The regional program results from consultations in Central Asia on environment and security issues in 2003 - 2005 that emphasized the importance of natural disasters as part of an environmental security agenda. It was therefore decided to add disaster risk management as a component to the environment and security program that focuses upon the Ferghana Valley as a regional hot spot. In the course of planning the more ambitious overall goals of the program which aimed to reduce disaster risk as a potential conflict generating factor in the valley were effectively reduced to two largely local and independent project proposals submitted by UNDP Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The third country bordering upon the Ferghana Valley, Uzbekistan did not join the program.