Etikett: Central Asia

Home » Central Asia

[English] Youth-led change in Southern Kyrgyzstan: promoting gender equality, human rights, and media literacy with our local partner Novi Ritm

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...

[English] 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...

Central Asia’s water crisis: a human security perspective [explainer clip in English]

 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...

[English] 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...

[English] 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...

[English] 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...

[English] 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...

De unga aktivisterna: Drömmarna och uppoffringarna: Uppdateringar från Anita, CAG:s praktikant i Kirgizistan.

Det är en dag mitt i veckan och vi sitter på golvet inne i biblioteket tillsammans med ett flertal tjejer. Lite här och där står små genomskinliga burkar med pärlor. Ute var det fortfarande varmt vid den här tiden på året. När vi mötte tjejerna för allra första gången. Med tiden förändrades landskapet. Sommar blev till höst som blev till vinter. Tiden sprang ifrån oss när vi tittade bort. När snön nu tungt har lagt sig över staden har vi bara ett fåtal dagar kvar här i Osj. Den initiala blygheten som låg som en mantel över tjejerna har...

Genus, våld och vardag i Kirgizistan: Uppdateringar från Sara, CAG:s praktikant i Kirgizistan.

Nu har det gått några månader sedan sist jag skrev och här i Osj har det hunnit bli vinterkallt. På Lenintorget har man för någon vecka sedan börjat bygga upp den årliga, mastodonta järngranen — precis mellan Stor-Lenin och den enorma, fladdrande, kirgiziska flaggan. Mysigt? Inte speciellt. Men effektfullt! När jag nu tittar tillbaka på vår tid som praktikanter här på Novi Ritm, så är det i synnerhet mötena med alla ungdomar som jag väger i karat.  Att vi har fått möjligheten att prata med unga kvinnor och flickor från olika bakgrund och olika livshistorier har varit ögonöppnande och...

[English] 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...