Experts from ministries and departments discussed the draft methodological guidelines for assessing damage and losses in agriculture, forestry and fisheries of the Kyrgyz Republic

June 09, 2022 The Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in the Kyrgyz Republic held an expanded meeting of the Interdepartmental Working Group to assist in the institutionalization of the methodology for assessing damage and losses from the impact of disasters / emergencies in agriculture, forestry and fisheries of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The meeting of the Interdepartmental Working Group was attended by management, representatives, experts and specialists of FAO, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision, the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic.

In his speech First Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic Mr. Mambetov A.M. noted that in order to conduct a unified assessment of damage from emergencies, the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic in 2019 approved the Procedure for Assessing Damage from emergencies. However, with regard to agriculture, these assessments often do not reflect the specifics of the sector and lead to inaccurate or underestimated estimates of the impact of natural disasters. This prevents adequate policy and planning for agricultural disaster risk reduction (DRR) and leads to underinvestment in sustainable agricultural development.

The Deputy Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in the Kyrgyz Republic, Ms. Dinara Rakhmanova, drew the attention of the IWG meeting participants to the fact that FAO, with its extensive experience, has directed its efforts to assist Kyrgyzstan in disaster risk management at the policy and technical level, offering its best practices from around the world in applying a context-specific approach to capacity development, in particular in institutionalizing a methodology to assess direct losses associated with disasters in agriculture, fisheries and forestry.

During the discussion, a number of comments and suggestions were made, mainly related to the given examples of damage and loss assessment, statistical reporting and legal and regulatory framework.

As a result of the discussion of the draft methodological guidelines for the assessment of damage and losses in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, an agreed decision was made:

1.     Finalize the draft Methodological Guide, taking into account the comments and suggestions received.

2.     To review, make changes, additions and proposals to the draft Methodological Guidelines, send to the members of the IWRC electronic versions of draft materials and documents developed by experts of the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction within the framework of the FAO project "Institutionalization of the methodology for assessing damage and losses for the agricultural sector in Kyrgyzstan".

3.     Subsequently, the finalized draft of the Methodological Guide will be tested in Uzgen district of Osh oblast.

  Following the results of this event, the participants adopted the Protocol of the expanded meeting of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Promoting the Institutionalization of the methodology for assessing damage and losses from the impact of disasters / emergencies in agriculture, forestry and Fisheries of the Kyrgyz Republic.