Kyrgyzstan is often viewed as a country with vast gender inequality. Reports of “bride kidnapping,” such as in the famous 2011 Vice documentary, have painted a dispiriting picture of the place women have in Kyrgyz society. The state of women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan has seen a vast improvement over the last 15 years, however, and despite the continued prevalence of these and other instances of gender-based violations, the general picture is one of progress.
Legal Equality
As an independent nation, the Kyrgyz Republic holds a good record for promoting gender equality. The Central Asian country remains a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which it has committed to since 1996, and like most post-Soviet countries, it has enshrined gender equality in the constitution.
Gaps in legislation and inconsistent legal interpretation have precluded greater progress in the area of sex discrimination, however. For example, until recently, many divorced women could not access child support. In 2018, the country reported 40,000 cases of alimony evasion. But in 2020, partly due to the work of activists, the government helped improve women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan by passing an amendment that made alimony evaders more accountable under family law. Whereas previously fathers who failed to pay child support could get away with just a fine, since 2020, fathers must pay alimony in full.
Child Marriages
The marrying of persons under the age of 18 is illegal in Kyrgyzstan yet 13% of Kyrgyz girls are married before their 18th birthday. Failures in law enforcement in conjunction with unemployment and rural poverty have meant the persistence of traditional non-consensual child marriages. Particularly in larger families that lack the income to support numerous children, parents seek to marry their daughters off to wealthier families to alleviate economic hardship. The problem is worse in rural areas, where the poverty rate is higher than the national poverty rate.
Child marriages in Kyrgyzstan are usually the result of “bride kidnapping” or “ala kachuu,” which literally translates to “pick up and run away.” Every year, 7,000 to 9,000 Kyrgyz girls fall prey to this practice, according to government figures. The bride’s parents are often responsible, along with the other family providing the “bride money.” Both parties arrange the marriage for the daughter typically without her consent in an unofficial religious ceremony. These illegal child marriages put young brides at risk of rape and domestic violence.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has worked to reduce child marriages in Kyrgyzstan since 2016. A key example of its work is the 2018-19 Project Addressing Early Marriages, which the British Embassy funded. This project was successful at encouraging the Kyrgyz Ministry of Labour and Social Development to implement the law prohibiting underage religious marriages in a “systematic way.” It also assisted the training of religious leaders in their understanding of marital law and improved the hotline services available to affected women and girls.
Domestic Violence
As part of the global Spotlight Initiative, a multi-year program that the Kyrgyz government and the European Union supported, U.N. has been implementing sex equality training to improve women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan. Two of the main aims of this program are to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls and provide services to survivors.
Violence against women is a serious problem in Kyrgyzstan and cases have risen since the forced closures of crisis centers during the country’s COVID-19 lockdowns. The last decade has seen improvements though, both in legislation and the provision of survivor support services, such as Spotlight Initiative-funded safe spaces.
Yet despite these improvements, the majority of domestic violence survivors in Kyrgyzstan do not seek help. Family pressure, social stigma and a lack of economic opportunities compel up to 90% of women who have suffered violent treatment from their husbands to return to them, according to U.N. figures. Alternatively, many women escape to pursue unsafe employment opportunities, making them susceptible to trafficking.
Education
The state education system in Kyrgyzstan nominally treats all pupils equally regardless of sex. Girls and boys enjoy near educational parity in Kyrgyzstan at the primary level in terms of enrollment and attendance rates. At the secondary level, however, the net attendance of girls is 3% lower than boys (59% for boys compared with 56% for girls). A U.N. Working Group has found that the principal reasons for girls dropping out of school early are “forced marriage and adolescent pregnancy.” Nevertheless, the 100% adult female literacy rate in Kyrgyzstan as of 2019 should provide a solid basis for women’s future economic participation.
The government is also advancing women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan through efforts to remove negative stereotypes surrounding women in schools. In April 2022, the Kyrgyz government launched a review of all textbooks and teaching materials with the aim of removing any discriminatory content and pictures. Additionally, initiatives such as “Girls in Science,” which has already helped 3,000 girls, aim to increase the proportion of women in underrepresented sectors.
The Future
The Kyrgyz Republic has made impressive strides toward gender equality since earning its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. It ranks 82nd out of 162 countries on the Gender Inequality Index in 2021. Today, the main impediments to women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan are intolerant patriarchal attitudes that perpetuate violence against women, notably the ancient practice of “bride kidnapping”, failures in law enforcement and a lack of economic opportunities for women. “Kyrgyzstan stands at a crossroads with an immense opportunity to harness the potential of women,” wrote a group of U.N. human rights experts in April 2022.
– Samuel Chambers
Photo: Flickr
The Greengate Trust’s Yemen Project
Humanitarian Impacts of War
Within Yemen, UNICEF estimates that almost 18 million people, many of them children, lack access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation. The health situation in Yemen has also turned dire, with the population routinely suffering outbreaks of “cholera, measles, diphtheria and other vaccine-preventable diseases,” UNICEF says.
About 11 million children in Yemen require humanitarian aid and about 2.2 million children are suffering from acute levels of malnutrition, which has far-reaching impacts on children’s development. The destruction of school facilities and medical centers means Yemeni people lack access to critical health care and education. UNICEF reports that more than 2.5 million children in Yemen are not attending school. Overall, a minimum of 21.6 million Yemeni people require humanitarian aid to meet their basic needs.
The Yemen Project
The Greengate Trust, a United Kingdom-based charity that raises money for a variety of causes in Yemen, started the Yemen Project. The Yemen Project is currently gathering support through donations to set up a clinic near Aden, Yemen, specifically catering to malnourished children. The clinic will provide “immediate treatment, food, malnutrition screening and cash assistance to the most vulnerable children and their families,” the Greengate Trust website says.
Equally as important as the clinic is the Yemen Project’s campaign to build solar-powered wells in Yemen’s most disadvantaged communities. So far, these solar-powered wells have supplied 500 households across eight villages, providing clean water to at least 10,000 individuals who otherwise would not have access to safe drinking water. The campaign to provide the people of Yemen with clean drinking water goes hand-in-hand with Greengate Trust’s efforts to provide nutritious meals across Yemen. The organization’s website says, “A small donation of just £50 for [one] Food Pack could provide a Yemeni family with enough food for an entire month of Ramadan.”
The Yemen Project has also provided food in the country through the Al-Tayyibat Bakery, a bakery that, for upward of three years, has provided free bread to anyone who needed it. The bakery was burned down in a tragic accident, but the Yemen Project is in the process of raising donations via the Trust’s website to reopen the bakery and provide food for some of the 16 million people in Yemen that cannot meet their food needs.
Even though the humanitarian crisis in Yemen is dire, the efforts of humanitarian organizations and foundations like the Greengate Trust bring hope to millions of Yemeni people struggling to meet their basic needs amid conflict and violence.
– Ezra Bernstein
Photo: Flickr
Mental Health in Fiji
Mental Health in Numbers
The World Health Organization’s Mental Health Atlas 2020 indicates that Fiji has only one psychiatric facility and four “mental health outpatient facilities attached to a hospital.” Furthermore, the country has just five psychiatrists, 46 mental health nurses and no psychologists. But, positively, according to the Atlas, persons suffering from mental conditions are fully insured for treatment services and medication.
Pacific Island nations have significantly felt the impact of COVID-19 and people are increasingly seeking out medical help for insomnia, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. The impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of younger generations is substantial. Learning losses, school closures, social distancing and the loss of family members have led to feelings of anxiety and hopelessness.
Suicide rates in Fiji rose by 50% in 2022, with 86 suicides taking place between January 2022 and September 2022. As a result of the pandemic, Fiji has made efforts to actively raise awareness of mental health. Doctors at St. Giles Psychiatric Hospital in Suva, the only official mental hospital in Fiji, are visiting communities to fight the stigma surrounding mental health.
The Mental Toll of Natural Disasters
Fiji is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters such as cyclones, tsunamis and floods, which lead to large financial losses and widespread displacement. The socio-economic damage of natural disasters means that poverty begins to rise and mental health begins to worsen. Cyclone Ana hit Fiji in 2021 not long after category five Cyclone Yasa also produced devastating effects. After Cyclone Ana tore through Fiji, more than 10,000 people had to live in emergency evacuation centers due to severe flooding and infrastructural damage.
Natural disasters have an amplified effect on vulnerable groups such as children, women and people with disabilities. Gender-based violence increases in frequency when a community experiences a natural disaster. In Fiji and Vanuatu, 72% of women have experienced domestic violence and require psychological support. However, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has partnered with the governments of Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu to create the South Pacific Response Plan. From 2023 to 2025, the IOM will invest more than $7.7 million into post-disaster displacement management, climate change preparation and humanitarian assistance.
Investment in Fiji’s Mental Health Services
The Commonwealth Foundation is working with the Building Innate Resilience Through Hearts (BIRTH) organization to improve counseling ethics, workforce training and treatment plans in Fiji’s mental health services. Thus far, the year-long project established in 2022 has garnered £8,036 in funding and is continuing to gather support.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is also offering technical assistance to Family Support Centres (FSCs) across the Pacific Islands. The ICRC has helped to house more than 2,000 survivors of abuse in September 2022 alone. The organization has hosted 300 sessions providing methods for coping with abuse-related trauma. The ICRC’s support of vulnerable communities in Fiji has a large impact, as many people in Fiji, largely women, face displacement and financial vulnerabilities due to natural disasters and incidents of abuse.
The Impact of Art Therapy
From 2018 to 2020, the Fiji National University collaborated with La Trobe University, the Fiji Ministry of Health and multiple health organizations to research the impact of art therapy. Creative activities reduce stress, anxiety and other complex feelings. As Fiji has limited resources and its mentally vulnerable groups are mostly young or financially disadvantaged, an art therapy program is a cost-effective way for Fiji’s population to seek out treatment for mental health conditions.
Fiji is showcasing the impact of dance on mental health in Fiji’s Fringe Festival. In March 2023, the Tuinz hip-hop duo addressed men’s struggle with mental health in Fiji through a dance named Face. Tuinz confronted stereotypes surrounding masculinity through this performance in the hope of educating Fiji’s younger generation.
Looking Ahead
It will take significant work to resolve the mental health crisis in Fiji and change will not happen overnight. There is a clear connection between poverty and mental health in Fiji. However, Fiji does acknowledge its battle with mental health and is taking steps to ignite change and confront the stigma surrounding mental health.
– Jenny Preece
Photo: Flickr
Renewable Energy in China Boosts Employment
A Clean Way to Tackle Poverty
Based on the poverty headcount of $6.85 a day, 25% of China’s population lived in poverty in 2019 and economic inequality is still rife. Therefore, poverty reduction through job creation is still very much a priority for the national government. Deciding to invest heavily in clean energy, China is ensuring it provides future-proof jobs that have little chance of becoming redundant, considering the world’s net-zero ambitions.
Plus, having prioritized renewable energy in China, other countries now rely on support from China to help meet their energy ambitions. China, for instance, has a near-monopoly on the production of wafers and ingots, commanding 96% of global solar production in 2021, according to an International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) report.
In its report, IRENA has also explained where these renewable energy jobs come from, highlighting that China needs both high and low-skilled workers in its green energy push. A total of 1.6 million Chinese people are employed for their manufacturing efforts, “1 million for construction and installation” and “0.8 million for operation and maintenance,” the report says.
3 Takeaways for the Global Fight Against Poverty
China has led the way in terms of renewable energy in three main ways:
Finally, something that should prove encouraging is how China leveraged its “low labor, electricity and land costs” to grow its clean energy sector, IRENA reports. These low-cost advantages also exist in almost all other developing countries.
Hope for the Future
China has shown that it is possible to harness green energy for future-proof jobs and others can follow suit. India is on track to employ 1 million people in the same way, by 2030, according to the IRENA report. Other regions, like Africa, which employs less than 3% of the renewable energy labor market, could do the same.
Overall, the renewable energy job boom in China proves that foreign aid budgets could make their money go further. More investment in overseas clean energy may not only help tackle the climate crisis but also provide some of the world’s most vulnerable with invaluable employment for many years to come.
– Sam Rucker
Photo: Flickr
The Gender Wage Gap in Czechia
Despite Czechia’s overall steady economic status, the gender wage gap in Czechia is still a prominent issue. According to EU statistics, in 2021, women in Czechia received 19.5% lower pay than men on average in private sector work and 12.2% lower in public sector work. Overall, on average, women in Czechia earned 16.4% less than men compared to the overall EU average of women earning 13.0% less. These figures put Czechia toward the bottom of EU countries regarding gender equality and Czech women are twice as likely to face poverty than Czech men.
Barriers to Equality
Several factors contribute to the gender wage gap in Czechia. These factors include women taking career breaks due to maternity leave and childcare, the perception of men as “more ambitious and aggressive” in climbing up the job ladder and higher paid roles, such as management roles, being typically male-dominated.
Hiring managers sometimes have reservations about hiring a woman considering that a female may require time off for maternity leave and childcare. In the eyes of a business, this means wasting time and resources on training a woman for the role because the business may need to conduct further training of additional staff to cover her work during her time off.
Additionally, in Czechia, women typically shoulder the burden of household and caretaking responsibilities. As such, women have less time to focus on their careers, according to Radio Prague International.
Single-Parent Families
According to Czech’s Women’s Lobby, almost 90% of single-parent families in Czechia are female-headed. Furthermore, up to 20% of single-parent families are likely to fall below the poverty line due to a reduced income and the costs associated with raising and caring for children. Single mothers also frequently rely on low-paid, often part-time, work with unreliable schedules to fit around their children’s lives, which further increases their risk for poverty.
As society often considers men as more ambitious in their jobs, men are sometimes seen as “more competent and assertive” than their female counterparts. These gender stereotypes similarly play into the assumptions of different types of jobs being suitable for men and women, meaning men will often end up in higher-paying roles, reinforcing the gender wage gap in Czechia. However, evidence shows that, even in the same roles, women in Czechia can expect a 12% pay cut compared to a man’s wage. Closing the gender wage gap will help women in Czechia to stay above the poverty line.
Pay Transparency and Fairness
In December 2022, European Parliament and the Czech presidency came to a provisional agreement on rules of pay transparency. This will prevent employers from adjusting salaries depending on whether a man or woman secures the job. “To avoid discrimination, employers have to make sure their employees have easy access to the objective and gender-neutral criteria they use to define pay and possible pay rises. Workers and their representatives will also have the right to request and receive information on their individual pay level and the average pay levels for workers doing the same work or work of equal value, broken down by sex,” the Council of the EU explains. In the case that an employer has not followed the rules of the equal pay principle, workers will be able to claim compensation.
A more even split between genders in parental care and housework tends to be more common among younger generations, which will help to balance out the time available for women to focus on their careers. By dissolving gender stereotypes, women will be able to achieve career fulfillment, which may include higher-paid roles traditionally held by men.
– Hannah Naylor
Photo: Wikipedia Commons
How Art Can Change the World
Art helps adults develop human empathy, understand the problems of people around them and encourage people to be involved in their communities. Art education gives children in grades K-12 more hope for the future, improves academic participation and success and increases emotional intelligence. Importantly, art can also help shine a spotlight on the plight of the world’s most vulnerable. Here is how art can change the world.
Results Through Research
Researchers around the world have observed positive results of art bringing change and easing global poverty. Margaret Topping studied the effects that the French film “Les Glaneurs et la glaneuseon” had on reducing global food poverty. The film shows heartbreaking explicit scenes of food waste and the faces of the hungry. It also brought much attention to the food crises in France and around the world. It helped launch agricultural and food waste campaigns calling for action from individuals to change their lifestyles. This film shows how art can bring publicity to global poverty and create the empathy needed to change the world.
Jean-Pierre Daogo Guingane is another researcher who has reported on how stage and screen can help reduce global poverty. His experience lies in his teachings across developing African nations’ rural communities where he was able to use plays and stage acting as a way to create political dialogue and improve engagement in issues most impacting their lives. Daogo Guingane encouraged people to not only attend these shows but to write and act in their shows. He also found that through engaging the community in theatre, people were more likely to find solutions to their problems, develop a deeper understanding of the problems of others and have more faith in the community and the government to find solutions. This is a leading example of how art can reduce apathy and encourage people living in global poverty to feel empowered to change their situation as they are building artistic talents.
Powerful Examples of How Art Has Changed Communities
Mobile Art School in Kenya (MASK) is an NGO bringing art education to K-12 schools all over the country to improve the future for generations of students. This program tackled many of the challenges to bring art education to an impoverished nation suffering from internal violence and dissent and still the project found much success. Implementation of the project led teachers to report their students felt more confident, creative and peaceful. In addition, 41% of students reported they felt confident these skills could lead to employment and careers later in life. This project makes it easy to see how art can change the world, reduce global poverty and give hope to future generations.
Dandelion Action is an art program that the Commission for Children’s Art Education initiated under the Chinese Artists’ Association and primarily receives funding from the U.S. Ford Foundation. This project helped bring art education to children in poverty in urban and rural areas across China. The program provided supplies (previously completely inaccessible) and lessons to grade school children. This program encouraged kids to be confident in their art as well as learn about and preserve long-standing cultural history. Students were positively impacted and found themselves more confident and invested in their community. This demonstrates how art and art education can positively impact younger generations and encourage them to grow and improve their community no matter their current state of living.
Art is Necessary
Art has a tangible impact on people and their communities. It opens doors, minds and hearts to build courage, confidence and creativity. Increasing accessibility to see and practice art has created a deeper sense of community, empathy and innovation so that developing nations and the international community may find solutions and improve global poverty.
– Alexandra Curry
Photo: Flickr
Addressing Rabies in Developing Countries
Rabies Vulnerability in Developing Countries
Rabies is an extremely dangerous disease with a 99% fatality rate. Vaccination of animals and humans with high exposure rates is possible, but once infected there is little to stop the infection other than immediate treatment of multiple fast-acting shots and vaccines to help fight off the virus are administered with continuous wound washing.
The issue is that many people who live in poverty lack immediate access to these treatments and vaccinations. Even if these treatments are available, they come at a hefty price. Rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) costs an estimated $108 per treatment not including travel and shipping costs, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Not only is treatment expensive and often unavailable, but developing countries also have limited diagnostic facilities and almost no rabies surveillance, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The vaccination of stray dogs would greatly prevent the infection of humans, but this also comes with a steep cost and risks burdening public health resources even in the most stable countries. Globally, the burden of rabies costs around $120 billion.
Ethiopia Takes Action
Ethiopia is one of the most affected countries when it comes to rabies with an estimated death rate by rabies of about 2,700 deaths yearly. Ethiopia’s canine vaccination rate is far behind the 70% rate necessary to control the disease. Ethiopia suffers from the same limitations as other developing countries regarding inaccessible vaccinations and PEP treatments. As of 2019, 68.7% of Ethiopia’s population is multidimensionally poor.
Despite Ethiopia’s challenges, it still implemented many programs to fight against rabies infections that plague the country due to its high poverty rates and increased vulnerability. Rabies experts from the CDC have been working closely with Ethiopian leaders to determine the best way to safely take on the issue. Local animal surveillance officers and veterinarians get training on the capturing, vaccinating and releasing of stray dogs to control the source of infectors safely and effectively.
Public awareness and methods of youth education are also being implemented to protect young people from becoming infected due to canine exposure. The University of Mekelle has been providing awareness sessions to more than 7,000 children in schools across Ethiopia. However, a large portion of Ethiopian children is still at great risk due to high levels of multidimensional poverty which leads to a large number of children who do not attend formal school programs. With programs that target a larger community-based audience, more people could benefit from education and interest in participating in safe response protocols such as immediate wound washing and PEP administration.
Vaccination centers located in precise locations based on the high canine population have been recommended by the CDC and are expected to bring about positive coverage results. These are all necessary steps in the control of rabies in developing countries.
Looking Ahead
Ethiopia is setting the standard for the control of rabies in developing countries. With the improvement of educational sources, health services and animal control services rabies contraction in humans could be under control. However, as long as multidimensional poverty persists it is unlikely that rabies and other neglected diseases will be able to decrease.
– Leah Smith
Photo: Flickr
Worst Drought in Argentina in 60 Years
La Niña
Experts are crediting the weather in Argentina to the La Niña climate pattern. La Niña refers to a weather pattern that cools the surface of the Pacific water on the west coast of South America, creating hotter and drier weather in South America. It usually occurs every three to five years, but experts are crediting Argentina’s continuous hot and dry conditions to a third successive year of La Niña.
Impact on Crop and Economy
A severe combination of heat waves and a dry climate is causing fires to scorch and spread through Northern Argentina. Argentina suffered a minimum of eight heat waves between 2022 and 2023. As of February 23, 2023 officials state that the fires have covered at least 9% of the Corrientes province’s territory, located in Northeastern Argentina.
Due to the lack of crops to sell, the Rosario Grains Exchange (BCR) predicts that the drought in Argentina will cut the nation’s 2023 GDP by $19 billion compared to 2022. The drought has already reduced the country’s GDP by three points.
Solutions
With the inability to grow as many crops as usual, coupled with almost 100% inflation, Argentina is struggling to meet the annual debt owed to the IMF. However, Argentina and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are currently negotiating a deal where the nation does not need to provide the IMF with the amount of “currency reserves target” previously agreed upon for 2023.
In addition, Argentina is working on several solutions to ease troubles for struggling farmers who depend on crops as their livelihood. In January 2023, the government announced the launch of a relief fund for farmers struggling amid the drought. The fund will provide farmers with access to 5 billion pesos, or about $27 million.
Secondly, the government announced at the same time that it will not require farmers in areas affected the worst by the drought to pay the “advance income tax payments.” This comes along with lower interest rates and greater subsidies. The hope is that this will lighten any excess financial burdens that struggling farmers may have.
– Maya Steele
Photo: Flickr
The Impact of COVID-19 on Child Poverty in New Zealand
Awareness
The pandemic’s impact upon poverty did not come as a surprise. The Executive Director of UNICEF NZ, Vivien Maidaborn, spoke of her awareness of the threat in the early stages of COVID-19, stating, “the coronavirus pandemic…has triggered an unprecedented socio-economic crisis that threatens to roll back years of progress in reducing child poverty.” Heidi Coetzee, Chief Executive of Save the Children New Zealand, also recognized that “continued investment (would) be needed to ensure protections for (New Zealand’s) children.”
Indeed, the first year of the pandemic pushed 18,000 New Zealand children into poverty, according to the Guardian. Ronji Tanielu, a New Zealand social policy analyst, has been outspoken about the country’s failure to address poverty during the pandemic, stating, “the cracks that were in society before Covid…got worse during Covid.” Similarly, while some argue that, against the backdrop of the pandemic, the increase in New Zealand’s poverty was out of government control, the Child Poverty Action Group sees “government neglect” as the primary reason that poverty rose during COVID-19.
Perspective
Where some see failure, however, Ardern, who served as New Zealand’s Prime Minister through January 2023, sees success. She compares the impact of COVID-19 to that of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) that occurred a decade earlier. Though both saw an increase in poverty, the rise during the GFC was much more alarming–a reported 145,000 fewer children suffered from poverty during the pandemic than during the GFC. Ardern attributes this to the government actions taken to reduce poverty throughout the pandemic, which have included:
The positive impacts of such initiatives are undeniable. The director of the Salvation Army’s Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit, Ian Hutson, has acknowledged that, though child poverty was “unacceptably high” to start with, they have contributed to “limited but steady progress” in addressing the country’s child poverty.
Conclusion
The impact of COVID-19 on child poverty in New Zealand has been significant. As Tanielu acknowledges, this is an issue that “could take generations to fix.” Yet, while, as Ardern admits, “there is more work to do,” there has also been progress in preventing “the spike in poverty (seen) during the Global Financial Crisis a decade ago.”
– Jenny Boxall
Photo: Flickr
Women’s Rights in Kyrgyzstan
Legal Equality
As an independent nation, the Kyrgyz Republic holds a good record for promoting gender equality. The Central Asian country remains a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which it has committed to since 1996, and like most post-Soviet countries, it has enshrined gender equality in the constitution.
Gaps in legislation and inconsistent legal interpretation have precluded greater progress in the area of sex discrimination, however. For example, until recently, many divorced women could not access child support. In 2018, the country reported 40,000 cases of alimony evasion. But in 2020, partly due to the work of activists, the government helped improve women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan by passing an amendment that made alimony evaders more accountable under family law. Whereas previously fathers who failed to pay child support could get away with just a fine, since 2020, fathers must pay alimony in full.
Child Marriages
The marrying of persons under the age of 18 is illegal in Kyrgyzstan yet 13% of Kyrgyz girls are married before their 18th birthday. Failures in law enforcement in conjunction with unemployment and rural poverty have meant the persistence of traditional non-consensual child marriages. Particularly in larger families that lack the income to support numerous children, parents seek to marry their daughters off to wealthier families to alleviate economic hardship. The problem is worse in rural areas, where the poverty rate is higher than the national poverty rate.
Child marriages in Kyrgyzstan are usually the result of “bride kidnapping” or “ala kachuu,” which literally translates to “pick up and run away.” Every year, 7,000 to 9,000 Kyrgyz girls fall prey to this practice, according to government figures. The bride’s parents are often responsible, along with the other family providing the “bride money.” Both parties arrange the marriage for the daughter typically without her consent in an unofficial religious ceremony. These illegal child marriages put young brides at risk of rape and domestic violence.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has worked to reduce child marriages in Kyrgyzstan since 2016. A key example of its work is the 2018-19 Project Addressing Early Marriages, which the British Embassy funded. This project was successful at encouraging the Kyrgyz Ministry of Labour and Social Development to implement the law prohibiting underage religious marriages in a “systematic way.” It also assisted the training of religious leaders in their understanding of marital law and improved the hotline services available to affected women and girls.
Domestic Violence
As part of the global Spotlight Initiative, a multi-year program that the Kyrgyz government and the European Union supported, U.N. has been implementing sex equality training to improve women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan. Two of the main aims of this program are to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls and provide services to survivors.
Violence against women is a serious problem in Kyrgyzstan and cases have risen since the forced closures of crisis centers during the country’s COVID-19 lockdowns. The last decade has seen improvements though, both in legislation and the provision of survivor support services, such as Spotlight Initiative-funded safe spaces.
Yet despite these improvements, the majority of domestic violence survivors in Kyrgyzstan do not seek help. Family pressure, social stigma and a lack of economic opportunities compel up to 90% of women who have suffered violent treatment from their husbands to return to them, according to U.N. figures. Alternatively, many women escape to pursue unsafe employment opportunities, making them susceptible to trafficking.
Education
The state education system in Kyrgyzstan nominally treats all pupils equally regardless of sex. Girls and boys enjoy near educational parity in Kyrgyzstan at the primary level in terms of enrollment and attendance rates. At the secondary level, however, the net attendance of girls is 3% lower than boys (59% for boys compared with 56% for girls). A U.N. Working Group has found that the principal reasons for girls dropping out of school early are “forced marriage and adolescent pregnancy.” Nevertheless, the 100% adult female literacy rate in Kyrgyzstan as of 2019 should provide a solid basis for women’s future economic participation.
The government is also advancing women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan through efforts to remove negative stereotypes surrounding women in schools. In April 2022, the Kyrgyz government launched a review of all textbooks and teaching materials with the aim of removing any discriminatory content and pictures. Additionally, initiatives such as “Girls in Science,” which has already helped 3,000 girls, aim to increase the proportion of women in underrepresented sectors.
The Future
The Kyrgyz Republic has made impressive strides toward gender equality since earning its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. It ranks 82nd out of 162 countries on the Gender Inequality Index in 2021. Today, the main impediments to women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan are intolerant patriarchal attitudes that perpetuate violence against women, notably the ancient practice of “bride kidnapping”, failures in law enforcement and a lack of economic opportunities for women. “Kyrgyzstan stands at a crossroads with an immense opportunity to harness the potential of women,” wrote a group of U.N. human rights experts in April 2022.
– Samuel Chambers
Photo: Flickr
Rural Land Engineering in China
According to 2017 data from UNICEF, about 53.6% of China’s rural poor reside in the country’s western region, equaling 16.34 million people. Guizhou holds the highest number of impoverished people at 2.95 million. Xinjiang, an area with high numbers of ethnic minorities such as the marginalized Uyghur people, has the most significant poverty rate — 9.9%.
Since 2000, China has introduced several social development programs in rural communities, such as “universal compulsory education up to grade 9, rural medical cooperative system, social pension system for rural residents and a minimum living allowance scheme,” the World Bank reports.
What is Rural Land Engineering?
Since land degradation is the most significant problem that some rural communities in China face, people are turning to rural land engineering and other similar practices that revitalize the land. In this context, it is a method of agricultural engineering that is able to prevent land degradation. Some forms of land engineering are land consolidation, reclamation, restoration and reallocation. All of these different types of land engineering help curtail land degradation, and therefore, rural poverty.
The most well-known form of rural land engineering is land consolidation. According to the European Environment Agency, land consolidation involves “joining small plots of land together to form larger farms or large fields.” According to an article in Geographical Research, the main objective of land consolidation is to maximize the amount of arable land and advance the conditions of agricultural production. Land consolidation generally consists of practices that seek to maximize the earning potential of a given area.
Why Rural Land Engineering?
To put it simply, this method of curtailing poverty is useful and easy. It creates a balanced man-land system. Because people and land are the two most important parts of rural communities, it makes sense that a balanced man-land system would be optimal for reducing poverty.
Liu Yansui and Wang Yongsheng conducted a study that discusses rural land engineering and how it helps to alleviate poverty. In the study, the researchers find that hilly areas in parts of rural China can be repurposed into productive farmland. This productive farmland would then create income for rural families. By repurposing this hilly land, rural families in such areas can rise out of poverty.
Another key explanation in the study outlines the link between poverty and land engineering. The researchers found that “land engineering utilizes engineering measures to coordinate human-land relationships by transforming unused land into available land or efficiently using the existing land.”
Geographical Research explains that, through the use of land consolidation, impoverished peasants are able to obtain farmland that is supplied with “improved infrastructure and roads.”
A History of Land Engineering
China began land engineering practices as far back as the time of the Xia dynasty but has now moved onto more modern means of land engineering. China established the Key Laboratory of Degraded and Unused Land Consolidation Engineering in 2013.
In 2016, China developed a new commission of the International Geography Union on Agricultural Geography and Land Engineering (IGU-AGLE) in the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. IGU-AGLE focuses on “the improvement in agricultural conditions and consolidation of degraded land and defiled land using land engineering.” Also in 2016, universities in China formalized land engineering as a discipline to “cultivate professional talent for national land technology innovation and development.”
Overall, rural land engineering plays a role in poverty reduction in rural China. China stands as an example of national poverty reduction at a large scale and continues to demonstrate a commitment to dissolving poverty among rural populations.
– Timothy Ginter
Photo: Flickr