Call for Sessions and Papers: 8th Annual ‘Life in Kyrgyzstan’ Conference (October 11-12, 2022)

The Institute of Public Policy and Administration of the University of Central Asia (UCA), the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ), and ISDC – International Security and Development Center invite submission of proposals for sessions and individual research papers for the 8^th Annual ‘Life in Kyrgyzstan’ Conference (LiK), to be held in Orion Hotel in Bishkek during October 11-12, 2022. The conference is supported by American University Central Asia (AUCA), Mercy Corps, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the World Bank.

The keynote speakers are Dr Katrina Kosec, from the International Food Policy Research Institute and Prof Alisher Aldashev, from the Kazakh-British Technical University.

The annual Life in Kyrgyzstan conference brings together national and international experts from government and the public sector, development agencies, non-governmental organizations, academia and research institutions to exchange knowledge and experiences on recent socio-economic developments in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia and to promote evidence-based policy making.

We invite the submission of proposals for entire sessions (comprising three to four papers) or for individual research papers studying various aspects of socio-economic development in Kyrgyzstan or Central Asia. We welcome empirical papers using panel micro data, especially panel data from the ‚Life in Kyrgyzstan Study‘, which is openly accessible at http://idsc.iza.org/lik. We also encourage researchers to present other micro- and macroeconomic studies with the relevant topics of research. We encourage doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers to apply to participate at the conference, using this opportunity to receive feedback from senior researchers and practitioners.

The topics of individual submissions or sessions may include but are not limited to:

• Living with Covid-19;
• Employment, entrepreneurship and informality;
• Migration and remittances;
• Poverty and inequality;
• Education and health outcomes;
• Nutrition and food security;
• Demography, population dynamics;
• Rural livelihoods and agricultural markets;
• Impacts of trade and integration reforms;
• Public services and decentralization;
• Social capital and social cohesion;
• Peace-building, trust and expectations;
• Social protection and social safety nets;
• Gender, children and intra-household decision making;
• Impacts of the war in Ukraine on Central Asia;
• Climate change and its impact;
• Sustainable development goals;
• Micro-level data, survey methodology and panel data collection;
• Methods of rigorous impact evaluation;
• Sustainable mountain development.

Please send your submission by 15 June 2022 to the email address likconference2022@gmail.com. For session proposals, please list a session title, a session chair (with name and affiliation), a session organizer (with name and affiliation) and the titles and all co-authors (with names and affiliations) for each paper and enclose a 200-word session summary. For submissions of individual papers, we prefer to receive and will give priority to full papers but will also consider submissions of 200-word abstracts. The submissions should be in English. Authors of accepted submissions will be notified by 15 July 2022.

The academic committee comprises of Prof. Kathryn Anderson (Vanderbilt University), Prof. Tilman Brück (IGZ/ISDC/NRI), Dr. Damir Esenaliev (IGZ/ISDC), Dr. Saida Ismailakhunova (World Bank), Dr. Baktybek Kainazarov (UNFPA), Dr. Roman Mogilevskii (UCA), Dr. Kanat Tilekeyev (UCA), and Prof. Nurgul Ukueva (AUCA).

We will hold the conference in a hybrid mode to allow both in-person and online participation. If public health conditions related to the Corona pandemic worsen by the time of the conference, the conference may take place in online mode only. The languages of the conference are English and Russian. Simultaneous translation will be provided.

There is no conference fee. Registration for participation in the conference without presenting a paper will close on 10 October 2022. For further information on the Life in Kyrgyzstan Study, please see www.lifeinkyrgyzstan.org or send a message to likconference2022@gmail.com.

This year, the conference will be preceded by the LiK Data Users workshop, to be hold a day before or day after the conference dates. We will make additional announcement on the workshop shortly.

Further Information on the Life in Kyrgyzstan Study