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Gyunay joins Central Asia Solidarity Groups!

I’m very happy and excited to join the Central Asia Solidarity Groups! My journey started in November 2019 when I decided to apply for my first European Solidarity Corps placement. After several months I was lucky to receive a positive response, but unfortunately COVID-19 brought its own changes in our future plans.  I’m originally from Georgia, but have grown up in the Republic of Karelia, region in northwest Russia, bordering Finland. I’ve always been living in multicultural environments and would like to continue doing so. I love meeting new people, learn about their lives and backgrounds. I’ve traveled a lot...

Women’s Rights in Central Asia

107. What does this number stand for? As the Global Gender Gap Report for 2020 admits, this number represents the number of years needed for Central Asia and Eastern Europe to achieve gender equality. In this report, we can find the global gender equality rankings of three Central Asian countries: out of 153 countries, Kazakhstan placed at 72nd place, Kyrgyzstan at #93 and Tajikistan at #137. This begs the question: why have these countries scored so poorly in terms of gender equality? What is the general state of women’s rights in the region? This video will discuss the...

Strategic Resource Fund

Strategic Resource Fund Central Asia Solidarity Groups have launched the Strategic Resource Fund to support civil society actors in Central Asia. It aims to provide resources for civil society actors in Central Asia 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.  An applicant has to meet the following criteria have to be fulfilled for applicants and ideas to be eligible: 1. Level of strategic relevance. As the name of the fund makes clear, the strategic component is...

Maria joins Central Asia Solidarity Groups!

It is such an honour and great joy to have become a part of the Central Asian Solidarity Groups (CAG). I first came across CAG last summer, after reading some very interesting blog posts on their website. In an attempt to learn more, I contacted the office to meet up with the EVS volunteers. Unfortunately, my summer schedule changed in a different direction and I was not able to travel to Malmo at that point. However, I did keep a close eye on the website to see if any future opportunities would arise for me to learn more about...

Central Asia on the Global Map

You might have heard about Central Asia: that it is locked between Russia, China, and Iran; that these five “-stans” are home to around 74 million people of various ethnic backgrounds, maybe you’ve heard of its magnificent natural beauty too. The question is, then, what is it about Central Asia that makes it of such great geopolitical interest to powers like Russia, the United States and China? There is actually a lot. For Russia, Central Asia sits in its main sphere of influence. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, four Central Asian states have retained political, economic, and...

After #MeToo: A methodology to engage men in conversations that you probably are not familiar with yet

After the #MeToo campaign bursted in the spotlight, many men wanted to get involved in this work. However, many did not know where to start. One way was to post stories of men from all over the world about their own experiences of violence using various hashtags. This shows that men, as a group, began to wonder: “how could I personally contribute to the existence of such violations that the #MeToo campaign seeks to reveal and address?” MÄN, a Swedish organization, in collaboration with other similar minded organizations and institutions, along with CAG, endeavored in tackling this challenge by...

Youth Workers from Sweden and Poland visit Kyrgyzstan

“Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – once Margaret Mead said. Such a meaningful statement, isn’t it? We believe that changes come through people; open discussions about challenging issues, exchanging ideas on making the world a better place for each and every one of us.  Central Asia Solidarity Groups, (Sweden) together with its partner organizations Novi Ritm (Kyrgyzstan) and KobieTY (Poland) organized mobility of youth workers that involved more than 20 participants in Kyrgyzstan in January this year. The purpose of the mobility...

Authoritarianism in Central Asia: Current State and Tendencies of the Regimes

Does authoritarianism exist in Central Asia? Well, the simple answer is yes, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. On paper, the countries within Central Asia have put together governments that tick most of the check-boxes of a full-fledged democracy. They have elections, checks and balances between parts of the government, and constitutions that exercise due diligence in positively framing human rights. But it doesn’t take much to realize that most of these governments aren’t functioning as they’re supposed to. A cursory Google search about countries in the region will bring up a deluge of articles detailing everything...

Environment and Climate Activism Workshops with our partner organization in Kyrgyzstan

What is the climate crisis and what can we do about? These are questions we explored during a two-week climate residency in Osh, Kyrgyzstan with members and staff of youth organization Novi Ritm. It was a fun, challenging, learning-filled, and eye-opening! To answer these questions we dag more deeply into what global climate change is, how different ecosystems are being impacted and what the consequences of that are on individual, community, societal and global levels. In this we took on a climate justice perspective, examining global inequalities and why some communities are being impacted more drastically than others. As...

Climate Change in Central Asia: Current Trends and Challenges

Climate change is a pressing  global challenge that does not respect national borders and is now affecting every country on every continent. This clip focuses on the region of Central Asia and it will  provide you with general information on regional climate-related and environmental challenges. According to the German Development Agency’s research the Central Asian region is suffering more from the consequences of climate change than most other regions of the world. It is predicted that the expansion of deserts and arid areas will continue, while such terrain already make up 80 percent of the total territory of Central...