In this issue:

UNITED NATIONS IN KYRGYZSTAN

• National Congress “Gender Equality Achievement in Kyrgyz Republic in the Context of the Millennium Development Goals”

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT FUND FOR WOMEN

• A step ahead towards achieving Millennium Development Goals through improvement of sex-disaggregated statistics

UNITED NATIONS IN KYRGYZSTAN

National Congress “Gender Equality Achievement in Kyrgyz Republic in the Context of the Millennium Development Goals” was held in Bishkek on 8-9 September, 2005.

Organized in the threshold of the UN Summit and initiated by the Secretariat of the National Council on Women, Family and Gender Development under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, with support form the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UN Women’s Development Fund (UNIFEM), Agency of Social Technologies, Association “Diamond” and Women’s Support Center, the Congress has attracted a lot of attention to the issues of the gender equality achievement in the republic.

The Congress was attended by more than 500 stakeholders from all sectors of society representing legislative, judicial and executive branches, local government, international organizations and donors, mass media, academic and research institutes, non-governmental organizations and political parties.

The Congress aimed to raise a number of important aspects for promoting gender equality in Kyrgyzstan. Amongst those were discussion of priority areas of government policy and programming, which needs to be engendered, development of proposals on improvements of the Institutional Mechanism on women’s advancement and gender equality, discussion of the strategy for monitoring gender policy implementation in the context of Millennium Development Goals and review of experiences of other countries on gender mainstreaming.

Most of the participants of the Congress shared an opinion that despite Kyrgyzstan commitments towards achieving gender equality, declared at all levels, there are significant obstacles in policies implementation and realization. One of the lively example of the above stated is that women are almost practically not represented at the decision-making level, in particular there are no women in a new parliament of the republic.

As a result of 2-days work the Congress participants have drafted a Resolution, which identifies general goals for increased effectiveness of the state policy via ensured gender equality. For instance, among most important the following ones were included: gender mainstreaming into all national programmes, especially in the strategy for economic development and poverty reduction, compulsory gender expertise of the laws and budgets, participation of the civil society in discussions of the national programmes, strengthening status of the national mechanism for gender equality advancement, etc. Besides this, Resolution frames concrete recommendations for action for governmental structures, civil society, international organizations and mass media.

For more information, please contact Ms. Damira A. Sartbaeva, UNIFEM Regional Programme Director for CIS. Phone: + 7 (3272) 58-26-43. Email: You may wish to visit the UNIFEM Regional website at www.unifemcis.org

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT FUND FOR WOMEN

A step ahead towards achieving Millennium Development Goals through improvement of sex-disaggregated statistics

Gender statistics reflects status of men and women in all spheres of socio-political life and promotes identification of gender gaps and problems in society. Statistical data and indicators on women and men status are vital for argumentative and adequate formulation and monitoring of the policy and programmes, introducing necessary changes, raising awareness and eliminating existing gender stereotypes.

One of the important steps towards improvement of methods and mechanisms for sex-disaggregated data collection became signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between National Statistical Committee of Kyrgyz Republic and United Nations Women’s Development Fund on September 30, 2005.

Among key areas of cooperation within the frameworks of the MOU are: establishment of mechanisms for gender equality mainstreaming into national programmes, such as CDF, PRSP, etc.), based on the Millennium Development Goals, improvement of methodology for evaluation and inclusion of new indicators of the sex-disaggregated statistics in all spheres of economics and social development, development of the system of indicators, collection and publication of statistical information, featuring status of the men and women in a user-friendly format. Priorities will include: women and men participation in agricultural sector and labour market, unpaid women labour in households, violence against women, external labour migration, etc.

This MOU will facilitate and strengthen a productive partnership between National Statistical Committee and UNIFEM on the development of the gender indicators for their further mainstreaming into national programmes and strategies, methodologies of sex-disaggregated data collection and analysis, as well as when conducting research activities. The MOU aims not only at fostering coordination of efforts between both parties, but also opens new opportunities for joint projects, publications, researches, etc. with participation of other interested stakeholders. In particular, one of the short-term results of this partnership will become a joint publication of the statistical monitoring “Women and men of Kyrgyzstan”.

For more information, please contact Ms. Damira A. Sartbaeva, UNIFEM Regional Programme Director for CIS. Phone: + 7 (3272) 58-26-43. Email: You may wish to visit the UNIFEM Regional website at www.unifemcis.org