September, New York will host the Summit of the Future. What can you say about the purpose of this event and its results?

– This is a significant event for the United Nations, and also, when the UN Secretary-General was here in Uzbekistan, he discussed it with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The states must come together in this current situation where we have so many challenges on the climate front but also on reaching sustainable development goals. We have not made enough progress, and many of these goals will not be fulfilled by 2030. We see that inequalities are often rising instead of our societies becoming more equal, so, therefore, the summit of the future is an attempt again to bring the world together and commit to making a pact for how we move forward. Uzbekistan can show the world what has been done in the region over the last few years and how we must tackle some of our current challenges. The 2030 agenda concerns us as people and our planet, and we have no “planet b”. We have only this planet. So, we need to find solutions to these tough ecological challenges. The Aral Sea Region was just one of the areas where you see how this completely changes the lives of people when, for instance, here the sea is drying out, but also, I mean, it's getting hotter and hotter every month, which is the hottest month on record. We see all this happening around us, and we must find solutions and work together. We cannot do it alone. It cannot be one country alone. It needs to be done in all societies.

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Interviewed by Bekhruz Khudoyberdiyev, UzA