On 23 April, the World Bank Uzbekistan Country Office hosted a ceremony for recipients of the 2007 Small Grants Award. The World Bank allocated US$35,000 to seven Uzbek projects within its Small Grants Programme.

The Small Grants Programme (SmGP) was created in 1983 to provide a way for the World Bank to promote dialogue and disseminate information about international development in forums outside its own operations. The Small Grants Programme is funded by the Development Grant Facility of The World Bank. SmGP was launched in Uzbekistan in 2000.

Loup Brefort, World Bank Country Manager for Uzbekistan, welcomed participants and said the SmGP is tough competition and all received projects were excellent. He said that work of grant recipients bring positive results to thousand of people.

He said that he wished the bank could do more, but SmGP has limited resources. He added that recipients can do more even with limited resources. World Bank official said that many people in Uzbekistan should be grateful for work of grant recipients.

Irina Tsoy, Coordinator of the Programme, provided participants with some Programme statistics including the variety of the proposals and their geographic location.

She said that the SmGP received 45 applications this year, which is the second lowest figure in history of the programme in Uzbekistan. She added that majority of the projects (21 projects) were received from Tashkent, while organizations from some regions did not apply at all.

Grantees from last year shared their experience and the results of their projects. Participants watched some excellent presentations on projects which have already been completed and were briefed on the problems of those currently being implemented.