In this issue:

UNITED NATIONS IN KYRGYZSTAN

• UN Agencies Respond to the Emergency Situation in the South of Kyrgyzstan
• Round Table on Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Draft Report Discussion

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP)

• Mission of Anders Aslund
• Public Hearings in the Parliament on Stimulative Grants
• Introduction of the Academic Gender into Higher Educational Institutions
• Round Table on Action Plan development of National ICT for development strategy

UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEERS (UNV)

• Global Youth Service Day 2003

UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME

• Recent Activities and the Visit of the Regional Representative for Central Asia to Kyrgyzstan

UNITED NATIONS IN KYRGYZSTAN

On April 20, 2003, Karataryk, a mountainous village of 215 people in Uzgen District, about 100 km east of Osh severely suffered from the landslide, triggered by heavy rains and melting snow. Thirty-eight people including 22 children were reported dead and 53 were left without houses. At present, Uzgen, Bazar-Korgon, Alay, Aksy and Suzak rayons of Osh oblast are considered emergency prone zones. There is an urgent need to move people from the dangerous areas.

On 30 April the UN Resident Coordinator Mr. Jerzy Skuratowicz visited the Osh province to get full information on the needs of affected population and discuss with the Governor of Osh Mr. Naken Kasiev the emergency response from the UN agencies.

“I was impressed by immediate reaction from local administrations and from communities to those affected by the landslide, - he said during the meeting with the Governor, – and would like to ensure that the UN system in close partnership with USAID and other international organizations is coordinating support to the victims of the disaster in helping them to return to normal life”.

During his visit the UN Resident Coordinator had meetings with local authorities, civil service providers and villagers, who stressed vulnerability of all victims including children, especially those who lost their parents. Local medical workers are concerned with psychological and physical state of the affected people’s health. The local medical service cannot provide adequate treatment due to a shortage of available medicines.

The first supply of the humanitarian aid was provided by UNICEF. On 24-25 April of 2003, representatives of the UN Liaison Office in the South of Kyrgyzstan and UNICEF office in Bishkek together with the Local Emergency Committee distributed blankets, kitchen sets, hygiene kits and clothes for children.

Earlier in Bishkek, the UN Resident Coordinator Mr. Jerzy Skuratowicz met with the Head of the General Co-ordination Committee on Emergencies Mr. Joomart Otorbaev, Kyrgyz First Vice Prime Minister, and discussed the situation.

Contact: Alexander Kashkarev, UNDP National Programme Analyst. Phone: (996 312) 61 12 13. Fax: (996 312) 61 12 17. Email:

On 29 of April the Round Table on discussion of the Final Draft of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Report was held

The Round Table was chaired by Mr. Jerzy Skuratowicz, UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Chris Lovelace, the World Bank Resident Representative, Mr. Leonid Komarover, the CDF Secretariat Chief, and attended by Heads of EBRD, DFID, TACIS, USAID and other international organizations, the Presidents’ Administration and the Prime Minister’s Office, parliamentarians, NGOs from all regions, leading experts in the sphere of development and journalists.

The Report was prepared by the group of national experts of CASE Kyrgyzstan NGO, the winner of the tender announced by UNDP. The presenter, Roman Mogilevsky, provided the presentation of the Report’s contents.

“The MDGs will be reached only if they get substantial support – advocacy, expertise and resources. Our mutual challenge is to mobilize financial support and political will, focus on development priorities and reach out to partners in civil society and the private sector, - said Jerzy Skuratowicz, at the Round Table. He stressed the importance of establishing links between the MGD-related process with the Complex Development Framework (CDF) and the National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NPRS).

The CDF Secretariat’s Chief marked in his speech that in the CDF and NPRS national documents clear measures and mechanisms ensuring human development and poverty reduction on the basis of stable economic growth and effectiveness of the state governance are reflected.

As the result of the discussion the proposals and recommendations were made, and all of them would be considered in the final version of the Report, which will be presented for the audience in late May.

The First MDG Report would let to conclude the interim results of all taken efforts on maintaining the economic growth and human development potential and would promote the knowledge of the world community and citizens of Kyrgyzstan about the situation in the country advocating MDGs among population.

Note: In September of 2000 191 countries, including Kyrgyzstan, adopted the Millennium Declaration. It established development goals acute for all countries, which at present are known as the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These goals establish specific quantitatively defined targets for development, which should be attained by the human kind by 2015. In order to have them translated into reality, intensive and well-coordinated efforts are required on the part of both developed and developing countries. The UN and all international organizations dealing with development problems made the MDG to be the basis for their activities.

Contact: Aikan Mukanbetova, UNDP National Programme Analyst. Phone: (996 312) 61 12 13. Fax: (996 312) 61 12 17. Email:

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP)

Anders Aslund, the one of the world’s leading economists, UNDP consultant and the President’s economic advisor, was in Kyrgyzstan with the mission 22 April – 1 May 2003. The Kyrgyz Republic has been inviting Professor Anders Aslund every year since 1998 to take his theoretical and practical advice for the further structural reform both in social and economic spheres. During his previous mission to Kyrgyzstan in 2002, Professor Aslund emphasized the importance of directing export-led economic growth, as well as the sound fiscal management through various economic policy measures.

This mission was aimed specifically on providing policy advice for the Kyrgyz Republic to strengthen the domestic economic reform, which includes both institutional and legal elements. The main focus of such advice this year will be the economic governance toward more dynamic business sector development, as well as its exposure to international business through facilitation of trade and foreign direct investment.

The mission of Mr. Aslund was effective due to a wide range of meetings he had with the President, the Prime Minister and all key Ministers. He also met with NGO leaders, international missions representatives, private sector and national experts, and spent one day in Osh meeting with the Governor, other government officials and international fora representatives. He lectured at the Russian Slavonic University and American University - Central Asia and provided a number of interviews for journalists from leading Kyrgyz newspapers and National TV.

The mission will be resulted by a detailed report on the condition of economic reforms and public administration reforms further improvement with expanding opportunities for business development in the country, and a number of recommendations on economic sector development.

Contact: Koji Kawabe, UNDP Programme Officer. Phone: (996 312) 61 12 13. Fax: (996 312) 61 12 17. Email:

Public hearings on stimulative grants were held 30 April 2003 in the Parliament with participation of the Ministry of Finance, UNDP, Soros Foundation, Counterpart Consortium, and Urban Institute Bishkek. The purpose of the event was to develop a grant system with simple procedures, clear criteria of allocation and people-oriented system of stimulative grants. Participants marked that development of the mechanisms of stimulative grants allocation would contribute a lot to development of decentralization and local self-governance in the country. The hearings were considered as the first stage of the process of creating mechanisms of stimulative grants. Donor and partner organizations brought to the hearings their experience and practice in working with grants.

As the result of the hearings, the Parliament and the Ministry of Finance received information for further analysis of grant system. To speed up this process and start grant programme in the second half of the year, participants agreed on creating small working group of experts for summarizing the results and preparation of the proposals for the system of stimulative grants (including the draft of the amendment to the laws) taking into account interests of the community organizations, experience of international organizations, and local practice. Then, finalized results will be submitted to the Parliament and the Ministry of Finance for further approval in laws and regulations.

Contact: Dinara Rakhmanova, UNDP Central Governance Programme Manager. Phone: (996 312) 66 46 34, 66 21 08. Email:

On 29 – 30 April thirty-five lecturers of oblast higher educational institutions (HEIs) of Kyrgyzstan participated in the training “The introduction of the academic gender into HEIs”. The training was organised by the Social Governance Programme in cooperation with the Secretariat of the National Council on Women, Family and Gender Development under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Institute of Equal Rights and Opportunities.

During the seminar the participants presented the syllabus of the course “The Basics of the Gender Knowledge” for HEIs developed by the group of gender experts of the Social Governance Programme. Recently, gender education has gained an unseen significance. At minimum nine higher educational institutions of Kyrgyzstan currently have gender courses for their students of sociology, political science, law. Gender is mainly taught on the initiative of enthusiastic academics. However, until lately, there has been no single model syllabus and methodology for teaching academic course in gender.

The presented gender academic course was developed by the request of the Ministry of Education and the National Council on Women, Family and Gender Development to provide the students of different departments with the organic knowledge about gender problems and national gender policy, as well as to increase their gender sensitivity through the teaching method based on lectures and interactive approaches. The course is currently being considered by the state committee of the education standards under the Ministry of Education and Culture and upon its approval will be introduced into the curricula of HEIs throughout the country.

Given the lack or absolute absence of study books and methodological materials in gender, unavailability of well-qualified trainers in the subject, the Social Governance Programme procured nearly 1,000 textbooks and manual on gender for HEIs and the Kyrgyz National Library.

Contact: Ainura Kypchakbaeva, Cluster Task Manager; UNDP Social Governance Programme. Phone: (996 312) 66 38 85, 66 04 18; e-mail:

The round table on ICT national action plan development (e-Governance, e-Education, e-Economy) was held on 24th April 2003 with the support of UNDP Central Governance Programme. Its objective was to discuss the concepts and action plan drafts of ICTD strategy among key players in Kyrgyzstan and facilitate to establish the effective links between action plans. The participants were key players for action plan development, who are working groups’ members for action plan development, government officials from the President’s Administration, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Education and Culture, State Agency for Communications, Association of Communications Operators, KyrgyzTelecom, private sector and international donor organizations.

The concepts and action plan drafts were presented and discussed. In addition, UNDP project, ICT business survey, that addresses analysis on the existing ICT business environment and opportunity, recommendations for e-economy, ICT industry development particularly in SME sector, and FDI attraction into ICT industry, were presented. Opening speeches were given by Mr. Keneshek Karachalov, the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr. David Akopyan, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative and Mr. Zakilaly Kenjebaev, Executive Secretary of ICT Council. They have acknowledged the importance of action plan developments in the process of ICTD strategy implementation.

In March 2002 the President of Kyrgyzstan adopted National ICT Strategy, which aims to harness the potential of ICT to ensure development of sustainable, democratic and information society process in the country. By this strategy, three areas were identified as priority: e-government, e-economy and e-education. Currently the government, together with international partners, such as UNDP and several NGOs, has been supporting ICT Council, which deals with transforming the strategy to sets of feasible projects. Accordingly, working groups are developing action plan in three priority areas, e-government, e-education and e-economy with assistance of UNDP national experts.

In April 2003, working groups on legislation and infrastructure were also established and started to develop action plans to materialize three prioritized areas. These working groups are consisted of government officials, business leaders from private sector, NGO and academia. They are expected to finalize action plans by the end of July 2003.

This round table was highly appreciated and helped to coordinate the contents of action plan for each priority area by providing opportunity to share information and discuss the contents of action plan by experts with involving of round table participants. Working groups with national experts will work further on action plan drafts considering the discussion at this round table. The next round table is planned in the beginning of June in order to finalize the concept of action plan.

Contact: Dinara Rakhmanova, UNDP Central Governance Programme Manager. Phone: (996 312) 66 46 34, 66 21 08. Email:

UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEERS (UNV)

UN Volunteers Program and UN Volunteers Resource Center - Kyrgyzstan supported a three-day event “Youth Changes the World” held in Bishkek, which was organized by NGO League of Volunteers (LV), to celebrate the Global Youth Service Day (GYSD). GYSD is an annual global event that celebrates, recognizes and mobilizes year-round contributions of young people to build their communities through voluntary service and the contribution made by the community for empowering young people.

On the 11th and 12th an orientation to introduce volunteers and various kinds of volunteer activities was given at four major universities in Bishkek. Participants totaled almost 100, many of whom were students majoring in social work. At the end of the orientation those who wanted to try volunteering could sign up for one of the two volunteer activities planned for the 13th.

One of the activities was held at a recreation area “Seyil” located 15 km from Bishkek. 30 people volunteered to clean up the area with 10 LV volunteers learning how visitors could abuse the nature and discussing how it could be prevented. After the activity they enjoyed games and raffles to build friendship among them.

The other activity was held at the State Boarding School for blind and poor eye-sighted children located right behind the Bishkek train station. Over ten people who had participated in one of the orientations experienced volunteering in the Sunday Club within the framework of an LV project “I Feel the World” that originally started in a UNV joint project with Soros Foundation almost three years ago. Both the children and volunteers had a wonderful time playing games outside, painting pictures and just chatting.

Simultaneously an exhibition sale of the children’s paintings was held at the open gallery in the Central Square, by which the public could recognize the children’s talents and the volunteers’ efforts. Watercolors paintings are a popular activity among the children and they enjoy painting with volunteers almost every weekend. Those pictures previously painted were displayed to sell. 35 paintings were sold.

A lot more events to celebrate the Global Youth Service Day were held throughout the world. The report on the activities held in Bishkek and in other regions in Kyrgyzstan will be available at NGO League of Volunteers. The final report with the summary of activities held all around the world would be prepared by the Youth Service America & Global Youth Action Network.

For further information please visit LV website at http://volunteer.kyrnet.kg/rc and GYSD website at http://www.GYSD.net

Contact: Tomoko Matsui, Coordinator, UN Volunteers Resource Center, c/o UN House, 160 Chui Avenue, Bishkek 720040 Kyrgyz Republic, Tel: (996-312) 61 12 75, E-mail: , Website: http://www.unv.org.kg/rc

UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME

Roundtable meeting devoted to discussion of the issues on creating effective anti money laundering and counter financing terrorism (AML/CFT) legal framework in Kyrgyzstan was held from 23 to 24 April 2003 in Bishkek. A two-day meeting is a second in a series of national workshops organized jointly by the UNODC’s Global Programme on Money Laundering, OSCE Centre in Bishkek, and National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic. Representatives of ministries and departments of Kyrgyzstan, finance-credit institutions, members of the parliament as well as international experts participated in the roundtable. Participants of the meeting considered issues of anti-money laundering legislation, and perspectives of international cooperation in the field. During the discussion the main attention was paid to experiences of other states in this field, in particular, Lithuania and the Czech Republic.

The UNODC’s Regional Representative for Central Asia Ms. Antonella Deledda paid a working visit to Kyrgyzstan. During the visit she met with Mr. Kurmanbek Kubatbekov, Chair of the State Commission on Drug Control of the Kyrgyz Republic, Mr. Missir Ashirkulov, Acting Head of the Presidential Administration, and Mr. John O’Keef, H.E. Ambassador of the USA, to discuss next steps to be undertaken for launching implementation of the project on establishment of the Drug Control Agency in Kyrgyzstan.

On April 24, 2003 a Mini-Dublin Group meeting was held in the premise of the United Nations. Representatives of donor-countries were briefed on activities of UNODC’s Regional Office and overall drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking situation in Central Asia. It was suggested to establish a local Mini-Dublin Group within the country.

On April 24, 2003 Heads of UN agencies as well as UNDP professional staff convened at the UNCT meeting. Ms. Antonella Deledda presented to their attention the UNODC’s Strategic Programme Framework for Central Asia and briefed on overall drug situation in Kyrgyzstan.

Mr. Mirzakhid Sultanov, Regional Coordinator of the UNODC’s project AD/RER/02/F75 – “Diversification of HIV and Drug Treatment Services for Injecting Drug Users in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan” visited Kyrgyzstan from 23 to 29 April 2003. The project was launched in September 2002 and is aimed at assisting countries of Central Asia to reduce drug abuse and related health and social consequences through improving the range of effective HIV prevention and drug treatment services accessible to injecting and other drug users. This will include outreach and low-threshold services including HIV/AIDS prevention education, access to condoms and clean injecting equipment and counselling as well as outpatient and inpatient detoxification, treatment and rehabilitation. Emphasis will be placed on the replication of existing successful initiatives in the region, in-services training through exchanges among organisations in the region and training seminars organised at the national and regional levels. Emphasis will also be placed on the development of linkages to other services to meet other health and social needs of the drug users.

During the visit Mr. Sultanov met with national counterparts, such as State Commission on Drug Control, Republican AIDS Union, Republican Narcological Center, and NGO “Sotsium” dealing with drug demand reduction. He also briefed UN Joint Agencies Programme on Expanded Response to HIV/AIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, Soros Foundation and USAID on planned activities under the project as well as discussed the ways of further fruitful cooperation and coordination of activities on HIV/AIDS prevention among drug injecting users.

An International seminar “Silk Road is a Road for Peace and Dialogue” organized by the State Commission on Drug Control was held at the shore of the Issyk-Kul lake from 28 to 29 April 2003. Seminar was devoted to the 10-th Anniversary of the SCDC’s establishment. Representatives of the UNODC, Soros Foundation, WHO, government of India and Drug Control Commissions of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan participated in the seminar.

Contact: Mr. Bakhtiar Mambetov, National Coordinator, UN ODC’s Sub-Office for the Kyrgyz Republic. Tel. +996 (312) 66 56 82, 66 05 22, e-mail: