Organizational development and vision

The organizational development takes into account the priority directions in the Women Support Center’s activities. Today, the planned transformation of our NGO includes a revision of the structural departments, their functions and relations, and a further improvement of a human capacity. We will also continue working to expand the network of the new Gender Information Centers.
The organizational vision and mission of the Women Support Center are as follows:
Organizational vision:
Promoting a  democratic and humanistic society
through understanding the role and capacities of each individual

Mission of the organization:
Promotion of gender equality in Kyrgyzstan
through the advancement of human rights and
active participation in democratic reforms

Target groups
The choice of the target groups (see below) we justify in the following way: these are people open to changes, with active approach to life, able to make independent decisions, and willing to influence their target communities and settings. Besides, the our target groups involve people, who are victims or under the risk of some forms of discrimination and violence (victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, and other)
•    Women-leaders
•    Women-farmers and entrepreneurs
•    Rural communities and local authorities
•    Electorate
•    Youth
•    Gender, women, youth, and other NGOs
•    Victims of human trafficking and other forms of discrimination and violence.
•    Mass media
 

Main activities and objectives
The Women Support Center considers capacity-building of the civil society in addressing gender problems to be one of the most important and crucial activities in its work. Accomplishment of this objective implies raising gender sensitivity of the population and introduction of gender approaches into different areas of social life through:
•    Gender training
•    Ensuring access of the civil society representatives to information on gender issues
There is lack of information on gender issues in Kyrgyzstan, while the process of introducing gender approaches is just beginning. Multiple new initiative groups and other local organizations have little opportunities to familiarize with this subject matter. First, it refers to information sources in the Kyrgyz language, as well as to information reflecting the local context specificity. The number of conducted training sessions on gender and contiguous themes does not meet the current needs of different groups. In this regard, another important objective in our work is to expand the methodological and information base on gender issues, which includes a number of components:
•    Expansion of the information base on gender, including development and publication of materials in Kyrgyz
•    Development and introduction of new training methodologies, including in Kyrgyz
•    Gender training of local trainers and other specialists
•    Research on various gender aspects, given the local specificity
Work with the public administration bodies at national and local levels is another activity of our organization. Kyrgyzstan’s formulated gender policy is progressive, yet there are widespread cases of incompetence and mere formalities in the work of public bodies on gender mainstreaming. One of the objectives of our organization is to assist the state structures in the formulation and implementation of gender policies. We envision the fulfillment of this objective as follows:
•    Involvement in discussion of questions on the formulation of national gender policies
•    Training of public administration personnel, gender specialists in particular
The main legal instrument on protection of women’s rights at the international level is the Convention on eradication of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) ratified by Kyrgyzstan in 1996. In its activity, the Women Support Center is guided by this document. Moreover, it carries out work on monitoring the fulfillment of the CEDAW Convention and continuously promotes its ideas in society, particularly:
•    Conduction of training and explanation of CEDAW provisions on the specificity оf women’s rights and state’s commitments on its fulfillment
•    Preparation and submission to the UN CEDAW Committee of alternative information on women’s situation and fulfillment of Kyrgyzstan’s commitments under the Convention*
With the long-term goal of Advancement of women’s status in Kyrgyzstan, the Women Support Center places high emphasis on such issues as:
•    Countering human trafficking and other forms of violence
•    Promotion of economic, reproductive and other rights of women
•    Protection of political rights of women and increasing their representation via the electoral processes