CAG and Novi Ritm, our partner organization based in Southern Kyrgyzstan, have been working together for several years to empower the local youth, particularly girls and women, by increasing their awareness of their rights and promoting their participation in decision-making processes at the national and community level. You can read more about our current format and objectives of cooperation with Novi Ritm via this link. In this blog post, we would like to highlight some recent activities undertaken by Novi Ritm within the framework of our partnership. These include activities promoting ideas of intersectional feminism, human rights, media...
Permaculture in Kyrgyzstan villages: care for nature and people
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. This blog post is dedicated to our partnership with the local organization El-Too. Since 2021, we have been working with El-Too in 14 villages vulnerable to climate change in North Kyrgyzstan to promote permaculture principles. Over the last two years, the...
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....
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...
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...
Applying a family approach and the traditional knowledge of permaculture in semi-desert and high alpine villages in Kyrgyzstan
In 2021, CAG in cooperation with local partner organization El-Too implemented a pilot project on permaculture initiatives among women in North-East Kyrgyzstan. Within the framework of the project, local women learnt how to develop kitchen gardens using the permaculture initiatives and gained knowledge about their land rights by meeting with the local duty bearers and through judicial consultations (you can read more about the project activities in 2021 via this link). Based on the needs of the project participants and our monitoring activities, we decided to adopt a family approach this year. This approach is considered effective, as all...
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...
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,...