IGZ conducts the Life in Kyrgyzstan Conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
The conference brought together a community of scholars, practitioners, and policy makers to present rigorous evidence-based studies. This year’s LiK conference incorporated 24 separate sessions and around 80 papers and was attended by over 250 participants both in-person and online. The conference addressed a range of topics on social and economic developments in Kyrgyzstan and the Central Asia region, including agri-food and rural developments, climate change, biodiversity conservation, poverty, livelihoods, labour markets, demography, gender and intra-household decision-making, migration, sectoral developments, and social cohesion.
The origin and foundation of this conference is the Life in Kyrgyzstan Study, a research-based, open access knowledge infrastructure for Central Asia, which has been collecting information on the lives and livelihoods in Kyrgyzstan since 2010.
IGZ was represented by Prof Dr Tilman Brück, research group leader and coordinator of the LiK Study, and by Dr Damir Esenaliev, Researcher in the research group "QUALITY 3: Economic development and Food Security". Dr Esenaliev also delivered a “LiK Data User Workshop” the day before the LiK Conference, to help new users of the data to learn more about this detailed and rich information resource.
The IGZ team has also paid a visit to Uzbekistan during October 14-18, 2022 to hold a workshop at Westminster International University in Tashkent on researching in Central Asia, lessons learned and future perspectives on the areas of agriculture, nutrition, employment, education, gender and youth development. They also met to explore joint research opportunities with development and research institutions, including ADB, FAO, ICBA, UNICEFF, Mercy Corps, and few other organizations.
About the LiK Study: The Life in Kyrgyzstan (LiK) Study is a research-based, open access, multi-topic longitudinal survey of households and individuals in Kyrgyzstan. It tracks the same 3,000 households and 8,000 individuals over time in all seven Kyrgyz regions (oblasts) and the two cities of Bishkek and Osh. The data are representative nationally and at the regional level (East, West, North, South). The survey interviews all adult household members about household demographics, assets, expenditure, migration, employment, agricultural markets, shocks, social networks, subjective well-being, and many other topics. Some of these topics are addressed in each wave while other topics are only addressed in selected waves. The survey was first conducted in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, and 2019.
The LiK Study today is a global knowledge and research infrastructure, with panel dataset made available for public access. This has resulted in the wide use of the LiK Study for academic research. As of July 2022, 31 scientific academic articles using the LiK data were published in international peer-reviewed journals.The LiK data are used for research and teaching purposes in 28 countries by 103 academic, research and development institutions. While such survey data is commonplace in advanced economies, the LiK data is unique in Central Asia and rare among less advanced economies.