Country report: Kyrgyzstan

A. Country Profile

     As a result of the changes in the economic situation, a breakdown in economic relations with neighbouring countries and the long duration of the transition period, Kyrgyzstan currently finds itself in a severe socio-economic crisis. Mass unemployment of up to 90% in some areas has arisen, over half of the population lives below the poverty line and 14% of the population are extremely poor. Of the poor, 80% live in rural areas. 56% of poor families are headed by a person over 60 years of age. Most of the poor are ethnic Kyrgyz, since most of the rural population are Kyrgyz.

     In Kyrgyzstan the poor are of a new type: only a few years ago, they belonged to the middle class. They are mostly well educated, but since the break-up of the Soviet Union they have become impoverished. Therefore, these newly poor face serious psychological problems.

     Regarding women’s situation in Kyrgyzstan, it can be noted that they have equal rights by law, but they do not possess equal opportunities. Especially at the decision making level, women are severely underrepresented; for example, in the parliament, only 4% of the delegates are women.

B. Action taken by the Government and by NGOs

     After the Copenhagen Summit in 1995, the Kyrgyz government, supported by UNDP, designed and adopted a National Strategy for Sustainable Human Development, within which several state programmes were developed. These included the “Araket” programme on poverty alleviation, the “Ardager” programme on elderly, the “Ayalzat” programme on women, the “Emgek” programme on employment, and the “Manas” programme on health. In addition, the government supports small enterprises, provides small and medium enterprises with microcredits, and works on the improvement of the tax legislation.

     NGOs, funded by international donors, provide training on small business activities and on farming in rural areas, support microcrediting programmes, and provide training on handicrafts. They support the marketing of handicrafts in Kyrgyzstan and abroad, and provide moral-psychological support to women and other persons whose rights have been violated. Other NGOs in Kyrgyzstan carry out sociological research, lobby for the interests of the population and lobby for tolerance between various population groups especially in the south of the country. Also, NGOs support the most vulnerable groups of society, like children, migrants, women, disabled, unemployed, etc. There are also NGOs active in the ecological sphere: they do research, enhance the population’s knowledge on ecological problems and lobby for the safe and clean environment on the national level. Various NGOs work in the field of rural and urban infrastructure rehabilitation.