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Men and women together for a better world: From Uzbekistan in Central Asia

*This article was submitted by the ELS_ABD Programmes.

Educated, healthy women who have a say in society and the family can help a country achieve its development goals. It is no wonder that gender equality is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals that developed and developing countries have pledged to achieve for a better and just world for all, men and women.

Out of the total population of 26 million in the Republic of Uzbekistan, about 8, 4 million women live in rural areas, sometime with limited access to working infrastructures such as water and sanitation. During 2005-2009, EU Aid has helped pushing up living standards in 200 rural communities, men and women. Local organizations, water committees and municipalities, often headed by women have co-financed with the programme the rehabilitation of village water pumps, taps, cisterns, pipes and the like. Thanks to this effort, more than 300, 000 people, men, women and children, can now drink safe water; get their water without having to carry on their back, often a girl's job. Development practitioners call this women’s involvement in improved management and improved access to water resource. People simply see it as clean water at home or close to where home is in a country where the desert is widespread and every drop counts.

Access to cash in form of microcredits, training in business and cooperative management can make a difference in rural people's life in a way that they can fee, touch and see. In Uzbekistan, microfinance clients are mostly women engaged in small trade activities, food production, animal husbandry and services. By helping a national organization, the Business Women Association to acquire better accountancy and business skills, EU Aid has benefited rural women and their families.

Not only it has helped 620 women to get credits but many of them to start a successful business and in this way improve their status in society. The Business Women's Association, with the assistance of the EU, has helped women to make the best of the money they borrow. An increased number women-entrepreneur is perhaps one of the best indicators we have today to measure changes in the status of women in Uzbek society.

People Talk:
Tursunoy's success

My name is Tursunoy Hatamova. I live in Norin district of Namangan region in Uzbekistan. I have 3 children and 6 grandchildren. In our community most people are farmers and work hard to send their children to school and support their families. Like many other women, I have also worked in the fields when I was younger. What we have all noticed that with the help of fertilizers and pesticides today we have better yields.

We have learned that unfortunately these chemicals can damage health and the nature around us. Water, soil, air, fruits and vegetable are all affected by the chemicals contained in the pesticides. With small children one has to be extra careful. Now that I think of it, we don't seem to have so many butterflies as we used to have when I was young. I have heard that many insects and animals have died because of the chemicals we use. If the nature dies around us what will be left for our children one day?

We have often asked ourselves these questions in the community and thought there was no way out until the EU-UNDP Enhancement of Living Standards (ELS) project team told us that one can breed good bugs that kill those harmful insects that destroy our crops. The clever thing is that they don’t kill everything around them. Only the bad bugs. So nature does not suffer and we don’t suffer too. These good insects they told us costs less than the fertilizers and pesticides so our farmers prefer to buy them of course.

Training organized by the ELS helped those of us to understand how to run the laboratories and make a profit. Our group managed to save enough and contribute to the cost of equipment and the building renovation. The project helped with the rest. Once the lab started working, I and other women were the first who got employed. In other laboratory now we are a a good team of men and women with lots of ideas and plans for the future.

I still don't like bugs but I have to say that I got used to them. I look at them in a different way now. Before I couldn't tell one bug from another. Now I can tell you that a good bug can change your life. ... more

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