The CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, visited Kazakhstan for the first time in February 2024 to see firsthand the impact of local initiatives supported by the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP), which is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). During his visit, Rodriguez had the opportunity to meet with national partners, civil society representatives, and local smallholder farmers involved in SGP projects.

One of the highlights of the trip was the visit to Shelek, a village in southeast Kazakhstan that is home to 30,000 people, most of whom rely on smallholder farms as their main source of income. While there, Rodriguez met with representatives from the Fund of Local Communities (FLC), which SGP has been supporting since 2007 to strengthen the skills of local farmers to develop their businesses sustainably. During this meeting, FLC representatives shared the results of an SGP project implemented with local communities to reduce land degradation through the development of innovative agriculture practices.

The Alayevy family runs one of the greenhouses built by the project. Photo: Aynur Khaliollayeva.

This initiative built 12 greenhouses in seven villages around Enbekshikazakh district, which are operated as family businesses and provide local farmers with a steady income. It also trained over 200 smallholder farmers and implemented nine innovative agricultural technologies related to irrigation, covered cultivation, organic fertilizers and pest control. Rodriguez had the chance to visit one of these greenhouses run by the Alayevy family, who grows tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers using environmentally friendly techniques to sell in local markets. “After 30 years of GEF and SGP working with smallholder farmers to produce food more sustainably, I can see firsthand how SGP in Kazakhstan collaborates with farmers in the northern climates. This is my first encounter with the project’s work in the northern hemisphere and I am proud of the work that GEF and UNDP are doing in rural Kazakhstan,” said Rodriguez.

Additionally, the project established a supply chain management system to organize product receiving, sorting, packaging, freezing and transportation to wholesale markets. It also reduced land degradation by improving soil fertility and restoring 18 hectares of degraded soil. As a result, 77 percent of the project’s 419 beneficiaries experienced an increase in their income. Nearly half of those benefitted were women and, most notably, 12 farmers who participated in the greenhouse construction saw their incomes grow by 87 percent.

The GEF CEO during a visit to one of the unheated greenhouses built and equipped by the project with support from SGP. Photo: Aynur Khaliollayeva.

While meeting with farmers in Shelek, the GEF CEO recognized the progress achieved in conserving landscapes and developing local communities. He emphasized the importance of further addressing unsustainable agricultural practices, which often exacerbate environmental degradation. Rodriguez also noted the key role of local farms in enhancing food security and sustainable landscape management, which is particularly significant not only for Kazakhstan, but Central Asia as a whole, where desertification and land degradation affect more than 50 percent of territories.

FLC representatives also participated in this conversation, noting that the introduction of modern land use practices contributes to ensuring food security and reducing poverty among farmers by reducing land degradation, increasing agricultural production and strengthening the connection between smallholder farmers and markets. Moreover, local farmers highlighted that initiatives like this project supported by SGP are essential for smallholder farms to become sustainable and compete with major agricultural manufacturers, which contributes to increasing the income of local families and reducing unemployment in the region.

The GEF CEO at the meeting with smallholder farmers in Shelek village. Photo: Ainur Khaliollayeva.

During the trip, Rodriguez also met with the UNDP Resident Representative in Kazakhstan, Katarzyna Wawiernia, the Advisor and Special Representative of the President of Kazakhstan on International Environmental Cooperation, Zulfiya Suleimenova, and the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan, Yerlan Nysanbayev, to discuss strategic partnership aspects of UNDP initiatives in biodiversity and ecosystem conservation, sustainable energy, and climate change executed with financial support from the GEF.

Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, the CEO and Chairperson of the GEF and Katarzyna Wawiernia, Resident Representative of the UNDP Kazakhstan. Photo: Ainur Khaliollayeva.

Local action = global impact

SGP has been providing financial and technical support to projects that conserve and restore the environment while enhancing people's well-being and livelihoods around the world for over three decades. Since 1997, it has supported 353 projects in Kazakhstan totaling over US$ 7.6 million in the areas of biodiversity, land degradation, climate change, and sustainable land management.

Currently implementing its 7th Operational Phase (2022-2026), SGP is focusing on climate change mitigation and land degradation reduction in seven priority landscape territories in the steppe and desert ecosystems of Kazakhstan. By 2025, SGP will have contributed to the achievement of key indicators, such as the restoration of 15,000 hectares of degraded land, the application of improved resource management practices on an area of 10,000 hectares, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 5,064 tons of CO2.

For more details on SGP’s work in the country, visit SGP’s Kazakhstan country page.