Water is arguably the world’s most precious resource. However, it has also become a source of growing concern, affecting some regions more severely than others. In Central Asia, water scarcity has reached alarming levels, affecting the well-being and livelihoods of millions, and jeopardizing stability in the region. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, five independent countries emerged in Central Asia as sovereign nations. Yet, the challenges they face extend beyond individual borders. The implications of the water crisis affect the entire region and raise concerns about the potential for conflicts between the neighboring countries. The primary water sources...
Protecting biodiversity and encouraging sustainable livelihoods in Son-Kul Lake in the Kyrgyz mountains
Featured image: Anara Momunova, ISDS, and Baktygulov Tursunbek, deputy akim (head) of the Kochkor district authority. In 2023, Centralasiengrupperna initiated a new format of cooperation with local partners in Central Asia, allowing for long-term support. Funded by SIDA via ForumCiv’s Large Partnership Funding program, the new collaboration format enables us to provide sustainable and lasting support to our partners, which marks an important step in CAG’s ongoing progress from project-oriented work towards long-term partnerships. In April, we initiated a new project with our local partner in Kyrgyzstan, the Institute for Sustainable Development Strategy (ISDS), within the renewed format of...
Empowering youth for lasting change in Southern Kyrgyzstan
In 2023, Centralasiengrupperna initiated a new format of cooperation with local partners in Central Asia, allowing for long-term support. Funded by SIDA via ForumCiv’s Large Partnership Funding program, the new collaboration format enables us to provide sustainable and lasting support to our partners, which marks an important step in CAG’s ongoing progress from project-oriented work towards long-term partnerships....
Residency opportunity in Kyrgyzstan
Central Asia Solidarity Groups (CAG) is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization located in Malmö, Sweden. Our focus is on thematic areas of climate and environment, democratic youth organizing, gender equality and women’s rights, security and resilience, mainly in post-Soviet Central Asia. We are currently seeking two candidates for an 8-week placement from September to October 2023 with Novi Ritm, a youth-led organization in Osh, Kyrgyzstan (for more information about the organization click here) The objective is to provide ongoing capacity-building activities on fundraising, specifically developing grant writing methods. Both successful candidates will work collaboratively in a team and will be...
CAG 10 years’ blog post series: Information project throughout the years
Since CAG’s founding, information work in Sweden has been an important complementary cornerstone in our international solidarity work. When someone hears “Central Asia” in Sweden – only a few people, unfortunately, are able to even pinpoint the countries referred to. This perception is something CAG wants to change through information and advocacy work. In our third and last blog post of our 10 years’ anniversary series, we provide an overview of our information and advocacy work, including an in-depth look at the first year of Central Asia Days and materials published as part of our information work. A geopolitical...
Securing wetland ecosystems of Son-Kul Lake in the Kyrgyz Mountains – part 2
From March until December 2022, CAG in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Development Strategy (ISDS) had been implementing a project “Securing wetland ecosystems of Lake Son-Kul in the Kyrgyz mountains”. Together with Cholpon rural municipality, ISDS focused on supporting the rights of local communities to protect and manage wetlands and natural resources of the Son-Kul basin of Naryn region. You can read the first blog post about this project via this link. Son-Kul Lake performs a number of important environmental functions, such as maintaining the stability of the region’s climate, accumulation and storage of fresh water, maintaining the...
CAG 10 years’ blog post series: Partners and projects throughout the years
Central Asia Solidarity Groups is turning 10 years old this year! To celebrate it, we take a look in the rearview mirror. Below we get an overview of partners and projects since 2012 – the year when CAG officially became a registered organization. Back in 2012, CAG worked mostly with democratic youth activism and conflict transformation. A few years later, several new thematic areas had been developed – gender equality, LGBTQ and culture. In 2019, the thematic program area culture ceased to be a one of CAG’s main thematic areas. Instead, climate and environment became a thematic area, and...
CAG 10 years’ blog post series: Interviews with board members
CAG is turning 10 this year! We are celebrating by looking in the rearview mirror. In these short four interviews, we talk to people who have been following and shaping CAG’s development throughout the years. Below, we get the insights and reflection from Lola Matmusaeva, current chairperson, Gustaf Sörnmo, founder and current treasurer, Viktor Romanov, coordinator at CAG, and Johan, a steady board member and former chairperson. Lola Matmusaeva, current chairperson with experience working in the partner organization in Kyrgyzstan and CAG office in Malmö before becoming a board member in 2019. Hi Lola. What...
Take a glance at Central Asia Days 2022!
On November 5-6, Centralasiengrupperna hosted its ninth annual Central Asia Days conference at ABF Stockholm, which was accompanied by a screening of the movie “Baqyt” at Zita Folkets Bio. With the focus on gender & women’s rights and climate & environment, our speakers provided profound and first-hand knowledge on the topics and engaged participants into thought-provoking discussions. The first day of the conference was devoted to the theme of gender and women’s rights. Our speaker from Kazakhstan Zhanar Sekerbayeva – a feminist, activist, and co-founder of the feminist initiative ‘Feminita’, shared how the initiative advocates for women’s political participation...
Being an intern in Kyrgyzstan
While writing my master thesis during the spring semester, I saw an interesting advertisement for a summer internship. As I already have conducted two internships and my second master degree was coming to an end, I mainly searched for permanent positions. However, I could not resist looking closer into the internship advert. The ad mentioned working with projects related to biodiversity and climate adaptation which I have studied, worked with, and have a passion for. I became more and more intrigued. As I scrolled down the text I saw that the internship would be based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. “Kyrgyzstan!?”....