In this issue:

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP)

• Press Trip to Osh Province
• International conference - “Genderstan 2004: Cooperation of Men and Women for Gender Equality”
• Opening of School in the Village of Karatyk Concurs with the Start of the Holy Month of Ramadan
• The Art of Conflict Transformation: Training in conflict resolution in Aksy
• Kyrgyz Government Coordinates Fight with HIV/AIDS

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP)

Hit the Road! Press Trip to Osh Province

In the context of the Local Governance Reforms in Kyrgyzstan strengthening the decision-making powers of local representative bodies, journalists from Bishkek have been given the opportunity to take a look at two UNDP Local Self Governance Programme pilot districts in the South to see ways to put it into practice.

The Press Trip with 15 participants from national and international mass media led through two areas, Kara-Suu and Alai in which the UNDP Local Self Governance Programme helps to bridge local administrations and people in order to empower villagers to participate in local development.

In the general transitional crisis of Kyrgyzstan both areas had severe problems: “Since 1996 our main concern was how to feed ourselves”, said Abdimetal Kochkorbaev from Mady village municipality. In the same year the UNDP Poverty Reduction Programme began its work in the Kara-Suu district and was joint later by the UNDP Local Self Governance Programme in 2000, focusing on setting up community organization and encouraging them to work together with local administrations reconstruct the deteriorated infrastructure in their villages.

In Alai the team of journalists visited also one of the poorest mountain districts in Kyrgyzstan with roughly 73% of the 70.000 population below the poverty line, and frequently struck by land slides and an economically difficult situation.

Despite this very weak fundamental basis the strategy of UNDP Local Self Governance Programme to mainly build on engagement and resources contributed by local communities themselves worked out. For a new school in the First of May village the leader of the local community organization (CO) managed to mobilize 60% of the resources needed to rebuild and expand the school building among the village dwellers themselves. State administrations of province, district and local level and UNDP funded this project as well.

“Our life has changed. In previous times we always looked up, waiting for superior governmental levels to act and change our miserable situation. Today we realize that we can take things in our own hands and to have a say as well,” Dyshankul Kaldybaev, the leader of the local CO summarizes this experience and he has already other plans: “We need for example a library here. We could collect books and subscribe to newspapers and make them available for common use there, as we are lacking information here.”

UNDP regularly organizes press trips for Bishkek based journalists which rarely leave the capital due to lack of resources and information from the municipalities. These measures are taken in the first place to make model projects in development more known to a wider public in Kyrgyzstan but also to close the information gap between capital and rural areas as well as between North and South of Kyrgyzstan.

For more information, please contact Olga Grebennikova, Public Affairs Officer. Tel.: + 996 (312) 61-12-13. Email: You can also get additional information on UNDP activities in Kyrgyzstan if you visit UNDP website at http://www.undp.kg

International Conference “Genderstan 2004: Cooperation of Men and Women for Gender Equality”

International conference - “Genderstan 2004: Cooperation of Men and Women for Gender Equality” - will be held at the hotel “Pinara” in Bishkek on November 1-3, 2004.

The conference is organized in the framework of the joint project of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and United Nations Development Program – “Gender in Politics in the Kyrgyz Republic”.

More than 200 representatives of different political parties, governments and mass media, as well as the women and men leaders working on the problems of gender equality from 7 countries: the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Tajikistan, Sweden, Moldova, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan will take part in the conference. Among the guest are: Mr. Bengt Vesterberg, former Vice Prime Minister of Sweden, Suleyman Imanbaev, Chairman of the Central Election Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic, Roma Zakaytene, Minister of Culture of Lithuania, Galian Petriashvili, President of the Association of Journalists “Gender Media Caucasus” in Georgia, Galiya Rabieva, Senior Advisor of the President of Tajikistan, as well as the deputies of the Legislative Assembly “Jogorku Kenesh” of the Kyrgyz Republic, parliaments of Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Sweden and the representatives of the NGOs.

The conference agenda includes different sections, such as “Gender and Law”, during which the experts in gender legislation will share their experiences in development and usage of legislation in different countries. The issues of promotion of women in politics in different electoral systems will be discussed during the section on “Gender Strategies within the Electoral Systems”. In the sections – “Modern Fathers” and “Men in Crisis” the audience will learn about the experience of the Ukraine, Sweden, Lithuania and Kazakhstan in involvement of men in solving the problems of domestic violence and upbringing of children. Apart from these, the conference agenda comprises such sections as “How Can Business Women Cooperate for Democracy” and “Gender and Media”.

Also, in the context of the conference, an exhibition on “Genderstan 2004: Cooperation of Men and Women for Gender Equality” will be opened in the National Historical Museum on November 2, 2004, where the paintings of the Kyrgyz artists as well as the art and crafts of the needlewomen from all the provinces of the country will be exhibited. The exhibition is organized with the assistance of the Union of Artist of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Central Asia Craft Support Association.

The conference agenda is designed so that the discussions touch upon all the aspects of the process of involvement of women in politics and includes the sections corresponding to the components of the project “Promotion of Gender Equality in the Politics of the Kyrgyz Republic”. These components are : “Support and Training of Women Balloting in National Parliament”, “Support and Training of Women Balloting in Local “Kenesh””, “Gender and Media”, Integration of Gender Aspects in the Political Programs of Political parties” and “Men and Gender”.

For more information, please contact Ms. Anastasia Toropova, UNDP Programmes Gender Coordinator. Tel. (996 312) 66-38-85. Email:

Opening of School in the Village of Karataryk Concurs with the Start of the Holy Month of Ramadan

On October 14, 2004, local community of the village of Karataryk , Uzgen region, celebrated an important event – opening of the new school meant to serve 100 pupils.

Representatives of the local state administrations, teacher and village inhabitants participating in the ceremony, all agreed that accomplishment of construction on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan is a good sign boding successful future to the school and its pupils.

The local community members built the school by themselves using the UNDP grant on Preventive Development in the South as well as their own resources and local state administration support.

Decision of building the school was also taken by the community. To attend the school in the neighboring village, the Karataryk children had to walk kilometers in the areas of high landslide risk. Catastrophe of April 20, 2003, which resulted in the death of 34 people and destroyed 11 houses intensified the anxiety of the village inhabitants worrying for the safety of their children.

“We decided that it is a school that we need in the first place and now our worries came to an end”, - admit the beneficiaries.

By realization of the projects supported by the UNDP Program on Preventive Development in the areas of conflict hazard, the program not only fulfils its objectives of poverty alleviation and conflict prevention, but also has a positive effect on the growth of the local population activity and the enhancement of the community participation in decision taking concerning the issues of improvement of life standards.

Leadership qualities of the head of the local community organization “Kungoy” Samarbek Konurbaev were not left unnoticed. He was elected the deputy of the village “Kenesh” at the elections of local administrations on October 10, 2004.

The Art of Conflict Transformation

That is the name of the training seminar held by the UNDP Program on Preventive Development together with the Academy of OSCE (Bishkek) in Aksy on October 23-25, 2004.

Participants of the seminar were the leaders of the non governmental organizations, community based organizations, and local self-governments, some of them being the immediate participants of Aksy event of 2002.

During three days, Mr. Wilfred Graf and Gudvin Gramer, experts of Austrian Center of Conflict Resolution, who have had immense experience in conflict regulation in different regions of the world including Caucasus and Sri Lanka, were helping the participants of the seminar to develop the skills of correct behavior in local conflicts.

The participants were given a task to identify the type of conflicts, which could happen in the region and find the most appropriate ways of their resolution, reconciliation of the confronting parties and rehabilitation of social harmony.

The training participants were working in three directions: “Conflict between the Government and Population”, “Conflict between the Population and the Representatives of the Customs and Border Services”, and “Conflict between Different Generations”.

“The tragedy of Aksy is that when the disaster happened, people knew nothing about conflict prevention and the right behavior in conflict situations. Therefore, unfortunately, the conflict in Aksy was unavoidable”, - said one the participants.

The training participants were looking for the innovative approaches with enthusiasm; they were readily working in groups. When summing up the seminar, the trainer - Govin Kramer said: “We are very grateful to all who took part in this training session. You cannot even imagine what a useful experience it is for us”.

This joint seminar was the first initiative of the UNDP Program on Preventive Development and the Academy of OSCE (Bishkek) in the field of conflict prevention and resolution.

For more information, please contact Ms. Mia Rimby, UNDP Programme Office. Tel: 0 (996 312) 61-12-13. Fax: 0 (996 312) 61-12-17. Email: , or Mr. Abdiraim Jorokulov, Manager of the UNDP Preventive Development Programme. Tel: (996 3222) 5-78-37, Fax:: (996 3222) 5-57-13, e-mail:

Kyrgyz Government Coordinates Fight with HIV/AIDS

The sixth meeting of the Republican Multisectoral Coordination Committee of the Kyrgyz Government on Prevention of HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Diseases Transmitted through Injections was held at the UN House on October 26, 2004. The session was chaired by Toktobyubyu Aytikeev, Vice Prime Minister.

Around 40 members of the committee, including the representatives of all the ministries and departments, province administrations and ÑÌÈ as well as the religious leaders participated in the meeting,

Mr. Boris Shapiro, Director of the “AIDS” Center presented thorough information about the situation concerning HIV/AIDS in Kyrgyzstan and introduced the publication – “Situation Analysis in the Field of HIV/AIDS and the Importance of Basic Indicators of Intervention”. The representatives of the regional state administrations reported on the actions taken for implementation of local programs on HIV/AIDS prevention at the province level.

The issues of further development and implementation of the national policy in the area of HIV/AIDS prevention were also discussed at the meeting.

Heads of the 4 sectors (of education, information and communication) functioning within the framework of the Committee told the audience about the work done. Along with this, the new - fifth sector was introduced, which will deal with the issues of cooperation with the police.

The basic mission of the Committee is to optimize the interaction of ministries, departments, services, state administrations and self-government structures, as well as community based organizations in organizing HIV/AIDS preventive antiepidemic activities and to ensure coordination of the work carried out by different ministries.

Development of different proposals concerning the amendments and supplementary chapters to the legislation of Kyrgyzstan in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention as well as cooperation with the international organizations are also the functions of the committee.

The committee is the main organ identifying the national policy of fighting the HIV/AIDS infection and controlling implementation of the state program and the state strategic plan on HIV/AIDS prevention in Kyrgyzstan.

For more information, please contact: Ekaterina Paniklova, Programme Manager, UNDP HIV/AIDS Prevention programme or Ashir Chikeev, Information/Communication Specialist, tel.: (996 312) 62-04-49, tel/fax: (996 312) 66 36 91, e-mail: