Annex_J.12_-_KR_Gender_Analysis_Aug14_2013.pdf

Gender Analysis for

USAID/

Kyrgyz Republic

August 14 2013

Kai Spratt, MPH, PhD Senior Gender Technical Specialist, USAID Asia Bureau Mahabbat Alymkulova, USAID/Kyrgyz Republic Rabiga Baytokova, Program Office USAID/Kazakhstan John DiPirro, former Peace Corp Volunteer, Kyrgyz Republic

ACRONYMS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE POLICY AND DRG SERVICE DELIVERY TO ALL CITIZENS:

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE HIV AND TB HEALTH POLICY AND SERVICE DELIVERY TO ALL CITIZENS:

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE EDUCATION POLICY AND SERVICE DELIVERY TO ALL CITIZENS:

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE ENERGY/WATER POLICY AND SERVICE DELIVERY TO ALL CITIZENS:

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE ECONOMIC GROWTH POLICY AND SERVICE DELIVERY TO ALL CITIZENS:

BACKGROUND

CONTEXT

FINDINGS

STATE EFFORTS TO SUPPORT GENDER EQUALITY

GENDER BASED VIOLENCE (GBV) IN THE KR

MASCULINITY AND GENDER NORMS

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

POST-CONFLICT KYRGYZ REPUBLIC

DO1 IMPROVED POLICY AND SERVICE DELIVERY TO ALL CITIZENS

DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND GOVERNANCE

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE POLICY AND DRG SERVICE DELIVERY TO ALL CITIZENS:

HEALTH

TUBERCULOSIS

HIV/AIDS

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE TB AND TB HEALTH POLICY AND SERVICE DELIVERY TO ALL CITIZENS:

EDUCATION

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE EDUCATION POLICY AND SERVICE DELIVERY TO ALL CITIZENS:

WATER/ENERGY

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE ENERGY/WATER POLICY AND SERVICE DELIVERY TO ALL CITIZENS:

DO2 ACCELERATED GROWTH OF DIVERSIFIED AND EQUITABLE ECONOMY

MIGRATION

AGRICULTURE

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

TRADE

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE EG POLICY AND SERVICE DELIVERY TO ALL CITIZENS:

CONCLUSIONS

INTEGRATING GENDER EQUALITY RESULTS INTO A MISSION RESULTS FRAMEWORK

RECOMMENDED INDICATORS: MISSION LEVEL

ANNEX 1

AN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE ON GENDER ROLES WITHIN THE KYRGYZ FAMILY

ANNEX 2

SCHEDULE FOR GENDER ANALYSIS TEAM

ACRONYMS

CDCS Country Development Cooperation Strategy

CDS Country Development Strategy

CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women

DRG Democracy, Human Rights and Governance

EG Economic growth

GA Gender Analysis

GBV Gender-based violence

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GEFE Gender Inequality and Female Empowerment

GOKR Government of the Kyrgyz Republic

HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

HPP Hydroelectric power plant

IPV Intimate partner violence

KR Kyrgyz Republic

MDG Millennium Development Goals

MDR Multidrug-resistant

MMR Maternal mortality rate

MSM Men who have sex with men

NGO Non-government organization

NAP WPS National Action Plan for Women Peace and Security

PWLH People living with HIV

SGBV Sexual and gender based violence

SME Small and medium enterprises

TB Tuberculosis

USAID United States Agency for International Development

USG United States Government

USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

WUA Water users’ association

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The USAID/ Kyrgyz Republic is now a stand-alone Mission, aligned with the USG’s Central Asia diplomacy and development priorities, but responding to development challenges that are unique to the Kyrgyz Republic and its recent history. Generally, missions in the Central Asian Republics have not focused specifically on addressing gender inequality and female empowerment (GEFE) in their portfolios but have had programs for many years to increase the number of women participating in their training programs. With the development of it first Country Development Cooperation Strategy 2014-2019 (CDCS), the mission requested a Gender Analysis to understand the gender inequality issues in Kyrgyz Republic (KR) so that attention to GEFE would be integrated throughout its strategy and projects going forward.

Several themes related to gender equality and female empowerment emerged from the desk reviews and field visit interviews. Addressing these overarching concerns should inform all of USAID projects going forward:

• Gender based violence

• Gender equality as a fundamental condition for development

• Working with men and boys on gender equality and gender based violence

• The implementation of GOKR endorsed gender equality commitments

Despite significant unrest and communal conflict in recent years and continued volatility in the democracy, human rights and democracy (DRG) sector, the KR remains a democracy – albeit an imperfect one in which minorities and women are under-represented. There is a multiparty political process in place. Recent local elections were peaceful. Civil society, dominated by women led non-government organizations (NGO) is active. The economy continues to struggle, needing to develop and implement a coherent policy environment that encourages inclusive economic opportunities. The lack of economic opportunity produces considerable internal and external migration by men – and increasing numbers of women – from poor rural areas. Educational quality continues to falter and the poor, especially males, drop out of school to look for work. The quality of health services is substandard, as evidenced by the persistence of preventable maternal and child deaths, rising TB drug resistant cases and continued stigma and discrimination against key populations that impedes their access to HIV and other health services.

As elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, the transition to a market economy and many aspects of the reforms to social provision that have taken place in Kyrgyz Republic since 1991 have had a negative impact on men and women. In the budget of Kyrgyz Republic for 2011, 32 billion 158 million Kyrgyz Som, representing 40.4 percent of the national budget, or 13.5 percent of GDP, were provided for the entire social sector (healthcare, education, social services - pensions and allowances)1. This reduction in support for social services have been accompanied by the emergence of cultural stereotypes and practices that increasingly discriminate against females and limit their role in society, most noticeably a growing acceptance (and justification for) women’s economic dependence, domestic violence, and abduction for forced marriage, particularly in rural areas. The role of women in economic participation is much greater than their participation in the political sphere despite having a female interim president Roza Otumbaeva, who was the first woman to hold this status in office within any state in the whole region.2

Women in Kyrgyz Republic earn only 77 percent of men for the same work and earn less overall because they are concentrated in the low-earning sectors of the economy, such as education or health care and have to retire at an earlier age than men do. The impact of the recent global and national economic and financial crisis has negatively impacted men and women particularly those in the rural area and women working in garment industry. This has seemingly resulted in an increase in the proportion of women living in poverty, although there are no reliable statistics.3 The process of feminization of poverty in the Kyrgyz Republic (and in Central Asia as a whole) is intimately connected to the cultural and institutional limitations on men and women’s equal involvement in economic, social and political activity that is result of the re-entrenchment of gendered norms about the appropriate roles of males and females in society.

In conducting interviews and focus groups for this gender analysis with policy makers, program managers and community members, people were quick to point out that women perpetuate their own inequality. Of course they do. Each person is born into a society of hierarchies that shape our interpretations, our assumptions, and our everyday relationships, “naturalizing” inequalities based on social classes, sex, ethnicity, and so on. Thus, men learn how to rationalize gendered oppression, while women learn how to internalize it, passing it from one generation to the next. While some have noted that the status of females in the Kyrgyz Republic is “better than in countries in South Asia”, the principle of equality is not relative. With the advent of a new 5-year strategy, USAID/KR has an opportunity to “think different” about its development goals and integrate - overtly and systematically – attention to gender equality, female empowerment and gender-based violence into its portfolio. Strategic opportunities for USAID/Krygyz Republic to address gender equality, female empowerment and gender based violence are outlined in the section below.

Strategies to improve policy and DRG service delivery to all citizens:

• Support the meaningful and long term participation of women and other vulnerable groups in the development of the Government’s Country Development Strategy

2 World Development Report. 2012 Gender Equality and Development. Background Paper. Kyrgyz Country Case Study. 2011.

Ibraeva, Gulnara, Anara Moldosheva, and Anara Niyazova.

3 Social Institution and Gender Index (SIGI). Country Profiles: Kyrgyz Republic. http://genderindex.org/country/kyrgyz-republic

• Actively disseminate information on national laws that support gender equality and prohibiting

GBV

• Strengthen the confidence and ability of women to participate in ROL, political parties and governance structures at the local level where they meet resistance from their communities.

• Address the social bias against women as capable political and social leaders

• Support the implementation of laws and legislative policies that promote gender equality

• Work across sectors, for example with the Education team, to disseminate civil and human rights laws and support alternative career choices for male and female students

• Support long term mentoring and social support for women leaders, especially at the local level

• Engage men and boys as advocates and champions for female’s greater political and social participation.

Strategies to improve HIV and TB health policy and service delivery to all citizens:

• Build the capacity of the ministry of health to re-examine age and sex-disaggregated data from past surveys and data maintained by TB programs to clarify the magnitude and nature of gender disparities and to use these data for program decision making.

• Develop a generic protocol to identify barriers and to confront gender-related problems of access to and care within TB and HIV programs. Opportunities for comparison in diverse social and cultural settings within KR will clarify the context and variability of gender-related barriers, and indicate practical solutions.

• Develop guidelines and tools for TB and HIV programs to help minimize any gender disparities.4

• Integrate TB and HIV prevention message into economic growth, education, environment and

DRG programs in order to reach marginalized groups of men and women.

Strategies to improve Education policy and service delivery to all citizens:

• Support the revision of education policies that stereotype or limit education and careers choices based on gender stereotypes

• Support the revision of school texts and curricula to remove gender stereotypes

• Ensure that teaching training programs funded by USAID include content on how teachers reinforce gender stereotyping in the classroom

• Support scholarships to keep poor rural boys and girls in school

• Include parents and community leaders in efforts change attitudes about the value of education and diverse educational and career choices for boys and girls.

Strategies to improve Energy/Water policy and service delivery to all citizens:

• Build the confidence and ability of women and girls to express their concerns and priorities in the water and energy sector openly in mixed gatherings.

• Make specific efforts to promote the participation of women and girls in trainings, study tours, and public meetings to seek their opinions. Provide day care and/or chaperones if that is what it will take to get women and girls to participate

4 World Health Organization. 2013. Tuberculosis and gender Factsheet.

http://www.who.int/tb/challenges/gender/page_1/en/index.html. Accessed May 8,2013.

http://www.who.int/tb/challenges/gender/page_1/en/index.html

• Support a quota in USAID funded project for women’s participation in WUA leadership and membership activities.

• Support information campaigns and capacity building among WUA members and the communities they represent to increase citizens’ knowledge about the GOKR policies on water management, conservation, and the roles and responsibilities of the government and the communities regarding WUA functions.

Strategies to improve Economic Growth policy and service delivery to all citizens:

• Support the implementation of legislation aimed at ensuring the rights of women to employment, ownership of land and other assets

• Support effective measures to increase the number of female entrepreneurs, and women working in the private and non-agricultural sectors.

• Reposition microfinance as a complement (not a substitute) to other types of financing to avoid crowding out more advanced financing for SME development.

• In order to increase women’s access to decent employment and welfare, studies should be conducted to determine the influence of each new infrastructure construction project (schools, hospitals, roads, storage facilities, irrigation systems) on gender relations, and to ensure the gender-sensitive allocation of funds from the budget.

• Vocational and education institutions need to develop links with new organizations offering new job opportunities, in order to ensure that women can compete equally with men for these positions.

BACKGROUND

The USAID/ Kyrgyz Republic is now a stand-alone Mission, aligned with the USG’s Central Asia diplomacy and development priorities, but responding to development challenges that are unique to the Kyrgyz Republic and its recent history. Generally, missions in the Central Asian Republics have not focused specifically on addressing gender inequality and female empowerment (GEFE) in their portfolios but have had programs for many years adopted a rights-based approach towards gender equality, especially in the first decade of programming in the region, by increasing the number of women participating in it heir interventions. With the development of it first Country Development Cooperation Strategy 2014-2019 (CDCS), the mission requested a Gender Analysis (GA) to better understand the gender inequality issues in Kyrgyz Republic (KR) so that attention to GEFE would be integrated throughout its strategy and projects going forward.

The GA was conducted in the Kyrgyz Republic from April 1 to 19, 2013 and included individual and group interviews in the capital city, Bishkek, Osh, and Jalalabad cities. The four member team consisted of Rabiga Baytokova, USAID/Central Asian Republic Program Office USAID/Kazakhstan;, Mahabbat Alymkulova, USAID/Kyrgyz Republic DG Project Management Specialist; John DiPirro, (now former) Peace Corp Volunteer, Kyrgyz Republic; and Kai Spratt, Senior Gender Technical Specialist for USAID Asia Bureau. The team reviewed key documents before, during, and after the field visit and developed and utilized summaries of each during the data analysis. Documents were provided by USAID/Kyrgyz Republic and interviewees during or after the interview sessions.

The Gender Analysis was restricted to the sectors in which USAID/Kyrgyz Republic will be developing future projects. For example, even though there are many gender inequality issues in the health sector related to maternal mortality, mental health, child survival and access to family planning and reproductive health services, these topics are not discussed in detail because the Mission’s health portfolio is concentrated on tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS.

A list of key informants was developed in collaboration with USAID/Kyrgyz Republic and additional interviewees were identified during the in-country data collection (see Table 1). The assessment team conducted 24 interviews with a total of 104 peoples with groups including UNWomen, Asia Development Bank, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), business association leaders, and USAID nine implementing partners.

Table 1. Interviews Conducted for Kyrgyz Republic Gender Analysis Type of Organization Number of Interviews Number of Persons

NGO 3 24

Implementing Partners 9 47 Community members 3 25 USAID/KR staff 5 13

TOTAL 24 104

Context

The unequal treatment of males and females is a barrier to the achievement of democracy, human rights, governance, and economic stability which is the core of sustainability in any given country5. The engagement of women and girls as equal partners is essential to the quest for peace and security in Krygyz Republic. For USAID to achieve its goal of supporting the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic (GOKR) “to succeed as a democratic state with a stable political system, dynamically growing economy and stable growth in the incomes of its citizens” it will need to implement strategies and projects that measurably reduce the structural inequalities amongst males and females in the Kyrgyz Republic (KR).

Achieving “Improved policy and service delivery” across all sectors will require attention to the extent to which existing and/or new policies and services are responsive to these inequalities.

The overarching themes that arose through the data collection process and woven into USAID programs going forward include:

• Gender based violence

• Gender equality as a fundamental condition for development

• Working with men and boys on gender equality and gender based violence

• The implementation of GOKR endorsed gender equality commitments

Improving policy development, implementation and service delivery to all citizens will require more attention to reducing the barriers men/boys and women/girls face in accessing and influencing justice, rule of law and policy making forums in political, trade and economic development and environmental management institutions; accessing education, health and security services and accessing communities to change gender norms that bias these entities against male or female engagement.

Family traditions continue to demonstrate the patriarchal and feudal character of a once nomadic people. The Soviet campaigns of collectivization forced the Kyrgyz first into transitional settlements and then into cities and towns or state and collective farms in the 1930s.6 While their work responsibilities were different in the nomadic economy that pre-dates the Soviet era, women are purported to have worked as virtual equals with men, enjoying approximately equal status with their husbands, within

5 USAID. 2012. Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy.

6 Glenn E. Curtis, ed. Kyrgyzstan: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1996.

http://countrystudies.us/kyrgyzstan/11.htm

The promotion of traditional values does not necessarily mean the defense of patriarchal norms; women/human rights defenders have long sought to reclaim traditional and cultures from the purveyors of fundamentalist and reactionary ideologies…’traditional values’ [do not] inevitably make a positive contribution to human rights;

there is [often] no recognition that ‘traditional values’ are frequently invoked to justify human rights violations.

Mayer, Anne Elizabeth. Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics. 2013.

Westview Press: Boulder, Colorado. page their traditional roles. Kyrgyz oral literature includes the story of Janyl-myrza who led her tribe to liberation from the enemy when no man in the tribe could do so. In the nineteenth century, the wife (strangely not named in the historic record) of Khan Almyn-bek led a group of Kyrgyz tribes at the time of the Russian conquest of Quqon7. Because of the perceived strong role that Central Asian women play within the household, there is an assumption that women are respected within the family. There is an important difference between the way that younger and older women are perceived and treated by society and family. Women accrue respect through childbearing (especially sons) and age. It is important when developing strategies and activities to address gender based inequality to go beyond “women” or “females” and consider the marked difference between the social roles and responsibilities of younger and older women.8

The dynamic transformations of the Soviet era were intended to model men and women as equal Soviet citizens, offering women in particular new rights, responsibilities, opportunities, and identities. Struggles to redefine women’s roles were strengthened and amplified by attempts at other social, political, and economic reforms implemented concurrently: nation-building, rapid urbanization, infrastructural development, industrialization, and access to new resources. In official Soviet ideology, engaging in productive work was considered to be an essential factor for women to achieve personal independence and improve their social status. Since Islamic social restrictions were weak in Kyrgyz traditional culture during the Soviet era women moved into new occupational positions. Women were not confined only to semi-skilled labor, but through compulsory education entered professional and management positions.

However, the notion that sexual equality was achieved during the Soviet era is a myth. Families did benefit from child care, universal health services and employment – benefits that evaporated with the fall of the Soviet Union. But during the Soviet period large numbers of women did not enter male dominated fields, nor were they equitably represented in leading positions. Women’s average salary was about 65–75 percent that of men. The idea that women were “naturally” suited to caring and domestic tasks within the family was rarely challenged. In fact, the centrality of women’s reproductive role was propagandized through gestures such as medals to “mother heroines” who had 10 surviving children.9

Under the Soviet regime, male identity was connected to two very powerful ideals: devotion to the homeland, and devotion to the party. For men, devotion to the homeland was most commonly achieved through military service. With the collapse of the USSR, defining ethnic identity has arisen as a political – and a gender – project. Male assertion of physical dominance has served as a tool for Kyrgyz men to redefine their identities. This masculine identity is expressed through cultural practices such as kok boruu (a game of polo that is played with a sheep’s head rather than a ball) or female subjugation such as bride kidnapping. Correspondingly, if men, particularly young men, hold a higher affinity for ethnic identity, then it is not surprising that a man who feels his ethnic identity is threatened may resort to

7 Olcott, Martha Brill. "The Role of Women." Kyrgyz Republic country study (Glenn E. Curtis, editor). Library of Congress Federal Research Division (March 1996). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Cited on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Kyrgyz Republic.

8 Grown C; Gupta, Geeta R & Kes A. Taking Action to Empower Women: UN Millennium Project Report on Education and Gender Equality. Global Urban Development Magazine 2:1. March, 2006.

9 Women in the USSR: Statistical Data. Russian Social Science Review 13:2. Summer, 1972 at 144-173.

defensive tactics, including violence.10 Additionally, most studies have shown that men are more likely to pass on the historical understandings of Kyrgyz ethnic identity to their offspring, where women have little to no role in this practice. While children may learn the bulk of this information in school, in the domestic environment, they are generally learning more from male members of their family.

Since independence and the collapse of the economy many women have been forced out of the labor market to allow men to take on the roles of "breadwinner" as more women are limited to performing traditional female roles. The dominant ideological concept of woman’s mission as a mother and wife re-emerged as the ideal within both the monogamous and polygamous Islamic family in the Kyrgyz Republic over last two decades. In accordance with this ideological construct, women’s subordination is justified by discourse about men's responsibility for the reproduction of the nation and the care of all women, and the primacy of women’s roles as wife and mother go mostly unchallenged.

In the post-Soviet Kyrgyz Republic, some citizens have responded to 70 years of atheism by embracing Islam which offers a sense of identity and belonging, a solution to better lives, an alternative to what they widely view as a Western-style social model, providing a language for political protest against a corrupt and oppressive regime11. Women living where traditional gender norms prevail turn to religion to find meaning in and explanation for their restricted social roles. Kyrgyz Republic’s legislation on gender equality and its quotas for women representatives in government have little impact on the lives of those most likely to join religious organization. Religious women in particular feel that women in government do not represent their views, because most are proponents of secularism. Many NGOs lack credibility with religious women as they do not support activities to address the practical needs of women – such as providing after-school programs for young children, something organizations such as Hizbut-Tahrir do for its women members.12

The fact that “tradition” can be harmful and that there are problematic issues surrounding received gender roles must also be acknowledged and addressed as human rights issues. The roles of males and females in Kyrgyz society are often closely linked (sometimes mistakenly) to national or religious traditions and discussion of these traditions can be taboo. However, where traditions “rely on harsh sanctions and violence to enforce norms, the norms involved cannot embody authentic tradition.

Authentic tradition imposes itself on its own authority and is normative because it possesses authority.

Thus men and women [adopt behaviors] as an expression of their own cultural identity…Norms…which depend on policing to be effective are more akin to ‘traditionalism’ or the ideology of tradition (emphasis in original)”.13 Governments, political movements and emerging religious ideologies should be challenged when they use culture as a pretext for noncompliance with human rights principles.

This is not to say, however, the social environment in Kyrgyz Republic is moribund: the meaning of identities and roles, opportunities for self-expression, and social engagement one these and other issues

10 Handrahan, Lori M. 2010. Gendering Ethnicity in Kyrgyzstan: Forgotten Elements in Promoting Peace and Democracy.

Gender and Development Vol.9(3), p 70-78.

11 Mayer, Anne Elizabeth. Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics. 2013. Westview Press: Boulder, Colorado. page 10 12 International Crisis Group, 2009 http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/central-asia/Kyrgyz Republic/176-women-and-radicalisation-in-Kyrgyz Republic.aspx 13 Mayer, Anne Elizabeth. Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics. 2013. Westview Press: Boulder, Colorado. page 10 are taking part of a very dynamic social environment, driven in part by modernization and a burgeoning youth population.

FINDINGS

State Efforts to Support Gender Equality

Article 16 of the 2010 Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic guarantees equal rights for women and men and prohibits all discrimination on the grounds of gender, ethnic origin or religious belief, and all other distinguishing social characteristics. Strategies and plans to achieve gender equality and ensure women’s rights in the development process, either by the government or donors have been weak. The Country Development Strategy (CDS), focused on how to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), and recognized that “the problems of human and social development are a central focus of the policy of the Kyrgyz Republic. This includes poverty reduction, ensuring access to education, the protection of the health of the population and the creation of a favorable environment for well-being, as well as the protection of vulnerable strata of the population.” The CDS was subject to a gender analysis and a number of policies to promote gender equality were proposed. A special section entitled “Policy of Gender Equality Achievement” was inserted, and this section was linked to the National Action Plan focused on the promotion of gender equality for from 2007 to 2010. The CDS matrix for 2007-2010 contained 20 sex disaggregated indicators. The government is currently working on a new gender strategy for the years 2012-2020 and an action plan, costed at $10 million has been developed whereby the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic (GOKR) will contribute 10 percent of the costs.

However, a planned review of the National Plan of Action to achieve the goals for gender equality and strengthening the capacity of a national institutional mechanism to promote gender equality has not been implemented. In fact, during the past few years, the country’s institutional mechanism for promoting gender equality has been weakened. In 2010, gender equality and women’s rights issues were put under the mandate of the Ministry of Labor, Youth, and Employment but is currently (April 2013) in transition to either the Ministry of Social Development or will be lead from the Prime Minister’s Office. Wherever this office ends up, the move will not solve the challenges of staff with limited expertise in gender equality and female empowerment, little authority, and no budget. The National Gender Council, which consists of government ministries, civil society organizations and private sector, has never met.

The GOKR did endorse a National Action Plan for Women

Legal Framework for Gender Equality in Kyrgyz Republic

1977 Accession to the Convention on the Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages

1997 Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) ratified

2002 CEDAW Optional Protocol ratified

2003 Law on State Guarantees of Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for Men and Women (revised in 2008)

2003 Law on Social-Legal Protection from Domestic Violence of the Kyrgyz Republic adopted

2003 Trafficking in persons criminalized

2013 National Action Plan for Women Peace and Security endorsed

Peace and Security in 2013, but the two year action plan to implement this commitment is not costed nor are measures to monitor implementation finalized.

National gender development plans and programs, where they exist, including the legal protection of women’s rights and women’s access to judicial recourse but are not significantly funded and are not effectively promoted to protect women’s rights and ensure equal access to justice. There has been no process to develop a gender needs assessment. Gender-specific needs are consequently not identified and are not mainstreamed in state or donors’ programs and actions, as well as in the country development strategy. While a National Statistical Committee publishes high quality sex disaggregated data for men and women, there remains a need for more detailed disaggregation of data on variables such as age, wealth quintile and ethnic affiliation to better identify who is accessing services14.

The Kyrgyz Republic’s GDP was $5.9 billion in 2011 and the population was 5.6 million; GDP per capita was a little over $1,000. About 40 percent of the GDP was accounted for by the agriculture sector in the early 1990s, but reduced to 20 percent in 2011; while the services sector increased from about 20percent to half of the GDP during the same period. However, about two-thirds of the population lives in rural areas. Progress in social development has been highly uneven. Over the past 15 years, there was good progress in the reduction in poverty incidence (based on a national poverty line) from 50 percent in 2003 to 43 percent in 2005 and 34 percent in 2010. Regional disparities have been high, with a far higher poverty incidence in rural areas compared with urban areas (40 percent vs. 24 percent in 2010).

Extreme poverty has been reduced from 9 percent to 5 percent (2006–2010), with 6 percent in rural areas and 4 percent in urban areas in 2010. Income inequality declined moderately 2000–2010, while the human development index increased slightly from 0.58 to 0.61, ranking the country 126th out of

187. While the MDG indicators for universal basic education, environmental sustainability, and global partnership are likely to be achieved by 2015, those for gender equality, infant mortality, child mortality, and maternal mortality will not.

Despite existing legislation and government policies to improve the participation of women’s and other vulnerable groups in the development of the CDS, there is no mechanism to make this a reality.

Information on public expenditures is accessible only through an annual state report on budget implementation posted on government website. There is no framework for information to allow for gender and social budgeting in the presentation of the state budget.15

Gender Based Violence (GBV) in the Kyrgyz Republic

[Since independence there has been a] constant pressure on women to conform to various aspects of new identities that are in competition for dominant socio-political power. Within the

14 Democratic Ownership and Development Effectiveness: Civil Society Perspectives on Progress since Paris. Chapter:

Kyrgyzstan: Country Monitoring Report on Aid Effectiveness. Nurgul Djanaeva, Forum of Women’s NGOs of Kyrgyzstan. IBON Books: Philippines, p 159-164.

15 Ibid. page 160 framework of Kyrgyzstan’s ‘democratic’ transition, Muslim ideas of female identity vie for attention alongside ‘western’ or democratic concepts of a ‘woman’, and both notions are attempting to replace the established norm of the Soviet model. The conflicting male definitions of ethnicities and their gendered identities are resulting in extremely high levels of violence against women. The increased reports of female slavery (sharoo), prostitution, trafficking in women, rapes, gang rapes, murders, bride kidnapping, sexual and domestic violence, and extreme poverty are indicative of a society in turmoil with conflicts of gender (as defined by each competing socio-political identity) and, hence, women, situated at the centre of the crisis.16

Gender based violence (GBV) effects every sector in which the Mission works. The issue is gradually gaining increased visibility in the Kyrgyz Republic, as a result of efforts by both civil society and the government. The 2003 “The Sixth Strategic Goal of the National Plan for Action to Achieve Gender Equality in the Kyrgyz Republic called for called “Decreasing all forms of violence against women.”

Despite this relatively strong legislative framework (in comparison to other countries in the region) to protect women from GBV, the framework has failed to translate into effective implementation. There is a dearth of detailed information on sexual and gender based violence (GBV) against women, including sexual harassment in the workplace, which is an unacknowledged issue in KR. Rape is a criminal offence but spousal rape is not specifically included as a criminal offence in the Kyrgyz Republic Criminal Code.

Rape cases are seldom reported to the police, and very few of those that are recorded are subsequently brought to court. The police approach SGBV is often to report these incidents as hooliganism. In addition, survivors of violence prefer to contact crisis centers, mainly run by NGOs, rather than submitting complaints to the State authorities which are seen as corrupt and ineffective.17

Bride-kidnapping (ala kachuu – to take and run away), illegal since 1994 under Kyrgyz law, is the abduction of a girl or young woman by a group of men, including the “groom”, who may be someone the woman knows, or a complete stranger. These kidnapping takes a variety of forms ranging from consensual, staged abduction, to violent non-consensual kidnapping. Kidnappings occur principally among the ethnic Kyrgyz majority, most commonly in rural areas, and women and girls under the age of 25 are most at risk. The growth of rural households engaged in subsistence farming with a low level of technological development demands a lot of unpaid workers. Unmarried men and their families view kidnapping as perhaps the only strategy to increase the labor potential of the family, so their future “marriage” is based primarily on economic/pragmatic rather than romantic grounds in the traditional sense. Myths around the practice of bride knapping "inspired by the tradition of our ancestors" has been promoted to reconcile women with their destiny and to achieve greater obedience. A majority of the population believes that kidnapping is an ancestral tradition, a truly national marriage strategy that must be continued by new generations and passed on to others. Typically, the average age of men and women entering into this kind of marriage is getting younger. Sometimes grooms have barely crossed

16 Handrahan, Lori M. 2010. Gendering Ethnicity in Kyrgyzstan: Forgotten Elements in Promoting Peace and Democracy.

Gender and Development Vol.9(3), p 70-78.

17http://forumofwomenngos.kg/monitoring-of-the-implementation-of-bpfa-cedaw-and-national-legislation-and-plans/

“Every good marriage begins in tears.”

Kyrgyz traditional saying the threshold of sexual maturity, and brides do not even finish secondary school. Kidnapping is often, but not always, instigated on behalf of the youngest son who is expected to remain at home and care for his parents in old age, inevitably inheriting the parents’ property on their death. As the parents age, the need for a daughter-in-law (kaylin) to look after them and the household is one factor that drives the practice. The woman is taken to the abductor’s house, where she is physically and or psychologically coerced by the abductor’s mother and other female relatives into agreeing to “marry” him. In some cases, this includes being raped by the abductor, after which she may be shamed into marrying him rather than returning to her family. The number of women who are forced into marriage this way is in dispute, but the practice is considered to be widespread in some areas. In some cases, the kidnapping may in fact be consensual – functioning as a way of allowing a couple to marry without their families’ consent and justified on the grounds of tradition. Though data are not dependable, approximately 30% of marriages within ethnic Kyrgyz communities are the result of non-consensual abductions.18 The cultural dimension and the misunderstandings surrounding this phenomenon have impeded efforts to recognize, combat and punish genuine cases of bride-kidnapping. Punishments for abduction for forced marriage include prison sentences of up to six years and there have been several recent high profile cases against perpetrators as well as news reports about new brides committing suicide.19 However, few abducted women seek help from the police, and even when they do police are reluctant to investigate.

From: P. Lom. 2007. Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyz Republic. Visual Studies Vol. 22 (2). visiblevoice.info

18 Alvarado, Ernesto, Diana Damschroder, Alyssa Antoniskis, Gabriel Auteri, Anusree Garg, Emily Singer Hurvitz, Christa Elliott, and Tyler Addison. "Regions." Human Rights Brief 20, no. 2 (2013), p 49.

19 Najibullah, Farangis. “Bride Kidnapping: A Tradition or a Crime?”21 May 2011. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 27 June 2011 http://www.rferl.org/content/bride_kidnapping_a_tradition_or_a_crime/24181723.html; Medlin, Marianne. “New Efforts Challenge Kyrgyzstan's Bride Kidnapping Epidemic.” 29 June 2011. Catholic News Agency Online. 8 July 2011 http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/new-efforts-challenge-kyrgyzstans-bride-kidnapping-epidemic/.

A Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, a nationally-representative household surveys conducted in 2005 and 2006 among 4,156 currently married women (15–49 years) in KR were asked if they approved of a husband beating his wife (referred to a “intimate partner violence”, IPV, in the survey) in five situations:

if she goes out without telling him, neglects children, argues, refuses sex, or burns food. The acceptance of IPV for any one of five reasons was 45.3 percent. Going out without telling, arguing, and neglecting children were the most commonly endorsed reasons. Women who were less educated, of some ethnic groups, had multiple children, lived in middle wealth urban areas and in certain regions were more likely to approve of IPV. Younger women were expected to be less approving of IPV, but the few age differences that emerged indicated that young women were more approving. Of course, neither men nor women were asked under which circumstances it would be acceptable for a woman to beat her husband.

There are few options for women or their children experiencing gender based violence. Few city governments fund shelters, and even fewer are available in the south or in rural communities, nor are there any programs working with men and boys who perpetuate violence.

Programs that have evidence or emerging evidence for GBV prevention include:

• Interventions for children and adolescents subjected to child maltreatment and/or exposed to intimate partner violence

• School-based training to help children recognize and avoid potentially abusive situations

• Empowerment and participatory approaches for addressing gender inequality: Communication and relationship skills training

• Change social and cultural gender norms through the use of social norms theory

• Change social and cultural gender norms through media awareness campaigns (as a suite of interventions)

• Change social and cultural gender norms through working with men and boys20

Masculinity and Gender Norms

One issue not specifically identified by civil society organizations is the need to work with men and boys on their own perception and beliefs about sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). During interviews for the GA, when asked how to work with men and boys to address GBV, participants seemed perplexed by the question and most could not answer it. Clearly, this is an unexplored area.

To decrease SGBV (and gender inequality) it is particularly important to consider not only societal measures, including national legislation and supportive policies aimed at social and economic factors – i.e., income levels, poverty and economic deprivation, patterns of male and female employment, and women’s access to health care, property, education, and political participation and representation - but efforts to change peer group and community norms. Evidence shows that traditions, beliefs, norms and practices that operate within communities are a major barrier to female’s access to education, healthcare, justice, protection and freedom from violence. Traditions and norms are at the same time barriers to boys and men to openly expressing support for female rights, freedoms and empowerment or for different roles for males: No one wants his friends to know he helps with the housework, or cooks the dinner in case he is mocked. These traditions, beliefs and norms limit both men and boys’ and women and girls’ life choices and aspirations.

The role of social norms in reinforcing behavior and guiding action in direct and meaningful ways is well established. Research and evidence from social-norms marketing reveals consistent findings: 1) the majority of individuals overestimate the prevalence of many undesirable behaviors, such as the acceptance of GBV among peers, and; 2) individuals use their perceptions of peer norms as a standard against which to compare their own behaviors. Using strategies to change perception of social norms has been shown to reduce the occurrence of harmful behaviors by correcting people’s misperceptions regarding the behaviors' prevalence. That is, if an individual believes that most of his/her peers do not approve of or engage in GBV, individuals will change their attitudes and behaviors to conform to the norms within their peer group.21

In fact, post-Soviet society as a whole is marked by a “celebration of masculinity.” In Kyrgyz Republic, various conservative gender ideologies – capitalism, local nationalism, political Islamism and even “global” youth cultures (like hip hop) encourage boys to be tough – a trait revered in traditional cultural

20 World Health Organization/London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence against women: taking action and generating evidence. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2010.

21 Schultz PW, Nolan JM, Cialdin RB, Goldstein NJ & Griskevicius V. 2007. The Constructive, Destructive, and Reconstructive Power of Social Norms. Psychological Science, Vol. 18(5), pp. 429-434.

discourse and adapted to modernity. By adopting certain cultural practices, from “national” sports such as kurosh to forced bride kidnapping, young Kyrgyz can affirm their identities as both “Kyrgyz” and a “man”.22

Trafficking in Persons

“The Kyrgyz Republic is a source and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor, and for women subjected to forced prostitution. Kyrgyz men, women, and children are subjected to bonded labor in China and to conditions of forced labor in Russia and Kazakhstan, and to a lesser extent the Czech Republic, Turkey, and within the country, specifically in the agricultural, forestry, construction, and textile industries, and in domestic servitude and forced child care. Kyrgyz victims were recently identified for the first time in Angola and the United States. Women…are subjected to forced prostitution in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, China, South Korea, Greece, Cyprus, Thailand, Germany, and Syria... Kyrgyz boys and girls are subjected to forced prostitution within the country. An NGO study estimated that over 60,000 Kyrgyz citizens are victims of trafficking, both within the country and abroad”.23

Trafficking in persons has been illegal under KR’s criminal code since 2003. KR is considered a Tier 2 country by the US Department of State (it does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking although it is making significant efforts to do so). The government continues to prosecute trafficking cases and convict offenders, and has been identifying more victims but the government has not been investigating or prosecuting officials suspected of complicity in human trafficking. The government has a national anti-trafficking action plan, and the government has worked with local and international NGOs and UN agencies to raise awareness of trafficking, and support services that are available. Some support is provided to victims of trafficking at two NGO-run shelters – one in the capital, Bishkek, the other in Osh, in the south of the country. The NGOs operating these shelters and other support services do receive some financial and in-kind assistance from the state.

As the USAID Mission continues to support and provide technical assistance to the GOKR and to civil society in the areas of democratic reforms, governance, inclusiveness, economic growth, health, education and environmental sustainability, it has the opportunity to address GBV at the population level. All these priority areas can integrate activities that increase awareness of and disseminate

22 Kirmse SB. 2010. In the marketplace for styles and identities: globalization and youth culture in southern Kyrgyzstan. Central Asian Survey. Vol. 29(4), 389–403.

23 United States Government. Department of State. Trafficking in Person Report, June 2012.

http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2012/192367.htm information about GBV as well as challenge attitudes about harmful gender norms imposed on males and females which perpetuate gender based violence, which includes bullying or “racketeering”.2425

Change is, and will be, uneven. Resistance to new ideas may initially exacerbate growing social problems such as the feminization of poverty, sexual harassment at the workplace, and women's double day of paid and unpaid labor. Nonetheless, despite resistance and the cultural lag between the development of more egalitarian attitudes and the reduction of gender inequality, a new generation growing up exposed to new ideas about gender relations could lead to greater gender equality in the Kyrgyz Republic. Both structural and interactional interventions are necessary to create a more egalitarian society and discourse, while simultaneously creating alternative conceptions of gender. “Institutions may be impervious to individual acts, but acts that change consciousness could encourage collective action to transform institutions.”26

Post-Conflict Kyrgyz Republic

Women are less likely to define their ethnicity with adjectives and events that presumed a conflict with “the other”. Women are more willing to cross ethnic boundaries and work together in situations of ethnic conflict.27 Women often associate ethnicity with cultural artifacts such as jewelry, food, and clothing while men often make more active, and sometimes violent, associations between ethnic identity and practices including national games and female subjugation. In response to questions about what human qualities people associated with their ethnicity, more than half of the men responded with negative adjectives, denoting dissatisfaction and negative self-image, while more than half of the women responded with positive adjectives. More women and men in the southern Kyrgyz Republic gave negative answers, and younger people were more likely to give negative answers than older people. The negative impressions of self on the part of male youth from southern KR is a concern that should be factored into development programs dealing with southern poverty and identity issues.