11 November, Nur-Sultan - UNDP Resident Representative Yakup Beris held a meeting with Minister of Labour and Social Protection of the Population of Kazakhstan Birzhan Nurymbetov. The parties met to discuss the priority areas of cooperation under the new UNDP Country Programme for 2021-2025.

“UNDP sincerely appreciates the achieved level of cooperation with the Ministry Labour and Social Protection of the Population of Kazakhstan. We value the approach that puts the needs of people of Kazakhstan, especially the most vulnerable, at the heart of government policies. We are very much looking forward to scaling up our joint initiatives in social protection, supporting digital solutions in service delivery for the most vulnerable as well as strengthening employment-related resilience of young women and men in Kazakhstan,’’ said Yakup Beris, UNDP Resident Representative in Kazakhstan.

The parties also discussed the results of the recently completed socio-economic impact assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic, showing how the health crisis exposed pre-existing inequalities with vulnerable groups disproportionately hit by the pandemic and related restrictive measures with women, persons with disabilities, unemployed and self-employed being among the most affected.

“We have established a long-standing cooperation with UNDP in Kazakhstan. With UNDP’s support, this year we have conducted a socio-economic impact assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic to thoroughly analyse the COVID-19 aftermath on small and medium-sized businesses, low-income families, people with disabilities, unemployed, self-employed, elderly and other vulnerable groups of population. The study provides key conclusions and recommendations to improve efficiency and flexibility of the state support measures, including in the postcrisis period,” stated Birzhan Nurymbetov, Minister of Labour and Social Protection of the Population of Kazakhstan.  

The study that has been conducted as a joint UN effort, also underlined the need for the social protection system recalibration to better cover vulnerable groups, with high level of informality in the economy being a serious challenge for building efficient social protection system.

Since the 2000s, UNDP, together with the UN family, has been supporting the Ministry in implementing strategic documents and programmes aimed at reducing poverty, introducing special social services, developing an effective model of social support for vulnerable categories of the population and employment generation with a special focus on people with disabilities.