Dear Madam/Sir,
In response to the on-going discussion on the role of rural women in sustainable development goals, I would like to add a few insights from Kyrgyzstan.
Despite the fact that rural women in Kyrgyzstan experience numerous hardships affecting their well-being, such as housekeeping pressures, difficulty of educating, feeding and clothing children or inadequate housing, they nevertheless have great potential to assume leading roles in projects that create jobs for women, raise rural earnings and ensure food security. It is because of the fact that rural Kyrgyz women have proper education; they are more experienced and skillful in their home management, more prudent and thrifty in their spending, more practical in identification of opportunities for work, survival and income generation. To be empowered for these roles, the rural women need prompt and effective actions to ensure financial, material and institutional support for their business endeavors; access to subsidies and easy loans, extensive micro-lending and programs that teach basic business skills. With more targeted and carefully selected attention from the government and international organizations, including UN, working on development programs, the rural Kyrgyz women might be empowered enough to become real agents of change and not only lift themselves out of poverty, but contribute greatly to the overall economic development of the country.
Raissa Muhutdinova,
Global Civil Initiatives, Inc.
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Raissa Muhutdinova