The training workshop on Designing and implementing green public investment programmes in Azerbaijan took place on 25 February 2022.
Objectives of the training were to:
- Present, discuss and agree on the major elements of the Programme as proposed by the Project Team (e.g., environmental priorities for potential project pipelines, targets, major beneficiaries and major project types to be supported through the Programme) and have a reality check of the assumptions made for these elements
- Identify and discuss potential challenges to Programme financing and implementation. Identify and agree on a set of priority policy actions for legal and regulatory changes that need to be put in place in order to enable the implementation of the Programme
- Improve the capacity and understanding of government officials and other relevant experts in Azerbaijan in the design and costing of medium to long-term green public investment programmes by providing them with access to modern management tools developed in accordance with good international practices
- Improve the capacity and understanding of government officials and other relevant experts in Azerbaijan of programme implementation and more specifically of appraisal and selection techniques of investment projects that will be financed through the Programme
- Support Azerbaijan in leveraging private (non-state) investments into equipment and technologies that divert environmental and climate-related problems connected with the water supply
Trainees
The training session was designed for ca. 20 participants. The trainees included government officials from different ministries, agencies but also local governments, NGOs, preferably with experience in designing and managing environmentally-related public programmes or programmes in the water sector.
The OECD was supported in organising this training by Kommunalkredit Public Consulting (KPC) from Austria.
Background
The project provides technical assistance to increase the capacity of government authorities to better manage public environmental expenditure with a special focus on achieving the national objectives in the water supply sector. The proposed investment measures of the public support programme will aim to address a decline in supply of quality water. The programme will focus on enabling a more widespread use of non-standard water resources – in particular, the groundwater extraction and surface water catchment.
The project aims to direct programme development toward four main activity areas:
- Increase water abstraction/catchment volumes
- Increase available water storage capacities
- Ensure groundwater level recovery/increase
- Ensure efficient water supply
The designed green public investment programme will contribute to the overall objective of diversifying water supply sources by using an increased mix of surface water and groundwater to ensure that water supply does not fall below water demand in future (taking into account the predictions of climate change impacts on the water resources).
The programme will also contribute to improving water availability for regions vulnerable to climate change (areas with low groundwater levels or combined with frequent floods). The rationale behind this programme is based on premise that public environmental expenditure – direct or indirect – is a key instrument to address some of the fundamental problems related to future water supply reliability and security.
Agenda (English | Azerbaijani)
For more information, please contact Mr David Simek: david.simek@oecd.org.