Central Asia Days took place on 25-26 November 2021 at ABF in Stockholm. We also had a movie screening at Zita Bio on 25 November. The event was well received and we had some fantastic speakers and participants widening our knowledge, providing excellent questions, and generating some very fruitful discussions about gender, climate, education, social cohesion, finance, and development cooperation projects in Central Asia. Participants found the event to be: ‘Det var fantastiskt, väl avvägt mellan olika samhälleliga aspekter och superintressant. ‘I enjoyed it very much and learnt a lot’ ‘Very informative’ The feedback showed a strong interest in...
Sustainable management and conservation of biodiversity of wetlands of Son-Kul Lake by the local community
Back in 2020, Central Asia Solidarity Groups have launched “Strategic Resource Fund” to support civil society actors in Central Asia. It aims to provide resources for civil society actors for strategic interventions in their respective contexts. The fund primarily focuses on financial resources, but can also provide various forms of capacity building, international networks, and partnerships, long-term funding schemes, etc. Over the course of the past year, we have supported three projects in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. All three of our partners within this funding scheme are grassroots and are closely tied to local communities – something that CAG...
Women-led permaculture initiatives in semi-desert villages of Kyrgyzstan – part 2 (From seeds to harvest)
Since March 2021, CAG together with a local organization El-Too is implementing a project to introduce permaculture initiatives among 60 rural women of 5 villages in Kyrgyzstan. The goal of the project is promoting the womens’ role in land management, building sustainable livelihoods, facilitating gender equality and creating food sovereignty through permaculture kitchen gardens in semi-desert areas that suffer from land degradation. This is the second blog post about the project (you can find the first blog post here). Taking into account the level of knowledge of farmers and geographic conditions described by the lack of water and precipitation,...
The Swedish Forum for Human Rights 2021
Central Asia Solidarity Groups (CAG’s) aims to promote a strong and inclusive civil society that contributes to protection of human rights and achieving social justice in Central Asia. We primarily work within the thematic fields of youth, climate, gender and conflict transformation through long-term solidarity work and capacity building activities. Our geographic focus is the five post-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. To support its main mission, CAG is actively involved and participating in events addressing human rights issues from different perspectives to raise awareness about the human rights situation in Central Asia. One of these...
Migrant children in Russia: how CAG’s partner works to integrate children into society
Centralasiengrupperna actively works within the thematic fields of gender, democratic youth organizing, climate, conflict transformation and provides capacity-building activities for partner organizations from Central Asia as well as partners from Russia that closely work with Central Asia. Russia remains the main destination for immigrants from all over the former Soviet Union, especially for people from Central Asia who migrate to Russia every year in search of work. 145,000 people from Central Asian became full-fledged citizens of the Russian Federation in 2020. The research of the Higher School of Economics shows that there are more than 60 000 of immigrant...
Women-led permaculture initiatives in semi-desert villages of Kyrgyzstan – part 1
Since 2018, CAG has worked within the thematic areas of climate and environment in Central Asia. This year we are piloting permaculture initiatives among rural communities in Kyrgyzstan as an intervention to deal with the problems of food insecurity, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss as well as gender inequality and community health. The pilot project is being implemented with local partner El-Too and was launched in March. This is the first of a series of blog posts about this exciting and innovative project. The villages on the south-west of Issyk-Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan, that are located in semi-desert areas are...
Volunteering opportunity with Central Asia Solidarity Groups
Deadline: May 17th, 2021 Hosting organization: Central Asia Solidarity Groups/Centralasiengrupperna Vacancy: 1 volunteering position Start date: August/September, 2021 Duration: 12 months The following vacancy is available at the Swedish organization Central Asia Solidarity Groups, through the European Solidarity Project funded by Erasmus+ and managed by the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society. Candidates, who are interested in this volunteering position must register at European Solidarity Corps portal and submit their CV together with one page letter of motivation no later than May 17th, 2021. Central Asia Solidarity Groups’ OID is E10064468. Candidates are also requested to submit CV, one page...
Annual meeting and relevant documents
We welcome members and friends of Central Asia Solidarity Groups to join us for the Annual Meeting that will be held online on March 20, 2021 at 9:00 AM. The annual meeting will consist of a presentation of CAG’s work in 2020, including economy, activity plan, electing new board members, chairperson and farewell to resigning board members. (See the agenda for more details) The Jitsi link will be shared close to the date of the meeting. Relevant documents can be found here: Annual Meeting Agenda Årsredovisning CAG 2020 Valberedingens förslag Nominating Committee proposal 2021 2022...
Pathways of Change – How Partners Envision the Future
During summer 2020, CAG ran several workshops on Methodology Development with civil society organizations from Central Asia. The workshops in Kyrgyzstan took place in person, while the workshops with organisations in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were held online. The organizations were chosen based on their area of focus, which was in line with one or more of CAG’s thematic areas democratic youth organizing, gender equality, climate and environment as well as conflict transformation. The workshop data, together with data from three environmental organizations that a board member collected during a study visit to Central Asia in March 2020, was analyzed...
Stepping stones towards Youth Participation – implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250 in Central Asia [explainer clip]
There are numerous factors affecting peace and security in Central Asia. Arbitrary borders drawn during the Soviet era have resulted in natural resources, such as water, being disproportionately split between the Central Asian countries. Such a division has given rise to several cases of conflicts and political tension in the area. The region’s countries have since their independence in 1991 found themselves in national political turmoil on various occasions, as well as international influence from Russia and China affecting the ways the different countries are run. This volatile environment means young people in Central Asia are currently facing...