Strategies for Development and Food Security in Mountainous Areas of Central Asia PAPER 1: SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES TO PROMOTE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVE FOOD SECURITY IN THE MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS OF CENTRAL ASIA

A confluence of factors – political and economic – may have opened a window of opportunity in the Pamir-Hindukush-Karakoram mountain areas for a substantial investment in physical and social infrastructure, greatly increased communication and cooperation across borders and im-proved general conditions for stimulating economic growth and development. This paper at-tempts to briefly describe the current situation, with a particular emphasis on food security in mountainous areas, and to pose a series of questions that must be addressed to capture the po-tential of the region and take advantage of the changes that are currently underway. Political, social and economic developments of the past 10 years have increased the flow of aid and remittances, improved the environment for private sector development, and made accessible the abundant physical and human resources in mountain areas. Taking advantage of these de-velopments will not happen automatically, but local communities should not miss this opportu-nity for a jump in the quality of their livelihoods. Examples of success stories can be found in the literature on mountain development and several prominent examples will be described in this Workshop. Two such cases, undertaken by two NGOs, one in Tajikistan and a second in Pakistan, are discussed showing the achievements of local communities when they are given