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Kyrgyzstan: The reality of child poverty
UNICEF
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Kanybek, a working boy aged 15, drew this street scene of a child hurrying to school, while a working child pushes a handcart to earn money. A man lies on the ground, drinking vodka. The picture was prepared for the Conference on Child Poverty. |
© unicef/ceecis/_2004/Kanybek |
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For
the first time in the region, Kyrgyzstan has
put child poverty at the centre of its national
poverty debate and is planning to make it a
part of the next National Poverty Reduction
Strategy. A two-day national conference "Child
Poverty: Effective Strategies towards its Elimination
in Kyrgyzstan" was held on 6-7 December by the
Government with support of UNICEF, UNDP, DFID
and Meerim Foundation.
Maksat,
who is 16 years old, prepared his speech for
three days. He spoke on behalf of working children
like him who live in and around Bishkek, the
capital of Kyrgyzstan.
Maksat was invited by UNICEF
to the conference on child poverty. He felt
excited to speak in the presence of the Prime
Minister, the First Lady, Ministers, and heads
of international organizations. The presence
of 30 working children – his friends among
the participants also gave him strength and
courage. His speech could have an impact on
their lives.
Maksat, who looks younger than
his age, had to stand up on his chair, to be
seen at the big table. He started his talk by
reading his letter. The 150 conference participants
listened intently; there was silence as he spoke.
Many of the adults made notes. The Prime Minister,
the First Lady, the UNICEF Deputy Regional Director
on his left and the UNICEF Resident Representative
in the Kyrgyz Republic on his right felt his
compelling voice and caught the serious look
in his eyes. He told the story of his family,
how he had dropped out of school and come to
Bishkek, how children start working at markets,
how the military take advantage of their situations
and take their hard earned money.
He ended his speech by saying:
“We would like you to read some of our
stories and letters. We have very many problems.
We understand that it is impossible to solve
them all, but I am asking you to solve some
of them.”
"We
have very many problems. We understand that
it is impossible to solve them all, but I am
asking you to solve some of them.” Maksat,
aged 16
The children looked excited, the adults looked moved. In
their hands they held letters full of hope,
simple drawings describing the life of a working
child.
Seeing
the reality
Following Maksat’s presentation,
the First Lady, Vice Prime Minister, key ministers,
the Mayor of Bishkek and representatives of
international agencies went to the Kelechek
District. It is one of 24 poor migrant settlements
near Bishkek with a total population of about
300,000 people. There are no jobs for adults
and often children become bread winners, working
at the nearest market, pushing carts, selling
seeds, cleaning shoes. It takes 30 minutes to
go on foot, past the cemetery, to the nearest
bus stop and school. The visitors were asked
to discuss the present situation and try to
better understand the needs of children. The
conversation was uneasy at times. The adults
were not expecting the children to be so articulate
and critical. But the message was clear –
our rights are being violated and you have obligations
to assist.
Until very recently, children’s
participation was limited to happy singing and
dancing, smiling and thanks for charity gifts.
It is still very uncommon for children to speak
out in the presence of adults and demand their
rights. For some adults it was a shock. The
next day, one of the participants even accused
children of being too negative: “They
demand from the government and us many things,
but they did not ask themselves what they can
do to improve their own situation.” This
phrase was left hanging in the air. But what
can a child who has to earn a living and is
denied the right to education do to change
his or her situation?
Luckily, there were also those
who thought in a different way. In his closing
remarks at the Conference, the Prime Minister
thanked all the children for their participation
and pointed to the importance of their contributions.
“I have read all your letters,”
he said, “and I have already assigned
people to address your problems”.
The Conference Resolution raised
many issues and identified actions that are
urgently needed to realize the rights of children
like Maksat and his friends. Importantly, the
Resolution specifically acknowledges the vital
role of meaningful children’s participation
in formulating policies and programmes to address
their problems. To solve their problems we need
to understand them. And who can better explain
their problems than the children who experience
them.
Conference
Background
The conference was attended
by some of the most senior government officials
including the Prime Minister, the Vice Prime
Minister, several key Ministers (Finance, Health,
Education, Social Protection) as well as representatives
of the key donors, international and non-governmental
organizations. The First Lady actively participated
in all the session of the Conference. Some children
and young people from the Kelechek community,
an urban settlement of internal migrants, had
prepared for and participated in the Conference.
These children work in the informal sector in
the nearby Bazaar. Many have dropped out of
school but some have gone back or take night
classes. Their life stories and experiences
of poverty were assembled in a brochure distributed
at the Conference. A powerful message from one
of the boys named Maksat was "To solve all these
problems is impossible, but I am asking to solve
some of them". The Prime Minister, in his closing
remark, told that the Government would be looking
into the problems (need for a school, employment
for parents, school transport, stopping of informal
payments for education, water an electricity
for the settlement, etc) raised by these children.
Besides, DFID and UNDP, the
IMF, the WB and USAID spoke positively about
the importance of elimination of child poverty
and their work in the area of poverty reduction.
IMF was supportive of efforts for elimination
of child poverty and encouraged the government
to prepare quality social investment programmes
for funding under the proceeds of some of its
assets.
There was recognition that
poverty reduction is wider than the three social
sectors of health, education and social protection
and that other actors including communication,
environment and justice also needed to join
the strategy. Decentralization and capacity
building at local level emerged as priority
focus, cutting across other areas, and the way
administrative reform interact with this process.
It was recognized that there could be a mismatch
between the NPRS programme and the allocated
budget. One area where more work is needed is
for disaggregated budget analysis of social
sectors especially, health, education, social
protection/welfare and water and sanitation,
so as to identify efficiency gains and redistribution
of existing resources within each sector to
the basic and primary service components of
each, e.g. public health centres, early childhood
development and primary education as opposed
to tertiary services. There is also need for
identifying and putting in place systematic
mechanisms and processes for participation of
children and young people.
At the end of the Conference
the government agreed in principle to adoption
of a resolution with agreed action points as
a concrete follow-up to the meeting. The work
on the resolution should be completed in the
course of next 7-8 days. It would provide amongst
other things for a comprehensive and multidimensional
framework for addressing child poverty, establishment
of a set of indicators for monitoring child
poverty reduction, and development of creative
and systematic processes for including the voice
of children and young people in the planning,
implementation and monitoring and assessment
of child poverty programmes.
For more information:
Galina Solodunova, Communication Officer, UNICEF Kyrgyzstan
Tel: (+996 312) 611 211
e-mail: gsolodunova@unicef.org
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