The Asian Women's Forum on the theme "Regional approach to women's economic, social and political empowerment" has begun its work
2024-05-13 15:50:00 / News of ministry
With a view to further expanding cooperation with UN-Women and as a joint initiative, in his address to the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the President of the Republic of Samarkand, Mr. Mukhtar Kumar, organized the Asian Women's Forum.
78th session of the UN General Assembly, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed to hold the Asian Women's Forum in 2024 in Uzbekistan to discuss the realization of their creative potential and exchange experience in this area.
The purpose of the forum is to create a unique dialogue space in the region to discuss issues of realizing the opportunities and potential of women, expanding their participation in the economy, strengthening the role of women in state and public administration.
As noted at the forum, of the 1.3 billion students studying at universities in Uzbekistan, more than 653 thousand (50.4%) are girls and women, an increase of 12% compared to the 2017 figure. The number of female students continuing their studies in master's programs has exceeded 14 thousand and makes up 60 percent of the total number of students.
From 2020, a system of admission to higher education for girls from low-income families, based on a state grant (quota of 1000) has been introduced. From 2021, the number of these grant places has doubled to 2,000.
Based on this benefit, during 2020-2023, about 7 thousand women were admitted to higher education institutions on the basis of a state grant.
Since 2022, the contract amount for girls and women studying in the master's program of state higher education institutions has been paid, with at least 200 billion soums annually allocated from the state budget for this purpose.
In the 2022-2023 academic year, contracts worth more than 190 billion soums were paid for more than 14.3 thousand female students studying in the master's program.
Today, the number of female students studying in master's programs is 17,122, which is equal to 56.0% of the total number of students.
A system has been introduced to admit to higher education institutions every year, in addition to the general quota, 500 women with at least 5 years of work experience in their specialty but without higher education, based on the results of separate tests. A system of interest-free loans for 7 years has been introduced to pay for the contracts of women studying in higher educational institutions, technical schools and colleges, correspondence and evening education, and more than 2.135 trillion soums worth of educational loans have been allocated.
The first parallel session of the Asian Women's Forum was moderated by the Rector of the Uzbek State University of Oriental Studies, Gulchehra Rikhsieva, on the theme "Beijing Platform +30: Prospects and Threats to Women's Economic Rights and Empowerment in Today's Global Economy".
The year 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, an important global agreement on gender equality and women's rights. This is an opportunity to analyze the actions of countries and the extent to which they have complied with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
This session discussed the current status of women in the political, economic and social spheres to find ways to further advance women's rights at a time of growing inequality and new threats.
Speakers discussed the role of women in the world and the Asian region today in the global economy; existing challenges and prospects for economic empowerment of women in the region. The effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in the countries of the region was discussed in detail.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)