News, insights & analysis
The challenges facing our societies are complex, fast-moving and deeply interconnected. We convene our Fellows’ community online and in person, creating spaces for constructive dialogue, exchange and learning. Here, you can find individual and collective perspectives, analysis and stories from JST Fellows and partners – leaders working at the frontlines of social change across Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia.
From policy analysis to personal reflections and practitioner insights, this is where the JST network thinks out loud – curious, constructive and grounded in experience.
Increasing Effectiveness and Accountability of Georgia’s Public Sector
Georgia is striving towards the modernisation of its public administration. One of the central components of the country’s public administration reform plans is the development of an evidence-based policy-making system that responds to real needs and ensures a long-term approach to each policy challenge. As Head of Policy Planning at the Prime Minister’s Office, JST Fellow Giorgi Bobghiashvili (Georgia, 2019), has been a driving force in delivering this area of reform.
Changing attitudes to sex education in Kazakhstan
Karlygash Kabatova (JST, 2019) is changing attitudes to sex education in Kazakhstan. Her online platform Uyat Emes (‘Not Shameful’), which provides a safe space for young people and parents to learn about sexual and reproductive health rights, is about to reach a large new audience.
Protecting rights and making citizens’ voices heard in Uzbekistan
JST Fellow Dilfuza Kurolova (Uzbekistan, 2019) has been at the heart of developing mechanisms that enable citizens to communicate effectively with their government and protect their rights for a number of years and she was recently recognised for her contribution in to changing the course of Uzbekistan’s modern history.
Developing new tools for civic engagement in Armenia
As Armenia emerges from a period of instability and political turmoil, the country needs active and engaged citizens who understand their civic rights and duties more than ever. Civic engagement is an issue close to the heart of JST Fellow Julya Sahakyan (Armenia, 2018) and an area that she has spent most of her career working on.
Introducing community-led planning to Uzbekistan’s Covid response
The Covid-19 pandemic has put unprecedented pressure on governments across the world to support and protect vulnerable citizens. Like many countries, Uzbekistan has faced the challenge of ensuring that its package of support is equally accessible to all citizens, including those living in remote rural regions far from the capital, Tashkent.
Empowering Georgian society through financial inclusion
When, in 1995 at the age of 18, Archil Bakuradze founded the Charity Humanitarian Centre Abkhazeti (CHCA) to support internally displaced people in his country, little did he know that he was laying the foundations for a company which would one day become Georgia’s leading microfinance institution committed to ending poverty in the country.
Digital transformation in the Kyrgyz Republic
(Find the story behind this photo at the bottom of the article). The Kyrgyz Republic has an ambitious digital transformation policy. And it needs to be ambitious! The country is almost entirely mountainous – 94% of the country lies at over 1000 metres above sea level – so building internet infrastructure is a challenge to […]
Fostering young journalistic talent and media literacy in Central Asia
‘Zira’ [cumin] is a key ingredient in the Central Asian rice dish plov. The spice is also the inspiration for the name of an online media platform – Zira Media – founded and run by Muhaiyo Nozimova (Tajikistan, 2018) which aims to develop journalistic skills and media literacy among young people in Central Asia. Muhaiyo […]
Advancing the integrity of Moldova’s justice system
The landslide victory of the opposition candidate, Maia Sandu, in Moldova’s presidential elections in November 2020 signaled a decisive change in the country’s direction. Sandu, who favours closer ties with the EU, won the run-off by harnessing voters’ anger and exhaustion with political scandal and endemic corruption. ‘Moldovans need a state that does not steal, […]
Reshaping urban living in the Russian Far North
The sun does not rise above the horizon at all between early December and mid January in Murmansk, the northernmost city in Russia and largest in the world above the Arctic Circle. Primarily an industrial city with a population of just under 300,000, Murmansk is also known as a place for prolific crab fishing and fantastic sightings of the Northern Lights. The North […]
Changing civil service culture in Ukraine
Ukraine is lucky to have citizens like Artem Shaipov. Young professionals who already have important day jobs but who also are driven to contribute to the advancement of their country’s development through pro bono work. In Artem’s case, he is a Cambridge-educated lawyer working on legal reforms but who has also taken on the huge […]
Reducing poverty – and increasing vegetarianism – in Tajikistan
Almost 70% of Tajikistan’s population makes a living from the agricultural sector with 30% of the country’s rural areas living below the poverty line. Steady progress has been made in growing the economy but as one of the least developed countries in the world, the effects of climate change on Tajikistan’s rural population hits hard, […]