UNFPA Kyrgyzstan

Advancing Sustainable Development

Date: 05/11/2008

ADVANCING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

UNFPA's work on population is central to the goals of the international community to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development. Population dynamics, including growth rates, age structure, fertility, mortality, migration and other aspects of human, social and economic development.
Governments need to be able to gather information about, track and analyse population trends in order to create and manage sound policies and generate the political will to appropriately address both current and future needs. This also assists ICPD programmes.
Situation analysis points to population growth and widespread poverty.
Kyrgyzstan's transition to a market economy has been marked by two trends: population growth and poverty.
According to the international Index of Human Development (IHD), which is calculated on the basis of three components (life expectancy, level of education and income per capita), Kyrgyzstan is in the bracket of countries with an average level of human potential, however as regards the income factor it is with countries with a low standard of living. According to data from the World Report for Human Development 2006, Kyrgyzstan was 110 out of 177 countries in the world.
In 2001 the population of Kyrgyzstan was 4,9 million people. In 2002 according to the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic the figure reached five million. In 2007 this number was estimated to be 5,2 million. On top of this the able-bodied part of the population is growing at an even faster rate (59% of the general population in 2007). Not finding work where they live, young people are migrating either to the capital or to other countries in search of work. The number of work migrants, according to different estimates is from 200 to 500 thousand people.
In turn the capital's infrastructure with its large number of new buildings is no longer adequate for the number of inhabitants. The infrastructure was designed in its time for 500-700 thousand people and in 2007 there were officially about 840 thousand and unofficially more than a million inhabitants.
Population growth has been accompanied by an increase in poverty. Today 40% of Kyrgyzstan' s population live below the poverty line. Poverty is most widespread in the southern regions of the country and also in the Naaryn oblast. The population of Bishkek and Chui oblast is less poor.

Key indicators on Population and Development in the Kyrgyz Republic

Total population	5,2 million people (2007)
Young people from the age 14-34	2,0 million people (39% of the general population)
Population growth rate	1% (2006)
Factors include:
Natural increase of the population	1,6%
Migration stream of the population from the country	0,6%
Gross National Income per capita (USD with purchasing power parity)	2024 (2006)
Population living in poverty	39,9% (2006)
Population living in extreme poverty	9,1% (2006)

Source: National Statistics Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic

In 2007 in Kyrgyzstan a programme for the Strategic Development of the Country (SDS) was started for 2007-2010. This programme was closely linked with the objectives of the ICPD Programme of Action and the Millennium Development Goals and was aimed at providing macroeconomic stability and reducing poverty. A state information system is currently being developed to monitor and evaluate the SDS programme, which will be able to take well-founded political decisions in order to introduce changes into existing programme documents.

UNFPA in Kyrgyzstan on population and development:

1.         Supports the activity of the National Committee of Parliamentarians for the Kyrgyz Republic on population issues
2.         Supports the preparation, implementation, development, analysis and distribution of data on the population
3.         Improves the collection process and analysis of data on the population:
-         Trains specialists from the National Statistics Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic on national and provincial levels
-         Trains teachers for universities and academic institutions on demography
-         Gives support in qualifying specialists on contemporary methods of gathering and analysing demographic data
4.                  Supports national research on population and development:
-         Develops and carries out surveys of the population
-         Finances surveys, research and publications
-         Surveys on demographic tendencies and their prognoses by a group of experts
5.                  Supports international and national population development strategies:
-         Participation and provision of ‘know-how' in drafting or revising poverty reduction strategy documents
-         Training for NGO's, government officials and community leaders on development frameworks, such as the ICPD Programme of Action
-         Partnerships with the media in order to raise broad public awareness of population and development issues

Excerpt from the ICPD Programme of Action 1994
... the objective is to facilitate the demographic transition as soon as possible in countries where there is an imbalance between demographic rates and social, economic and environmental goals, while fully respecting human rights. This process will contribute to the stabilization of the world population, and, together with changes in unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, to sustainable development and economic growth (paragraph 6.3)

Excerpt from the ICPD Programme of Action 1994
Governments, organizations of the United Nations system and major groups, in particular non-governmental organizations, should give the widest possible dissemination to the ICPD Programme of Action and should seek public support for the goals, objectives and actions of the Programme of Action (paragraph 6.18)

In order to increase awareness of the ICPD Programme of Action, UNFPA initiated dialogue with the Kyrgyz national media. Various media representatives from the capital and regions have been trained to understand and advocate for the themes covered by the ICPD Programme of Action 1994.
In the near future there are plans to work more with the media to promote population development strategies.
In 2006-2007 UNFPA held a series of training sessions for local government specialists (teachers, doctors, local leaders and NGOs. Deputies from the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic and representatives from the National Committee for Parliamentarians of the Kyrgyz Republic on the population took part. The aim of the training sessions was to use data from potential demographic regions so that local leaders can make decisions on a local level.
UNFPA's next step to help local government will be to develop special methods so that local government workers could use statistical and demographic exponents when drawing up local budgets.