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Continuing cooperation for mountains

16.08.2017

Dr Janet Colvin, Interim Associate Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Utah Valley University (UVU), discussed cooperation between the state of Utah, United States, and Kyrgyzstan, with a focus on sustainable mountain development, with representatives of educational institutions and the media during her visit to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 2-6 August 2017. Colvin, who was visiting as a participant of the 2017 World Communication Association conference, took the opportunity to inform audiences about UVU’s contributions to promoting the sustainable mountain development agenda in North America since 2006, when UVU joined the Mountain Partnership as a result of its partnership with the International University of Kyrgyzstan (IUK). 

During her presentation on the topic “Utah-Kyrgyzstan Cooperation” on 3 August, Colvin highlighted major initiatives of cooperation between Utah and Kyrgyzstan that have been facilitated on the grass-roots level by UVU and IUK. In particular, she noted how they successfully hosted four international Women of the Mountains Conferences together in the framework of the Mountain Partnership. Women of the Mountains Conferences are major grass-roots forums in North America to advocate for the gender and sustainable mountain development agendas of the United Nations. This year also commemorates the tenth anniversary of the Women of the Mountains Conference, since UVU and IUK hosted the first edition in 2007 in Orem, Utah. One of her local hosts, Dr Kuban Abdymen, a faculty member of the Kyrgyz Turkish Manas University, had contributed to the 2007 Women of the Mountains Conference as a Fulbright Scholar then at the University of Montana. Guests from Utah discussed with local hosts about how both sides could help raise awareness of the importance of sustainable mountain development and mountain women, including by sharing the results of the Women of the Mountains Conferences during the sixty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2018.

Abdymen also expressed appreciation to Colvin and UVU for promoting cultural exchanges and for reprinting a famous eleventh-century manuscript, “Wisdom of Royal Glory”, which was written by the poet Yusub Balasagun. Kyrgyz counterparts also expressed value for contributions from Utah towards strengthening Parliamentary models in Kyrgyzstan by facilitating legislative exchanges under the leadership of John Valentine, former member of the Utah State Senate. Several delegations of deputies from the Kyrgyz Parliament, representing such parties as Ata-Jurt, Ata-Meken and Respublica, visited Utah and also hosted their American counterparts in Kyrgyzstan.

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News and photo by Utah Valley University