The European Union delegation in Tajikistan invited us and our partner YEC (Youth Ecological Centre) to speak at the Civil Society Seminar  “Practical Implementation of the Gender Equality Principles in Tajikistan“, on 24-25 of April 2018.

The seminar was opened by representatives of the Government of Tajikistan and the Ambassadors of France and the United Kingdom. Our international director, Sascha Gabizon, gave a presentation on Gender and Climate Change policies in SESSION 1 Economic and social empowerment of young girls and women. She presented examples of our and YEC’s projects where women-lead small businesses and energy-cooperatives make use and provide renewable energy such as solar-water heaters and solar-food driers. Gabizon also presented how these gender-equitable renewable energy programs are an important contribution to implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda2030, in particular SDG7 on Energy, SDG13 on Climate and SDG5 on Gender Equality, and how the Women2030 program financed by the European Commission supports these type of activities across 50 countries.

In the same panel, Ms. Zulfia Kocharbaeva of partner organisation Agency for Social Technologies (AST) from Kyrgyzstan, also gave a presentation on analysing and re-designing educational school materials to move away from stereotype presentations of traditional gender roles, e.g. showing women and girls in technology related employments instead of only in household settings. The Ambassador of France, Ms. Yasmine Gouédard, collected all the input and recommendations from the experts during the 2 day meeting, to present this to the office of the President of Tajikistan.

The next day, Sascha Gabizon accompanied YEC to visit rural women entrepreneurs outside of the capital, for a Women2030 training and monitoring visit. The meeting was held in one of the women’s resource centres which were created during our previous ELA programe. The women resource centre demonstrated new technologies, including renewable energy technologies and resilient farming strategies.

 

Download:

• Sascha’s presentation on gender equality and climate change
• Agenda of policy dialogue