Economist in Uzbekistan

Meet Zarif Jumaev, the economist in the Resident Coordinator’s Office in Uzbekistan.  In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Zarif convened 16 UN country team members and six International Financing Institutions to develop a joint Socioeconomic Response Plan to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. Zarif led the technical coordination and consolidation of the inputs from participating entities to make this complex work involving 22 entities possible – working with different working groups on different themes: Health, Macroeconomy, Social Protection, Job Creation, Education, Social Cohesion, and Data and Assessment. 

This coordinated effort among the UN country team, under the leadership of the Resident Coordinator, and a combination of new or re-allocated loans and grant funding, resulted in a USD3.3 billion Consolidated Multilateral Socio-Economic Response and Recovery Offer to the Government. This Offer, coupled with the government’s significant anti-crises package, served as a critical, well-coordinated and targeted economic stimulus and a social cushion to help minimize the negative impact of the pandemic on the well-being of the people and the economy of Uzbekistan.