There have been significant achievements observed in the economic development of Uzbekistan recently. In this context, a key development challenge is to ensure that low-income households benefit from the overall improvements in the economy.

In order to achieve the strategic goal of "strengthening social protection and improving welfare of population in Uzbekistan" there is a need to analyze how the living conditions of households have responded to economic growth in recent years. This information, in turn, can be used to identify the positive and negative aspects of existing public policies.

In this regard, one should note the work carried out by the government in developing the Welfare Improvement Strategy of Uzbekistan (WIS), which is to become a strategic document outlining key goals and objectives of the country's development up to 2010, which are largely directed to increasing the living standards in the country.

An intensification of the dialogue on this issue is observed between the Government and international community during the recent years. In particular, a number of international organizations are providing support in organizing research activity and developing programs dedicated to welfare improvement in Uzbekistan.

One such initiative is the small research grants program of the World Bank for undertaking research activity in the sphere of analysis of living standards in the country. A respective contest was announced for this purpose in 2006. The results of the research papers, carried out in the framework of this contest, were presented during the seminar titled "Priority Directions for Welfare Improvement in Uzbekistan" organized by the World Bank and the Center for Economic Research on 11 May at Grand Orzu Hotel.

The participants of the seminar included representatives of research centers, educational institutions, experts from international organizations such as the World Bank, UNDP, ADB, UNICEF, and from government agencies involved in WIS development process.

The main objective of the event was to discuss the results of the commissioned research and how the findings can be used to support the WIS of Uzbekistan.

The seminar program was organized around four core topics: assessment of living standards in the country; migration, labor markets and agricultural sector reforms; education and health as a basis for building human capital; social protection.

During the seminar a number of recommendations were developed to increase the capacity of local research institutions, highlighting the importance of access to data and training in data analysis. Moreover, there was a unanimous opinion on the significance of the research findings for the WIS development process. The participants also outlined the topics for further research in the subject area.

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