Millions of people face the challenge of finding themselves in the labour market and being in professional demand without fear of losing their job. However, the labour market situation in the Kyrgyz Republic is ambiguous.
Traditional jobs are not sufficient for the working-age population, resulting in high unemployment rates. Increasing digital skills of the population contributes to augmenting the number of jobs and the level of wages. These skills help to equalise living standards in both urban and rural areas. For a smooth transition to a digital economy, Kyrgyzstan needs to transform its training system. This will allow for the rapid and high-quality training of specialists with the competencies most in demand in the labour market.
Due to recent events in the world, migrants have to leave their jobs and return home. It is impossible to predict what percentage of returnees will be able to find work in their home countries. However, given the experience of the pandemic in 2020, it is safe to say that unemployment in the country will increase. The growth of unemployment, a significant reduction of financial opportunities for the population will aggravate the economic situation in Kyrgyzstan and will affect the standard of living of the majority of the country's population. In these circumstances, it is necessary to provide opportunities to obtain new indemand professions for vulnerable groups of the population.
In this regard, one of the priorities of the European Neighbourhood Council together with the Public Association "Kyrgyz Internet Society" (ISOC) is the implementation of the project "Promoting Equal Economic Opportunities and Sustainability for Youth" in the Kyrgyz Republic "Sanarip Insan" ("Digital Citizen") with the financial support of the European Union. It envisages new opportunities for developing the digital literacy of the population, providing knowledge of the digital and green economy to young people and women living in rural areas of the republic, and training a professional digital workforce.
The project aims to increase the digital skills capacity of young migrants, including women, from basic digital literacy to more in-demand digital skills such as information search, use of digital platforms, use of social media functionality, financial transactions, online commerce and advanced entrepreneurial skills using information technology.
The roundtable “Enhancing the Employment Potential of Rural Youth, Women and Migrants through Digital Skills” aims to present and discuss an ecosystem of human resources and education projects. During the forum, heads of expert areas and project implementers represented by representatives of the government, development institutions, business and educational structures will summarize the results, discuss the tangible effects of digitalization of education for the population, challenges, and opportunities for including all stakeholders in the implementation of projects. Also, new challenges for young labour migrants from Kyrgyzstan caused by changes in regional labour markets, information exchange between the participants on the use of best practices and the issue of developing recommendations to support and promote vulnerable groups of young migrants will be discussed.
A special focus of the round table will be on the presentation of the Sanarip Insan Project, enhancing the role of Kyrgyz regions in project implementation, sharing best practices and discussing approaches to achieving its indicators. The final outcome of the project activities is the improvement of youth protection indicators on the Sustainable Development and Human Rights Goals. The task to promote and ensure the right to leadership and women's meaningful participation in decision-making processes is a key one, acting as both a goal and a means to achieve the SDGs.