In Kyrgyzstan, with partners Foundation for Tolerance International (FTI) and Civic Union, we continued our support to collaborative community–police partnership groups despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 and resulting lockdowns, especially in the early months of pandemic. Many meetings and plans shifted to an online format and groups worked to support COVID prevention, and to address the issues affecting communities, such as difficult home conditions, increased domestic violence and a lack of digital connectivity. We also supported local authorities to work effectively and safely by providing guidance on COVID safety measures, and worked with the national TV channel ‘ELTR’ on a show about safety during the lockdown. During this time, we continued to see support from communities and the authorities for our work, with local representatives providing premises and co-financing for project activities and meetings. We worked at the national level to embed the community policing approach within the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). This included working closely with the MIA Academy for police recruits, to ensure that conflict-sensitive and human rights-focused training modules are an integral part of police courses. We also held a number of meetings with the MIA to provide recommendations and learning.
We successfully completed two projects with partners FTI, IDEA Central Asia and Interbilim, focusing on supporting youth participation. Because of the pandemic, many events were held online, but the young participants were just as able to communicate directly with representatives and authorities as well as with each other. The projects generated a flurry of publications and outputs, including an interactive research report where young people identified security concerns in their communities, tying them to the Sustainable Development Goals and providing recommendations. We also published a series of personal stories profiling young people’s ideas and experiences across the country.
