BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 16. The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) aims to support Azerbaijan Accreditation Center through a joint project with Kazakhstan.
IsDB said in its latest report that it is preparing a Reverse Linkage project between Azerbaijan as the recipient country and Kazakhstan as the provider country to enhance the capacity of the Azerbaijan Accreditation Center with the ultimate goal of gaining full membership in the International Organization for Accreditation.
The Azerbaijan Accreditation Center (AzAK) is a public legal entity that serves as the state’s authorized single national body responsible for ensuring compliance with accreditation principles and rules, and for confirming that conformity assessment bodies meet accreditation requirements.
“Through these engagements, Azerbaijan demonstrates leadership in promoting solidarity-driven cooperation between the IsDB member countries,” said the IsDB.
The report recalls that in 2023, the IsDB approved a US$260,000 Reverse Linkage grant for Azerbaijan.
“Under this grant, Pakistan, as the provider country, put at the disposal of Azerbaijan, as the recipient country, its expertise in developing cotton lines with economical traits and resistance to wilting diseases. The first phase consisted in dispensing, in Pakistan, a training course which was successfully completed in 2025, while the rest of the grant’s components are still underway. The overall objective of the grant is to build Azerbaijan’s capacity in developing genome-edited cotton varieties capable of resisting environmental conditions (verticillium wilt and drought along with insect and weedicide, etc.). Specifically, it will be achieved by introducing at least two to three Azerbaijani cotton varieties with traits capable of resisting verticillium wilt, salt, and drought, and training a minimum of three personnel to plan and execute the experiments with cross-validation. Eventually, cotton yields in Azerbaijan will become more resistant to different stress factors with improved economic viability,” reads the report.
In 2025, the IsDB said it approved a US$258,000 Reverse Linkage grant to enhance public service delivery in Tajikistan based on innovative solutions.
“Azerbaijan is the provider of the expertise and Tajikistan the recipient. The grant will support Tajikistan in initiating the development of a digital platform that will serve as a centralized platform similar to the ASAN Service of Azerbaijan to enable digital public service delivery in selected line ministries in Tajikistan. This centralized platform, as the first comprehensive digital solution, directly benefits users by simplifying their daily utility transactions,” said the report.
