Uzbekistan Country Gender Assessment: Update

Good Practices and Lessons Learned

project outcomes included rural housing schemes for moderate- and lower-income beneficiaries, improved local government ability to prepare and implement integrated rural development plans and investment promotion strategies, and enabling environments for MSes to establish or expand women-focused businesses in the rural areas.

Gap outputs were targeted at increasing rural women’s access to housing finance, ensuring women’s participation in all project interventions (through set quotas), and broad outreach interventions with a sharper gender focus. Indicators included in all dMF outputs served

as good initial practice for mainstreaming gender in diverse components of the project and contributing to overall project success. Gap implementation supported capacity development for gender sensitization in the HIRdIp’s credit evaluation processes, and also helped obtain and assess sex-disaggregated data on the performance of pCBs’ housing loan portfolios.

the HIRdIp had a major positive impact on women through easier access to rural housing finance and better housing conditions, together with all basic social infrastructure, and also provided a range of employment opportunities for women.¹⁴⁴ Box 9 highlights the key gender and development outcomes achieved under Gap implementation.

6. recommendations

Recommendations made under Gap implementation and the social and gender survey conducted by adB were included in the next phase of aRHp 2017–2020, and the implementation of one indicator—on gender policies in the participating banks—became mandatory. Upon broad consultations with pCBs, a 27% quota (8,700 houses) was set in the SaRHp dMF for women’s ownership of housing loans by 2020, thus contributing to gender balance in the exercise of property rights.

the scope and impact of pCBs’ corporate gender policies go far beyond the HIRdIp, and this model is recommended for replication in other adB interventions in the region.

¹⁴⁴ adB. 2016. Completion Report: Uzbekistan: Housing for Integrated Rural Development Investment Program. Manila.
Mainstreaming Gender in ADB Operations, by Sector 49