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...
Civil Society in Central Asia [explainer clip]
What makes democracy work? The amount of literature written in an attempt to answer this question is vast. Many conclude that there is no way of finding a single answer, but the common perception is that civil society is an integral part of a functional democracy. Thus, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the international community encouraged countries in Central Asia to develop strong, representative, and inclusive civil society to smooth the transition from totalitarian to democratic regimes. However, three decades later, civil society in Central Asia did not form itself as expected. Every country in...
Role Play Game: LGBTQ, climate and mental health in Central Asia
Central Asia Solidarity Groups have launched a new digital role-play game on human rights issues in Central Asia. The plot of this interactive game is built around storylines and different case studies which present players with background information about the topic. There are four storylines representing particular groups and their struggles: LGBTQ+ person from rural area Female eco-activists Non-binary persons Persons with mental illnesses Through the game the participants put themselves in the shoes of an assigned character and make decisions based on the given options and context, once they reach the final destination they will be provided with...