Interview with Ambassador Tuula Yrjölä, Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe

In this interview Ambassador Tuula Yrjölä looks back at the important events in the work of the Programme Office in Dushanbe and its achievements since she became Head of Mission in October 2016.

It has been one and a half years since you took the position of the Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe. What have been the key achievements of the Office since then?

Having visited OSCE missions, including the one in Dushanbe, over the years during my work as a Finnish diplomat I have always appreciated the work that the OSCE does on the ground in some of its participating States. During my time as the Head of the Programme Office in Dushanbe, I am glad to have this opinion confirmed. We have a good portfolio of projects with an overall aim of supporting the government and people of Tajikistan to maintain and strengthen the country’s political, military, economic, environmental and human security. The achievements are the result of a goal-oriented approach to the capacity building and expertise that we provide. They come one step at a time and we achieved them thanks to a long-term co-operation with our Tajik partners. 

Among our activities, let me highlight the work that my Office is doing to support Tajikistan’s efforts in countering transnational threats, including the regionally and globally important co-operation against violent extremism and radicalization leading to terrorism. I am particularly glad that the OSCE had the opportunity to co-host the high-level international conference, Countering Terrorism and Preventing Violent Extremism. It was held on 3 and 4 May in Dushanbe and was jointly organized by the government of Tajikistan the United Nations and the European Union. The visit of the OSCE Secretary General, Thomas Greminger, to Tajikistan this May, during which he met with President Emomali Rahmon and participated in the conference, were a highlight for the Office this spring.

The OSCE also took part in and contributed to the organization of the High-Level Conference on the International Decade for Action, 'Water for Sustainable Development,' 2018-2028, in Dushanbe from 20 to 22 June. The outcome of the conference will provide us with a roadmap for the Office’s own work related to water issues in the decade ahead.

Finally let me mention how proud I am of our strong dedication to supporting women in Tajikistan, whether in our partnership with Tajik women politicians, or offering help to victims of domestic violence. I’m glad that we were able to support the establishment of the Women’s Alliance in the parliament. Tajik female lawmakers working together can more effectively raise issues that are of importance to further development of gender equality.  

In 2017 the Office’s mandate and name changed from the OSCE Office in Tajikistan to the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe. What does this mean for the OSCE’s work in the country?

We continue to work all around the country, on issues covering the three OSCE dimensions of security, politico-military, economic and environmental and human, although under our current mandate we no longer have the five field offices that used to be located around the country. We restructured our methods of reaching out to both the local authorities and the civil society of the regions accordingly.

The emphasis in our co-operation with the host country is on strengthening local ownership and ensuring true partnership with Tajikistan’s government. We have a new Partnership Platform that meets twice a year, both with the government and civil society counterparts, to discuss lessons learned from the previous year, and to jointly plan for the future. This provides our project planning with strategic direction, and gives our partners an opportunity to provide input in a timely manner. As we develop this new partnership format we also build trust and learn more effective ways of co-operation, developing a joint strategic vision of the impact that we together wish to achieve within the constraints of the mandate and budget of the Programme Office. I wish to emphasize the word “partnership”, because this is what it really is and should be about.   

Two of the priorities of the Office’s work have been strengthening of mutual partnership with local stakeholders and improving strategic communication of the Office’s work. Why are both of these pillars so important?

If we do not have a true partnership, we cannot have sustainable results. Our mandate envisages an eventual transfer of tasks to Tajikistan. Capacity building is only possible when the receiving partner – the local stakeholder – is committed to making best use of the training or expertise provided by our Office.

As for communication: our local partners in particular, but also the other participating States and our international project partners, need to understand what we do and why, and that all our work is done jointly with our local counterparts. There is nothing new about this logic. Knowledge builds trust, support for our work, and is the basis for better co-ordination and co-operation. As we discovered room for improvement, we have embarked on an examination of how to better communicate about our work. I hope that in the coming years we will build upon our already positive image through a variety of means of messaging. We also want to provide more opportunities for Tajik media to engage directly with our activities and beneficiaries. Within the Office we discuss what strategic communication means, and how to achieve it. Communication, after all, is in the end a mindset.

What opportunities do you see for Tajikistan and the Office in the near future, taking into account regional developments?

Everyone in Tajikistan is excited by improving relations with neighboring Uzbekistan. There are also wider positive developments in regional co-operation in Central Asia. We have the flexibility to adjust our programming to emerging new needs, and are ready to do so according to requests from our Tajik partners. Realism dictates taking account of budgetary constraints; in other words, to do something new we will need to phase out something old. What is important is to stay in touch with the times, and to be able to address the current needs of the country.

I could envision the Office adjusting its programmatic activities in all three dimensions of security. For example, the opening of all border crossing points to tourism, legitimate traffic in goods and people, and the ensuing opportunities and challenges, could be addressed through our border and economic projects, but also in the human dimension.

How do you see the overall role of the OSCE in Tajikistan in the future?

I have already spoken of sustainability of our work in Tajikistan, sustainability that comes from a joint strategic vision of the future, and of the impact that we wish to achieve together. With this aim in mind we have proposed to the government to agree on a joint Strategic Framework for the next five years, 2019-2023. This would give both parties clarity of purpose and a roadmap of sorts to follow, in order to monitor and assess the results. The Partnership Platform already offers us the tool to adjust our work based on lessons learned and emerging needs. 

I see the Programme Office in Dushanbe continuing to be an effective and efficient provider of capacity and expertise to the government and civil society of Tajikistan in the coming years. I also expect that we will continue to bring together the authorities and citizens, bearing in mind our mandate to assist the Republic of Tajikistan in further developing civil society.

The OSCE is a security organization, with a concept of comprehensive security that exceeds the usual hard security thinking. Tajikistan, having an OSCE presence in the country, is well placed to make the best use of the support that is channeled through the Programme Office from all the other participating States into the country. After all, the Office’s budget is made up of OSCE taxpayers’ money. We hope to use these funds well, and wish to see results that support the Organization’s main aims, and the fulfilment of the commitments that Tajikistan has made over the years as one of the participating States that make up this Organization.