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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...

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!?”....

Interview with Anita and Sara, new CAG interns

The picture above is of Anita and Sara, who visited CAG’s office in Malmö as a part of their preparation for an internship in Kyrgyzstan to work with our partner Novi Ritm, a youth organization based in Osh. We asked Sara and Anita a few questions about themselves and about their expectations from the internship.  Tell us a bit about yourself.  Anita: I’m doing my masters right now in Security and Crisis Studies at the Swedish Defense University. I’ve already been involved in civil society for quite a long time, primarily through the Swedish United Nations Association, so I...

Promoting gender equality and equal access to education in Kyrgyzstan with our local partner Novi Ritm

For several years, Centralasiengrupperna has closely cooperated with our partner organization Novi Ritm in Southern Kyrgyzstan to promote active and meaningful participation of young people in the civil society sector. CAG has supported Novi Ritm in the implementation of activities that aim to increase the capacities of young people to influence their own lives and the lives of the communities they come from. One of the goals of the running project with Novi Ritm is to create equal education opportunities for young people and to inform local youth about their civil rights.  This blogpost is dedicated to the most...

Securing wetland ecosystems of Son-Kul Lake in the Kyrgyz Mountains

Since March 2022, CAG together with the Institute for Sustainable Development Strategy (ISDS), our partner organization in Kyrgyzstan, is implementing a project “Securing wetland ecosystems of Son-Kul Lake in the Kyrgyz mountains”.  The main goal of the project is to support the rights and strengthen the capacities of local communities to protect and manage wetlands and natural resources of the Son-Kul basin of the Naryn region. Context: Son-Kul Lake is an alpine freshwater lake located at an altitude of 3016 m above sea level in the Inner Tien Shan. Since 2011, the lake has been included in the International...

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...

Central Asia Days 2018

On November 25th and 26th Centralasiengrupperna is hosting the fifth annual Central Asia Days conference in Stockholm! This two-event will include seminars, lectures, discussions, and a movie screening, with activists, civil society members and researchers. Free admission. Sign up here: https://simplesignup.se/event/141000  Full program: November 25, 12.00 – 19.15 ABF Huset (Per-Albin room), Sveavägen 41, Stockholm 12.00 – 12.30 Reception 12.30 – 14.00 Lecture: Gender Equality: Soviet vs Independent Kyrgyzstan The lecture will be held by Aisuluu Namasbek kyzy from the American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The lecturer will focus on comparison of gender equality in soviet and post-soviet Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan experienced...