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Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Dates

2021 - 2030

Type of practice

Policy (including law, public measure)

Geographic scope

Summary

The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic has approved the Concept of Migration Policy 2021-2030 under Resolution No. 191 on 4 May 2021. The aim of the Concept is to regularise migration processes through the implementation of state programs aimed at mitigating the adverse effects of migration and creating conditions for good migration governance that would benefit migrants and socio-economic development of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The prerequisite for this achievement was the Decree of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Zhaparov "On measures to improve migration situation" dated 29 January 2021, which provides comprehensive support to migrant workers and protection of migrant families. The need to regulate migration processes and create conditions for safe, orderly and regular migration is also noted by the National Development Program of the Kyrgyz Republic until 2026, which was developed within the framework of the National Development Strategy 2040 based on the long-term strategic goals of the country development, Agenda 2030 and the fundamental commitment to "leave no one behind" of SDGs.

The Action Plan 2022-2025 for the implementation of the Concept was adopted on 13 April 2022. All documents were developed using the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches. Consultations with the civil society and UN Network on Migration were conducted.

Main beneficiaries of the Concept and its Action Plan are migrants, especially women, youth and children and migrants’ families, as well as Kyrgyz diasporas.

Organizations

Main Implementing Organization(s)

Government of Kyrgyzstan

Detailed Information

Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Migration of the Kyrgyz Republic

Partner/Donor Organizations

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ministry of Health

Ministry of Economy and Commerce

Ministry of Education and Science

Ministry of Finance

Ministry of Agriculture

Ministry of Emergency

Social Fund

National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic

Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Environmental Control

Ministry of Internal Affairs

State Committee for National Security

Ministry of Digital Development

NGOs

UN Network on Migration

International Organizations

Private sector

Benefit and Impact

The key benefit of the new Concept of Migration Policy is that it conceptualizes a novel model of migration governance focused on national interests of the country and ensures comprehensive and consolidated approaches of all state bodies and civil society to regulate migration processes and create conditions for safe, orderly and regular migration. The impact of the Concept is already visible: for example, the Population Census conducted in April 2022 included a section on migration status because the National Statistics Committee has highlighted the lack of statistical data on migration during the process of the development of the Concept in 2020-2021.

Although the implementation of the Action Plan of the Concept has just started, it is expected that within four years, it will mainstream migration across all sectors – socio-economic development, local development, environment and green economy, diaspora engagement, gender mainstreaming, education, health, social protection, resilience, peacebuilding, etc.
Given that the Concept comprehensively supports migrants as well as their families, the successful implementation of the Concept will benefit more than one million Kyrgyz migrant workers and its positive spillover effects will also benefit the migrants’ families.

Needs of especially fragile persons and groups like victims of trafficking, children of migrants, vulnerable migrants, women migrants and persons with disabilities etc. were integrated in the Concept of Migration Policy in terms of their protection and reintegration.

The Kyrgyz Republic increasingly engage diasporas in the development of good migration policy. In 2021 IOM carried out mapping of diaspora and the Council of Diaspora, Compatriots and Migration under Speaker of the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic actively contributed to the development of the Concept. Diasporas are included in National Development Programme 2026.

The Concept provides for an establishment of the unified national system of the Kyrgyz Republic for collecting statistical data on migration (comprehensive and disaggregated) at the local government and national level. This will allow to incorporate the migration component in data collection and methodology elaboration, while at the same time mainstreaming gender, and thus will make migration mainstreaming a structural setting even beyond the Concept timeline.

Key Lessons

First, COVID-19 challenges had significantly slowed down the process of the development and adoption of the Concept and its Action Plan. Online platforms organized by Government, IOM and the UN Network on Migration for public hearings were very helpful to mitigate the challenges. As soon as face to face meetings became possible, meetings with proper social distancing and all relevant sanitary precautions were conducted to finalise the documents.

The second challenge was a lack of migration data and statistics. The Kyrgyz Republic has to develop a unified national system of collecting disaggregated statistical data on migration on the local and national levels. The existing system of registration of population movement does not reflect the reality of external and internal migration. IOM, especially through the UN Network on Migration and guided by the UN Resident Coordinator Office, is actively engaging with the National Statistics Committee to overcome this challenge.

Recommendations(if the practice is to be replicated)

It is recommended to conduct the Migration Governance Indicators (MGI) assessment before starting the process of development of the Concept of Migration Policy. In the Kyrgyz Republic the first MGI assessment was conducted on 2018 and a follow-up assessment is ongoing in 2022. Also, it is important to engage whole of government and whole of society approaches including the private sector, diasporas and putting migrants and their families in the center and ensuring that every voice is heard, and using all available resources at all levels starting from the Government, the UN Network on Migration, academia, experts, civil society, international organizations and development partners.

Innovation

For the first time, a migration policy was developed with fully fledged contribution from the UN Network on Migration of the Kyrgyz Republic, which was established in April 2020. This ensured alignment of the Concept with GCM objectives, Agenda 2030 and SDGs.

Additional Images

Date submitted:

10 May 2022

Disclaimer: The content of this practice reflects the views of the implementers and does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations, the United Nations Network on Migration, and its members.