Category: Reports

Evidence Review Youth Employment in Central Asia Who is excluded, what the evidence says works, and what to test firstGeographic focus: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, UzbekistanType: Evidence reviewMethodology: Structured search of statistics, evaluations and research in English and Russian, 2016 to 2026; 127 sources screened, 37 includedFocus areas: Youth employment, young women outside the labour force, programme design In all four countries young women are more likely than young men to be out of work and education: more than one and a half times as likely in Kazakhstan, more than twice in Kyrgyzstan and three times in Tajikistan. Where the data allow a closer look, this exclusion is mostly not unemployment. In Tajikistan's 2025 labour force survey, 64% of women aged 20 to 24 are neither working nor studying, against 14%…

Flash note China’s Fuel Channel to Kyrgyzstan Is Becoming Infrastructure Download the Flash Note (PDF) BOTTOM LINEWhat began as emergency fuel buying is putting down roots: a visa lane for the drivers, a standing promise to deliver. The test comes on 30 September, when Russia decides on reopening diesel exports. If Chinese supplies continue past that date, the channel is structural; if they stop, it bought time.WHAT HAPPENEDOn 9 September, China’s ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Liu Jianping, confirmed at a Bishkek press conference that deliveries of kerosene and diesel began about a month ago and will continue; roughly 1,000 tonnes have arrived so far, with no breakdown by product published (24.kg, Kabar). Many states asked China for fuel, she added, and Kyrgyzstan was supplied first. Separately, the cabinet has established a…

Featured insight Who Finances Central Asia's Strategic Autonomy? Strategic autonomy in Central Asia is usually discussed with reference to transport corridors, critical minerals or high-level summitry. Beneath all of it, however, lies a question of capital, and the capital is not the region's own. The Eurasian Development Bank estimated in June that the region needs at least $251 billion in investment by 2030, $170 billion of it in energy, far beyond what the region can raise itself. The projects meant to reduce the region's inherited dependencies must be financed by someone else. This has a consequence that is easy to miss: external influence over Central Asia now shows less in the map of infrastructure projects than in the financing mix behind them.Each source of capital carries its own terms. Chinese…