UNDP empowers women scientists in Uzbekistan

From June 1 to September 1, 2020, the UN Development Programme and the Ministry of Innovative Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan, with the support of the Swedish Embassy, ​​ conducted trainings to raise the quality of research and academic publishing activities of women scientists in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan has set an ambitious goal of entering the top 50 countries in the Global Innovation Index rating, which, among many other indicators, takes into account the number and citation of published articles in the country. According to the Scopus database of scientists (an international organization that evaluates the activities of scientists around the world), among the top 20 women scientists for the period 2015-2020, there were only 3 representatives from Uzbekistan in the top 20 scientists for the period 2015-2020, indicating the need greater involvement of women in scientific research.

51 participants were ultimately selected from more than 250 applications. Training sessions and seminars were conducted by the leading economist Rauf Salakhodjaev, a three-time winner of Scopus’ award for achievements in science. 

During the trainings, participants were exposed to effective strategies for writing scientific articles and literature reviews, negotiating the complex landscape of social science methodologies,  conducting empirical analysis and much more. Following this, the articles of 3 participants were accepted in the International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Tourism Review International, and the International Journal of development studies- all leading journals in their fields.

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For editors:

1. UNDP project “Empowering women to participate in public administration and socio-economic life” operates from October 2017. During its operation, the project achieved following:
2. Active participation in the development of the draft two Laws of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On guarantees of equal rights and equal opportunities for women and men" and "On the protection of women from oppression and violence”(September 2, 2019);
3. An electronic journal has been developed to collect and analyze gender statistics for rehabilitation and adaptation centers for victims of violence and the prevention of suicide.
4. A series of trainings on gender-legal expertise of legislative acts for deputies and experts from ministries and departments.
5. A free legal clinic for women from rural areas has been created in which more than 200 women received consultations from November to December 2019.
6. Assistance was provided in the preparation of regulatory legal acts and analytical documents on empowering women.