International scientific conference "Family demographic and gender policy at a new stage of development of Kazakhstan"
On November 17-18, 2022, members of the regional Commission on Women's Affairs and Family and Demographic Policy became participants of the International Scientific Conference "Family, Demographic and Gender Policy at a new stage of development of Kazakhstan", held in Astana.
The organizers of the conference: National Commission for Women's Affairs and Family and Demographic Policy under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, together with the Ministry of Information and Public Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the technical support of the UN Women structure, managed to create a favorable atmosphere on the dialogue platform for discussing topical issues in the field of strengthening the institution of family and gender equality.
Speakers from Kazakhstan, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, India, the USA introduced the Conference participants to the achievements of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of family and gender policy, with the results of scientific research.
Among the 250 participants are secretaries and members of regional commissions on women's affairs and family and demographic policy of all regions of our country, representatives of central and local executive bodies, academia, business, non–governmental and international organizations.
The peculiarity of this Conference is a comprehensive approach to consideration and discussion of family and demographic policy issues. Intense and fruitful work in 6 sessions allowed the participants to openly express their position, sometimes different from others, their opinion, offer recommendations and ways to solve problematic issues.
I am glad that within one year Kazakhstan has improved indicators on gender equality: in the ranking of the World Economic Forum, the country has risen from 80 to 65 places.
However, there are a lot of "pain zones" that we still have to work on:
- Divorces (on this issue, the Karaganda region is an anti–leader and ranks 2nd after Almaty in the Republic by the end of 2021 - 4717 facts);
- Civil marriages;
- Reproductive health of women and men;
- Economic dependence of women;
- Belittling the role of fathers in Kazakh families;
- Spiritual and moral education of the younger generation;
- Protection of motherhood and childhood;
- Domestic violence.
Commissioner for Human Rights Elvira Asimova and the conference participants highlighted the problem of low representation of women at the decision-making level in local and territorial bodies and in the quasi-public sector.
In addition, despite the growth of women in science (54% of all researchers), insufficient attention of scientists to the problems of family and demographic policy was noted at the conference, therefore, there are few scientific studies and works on these topics.
All problematic issues of strengthening the institution of family and gender equality must be solved using the scientific potential, the results of scientific research, through the joint efforts of scientists, government, non-governmental and international organizations.
According to the results of the Conference, an electronic collection of reports and scientific articles will be published.
