Kyrgyzstan Plans for Gender Equality

A new national strategy for achieving gender equality in Kyrgyzstan needs to be properly funded and backed up by changes to the law, NBCentralAsia experts say.



State Secretary Adakhan Madumarov lent his backing to the action plan on July 19 after it had been sent to Present Kurmanbek Bakiev for his signature.



Madumarov said the programme should begin by concentrating on women’s health and maternity care. According to the action plan, it will become easier for women in remote areas to access medical services, all women will get free check-ups, and dairy-food centres for children.



As part of the gender action plan, more funding will go into an existing programme designed to encourage recent graduates to go and work as teachers in remote parts of the country.



The gender strategy will cost about 75 million soms, or two million US dollars, although the finance ministry says that it does not currently have the funds to finance all costs. NBCentralAsia observers say the plan needs sustained funding as well as changes to the law to correct the current gender imbalance in politics and business.



At the moment, there are no women in Kyrgyzstan’s parliament and there are only two female ministers in government.



Anara Niyazova, the president’s representative on gender issues in parliament, says the electoral code should include special measures to give women access to elected assemblies.



“Unless we get measures like this, we will see another [future] parliament that is male only and is dominated by businessmen and wealthy men”, she said.



Amendments to the law on political parties are currently being drafted to give women equal access to parliament by stipulating that one in three candidates on the party lists used in proportional-representation elections must be female.



Political analyst Marat Kazakbaev agrees that there needs to be a quota system to ensure that both sexes are equally represented in government.



Aziza Abdurasulova, who heads the Kylym Shamy human rights centre, insists that women should play an active role in implementing the new strategy. It will be up to the government, the media and NGOs to make them aware of their opportunities to have a say.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)