A week-long summer school on "Demographic Opportunities: Assessment, Challenges and Prospects" brought together 25 national demographers of Uzbekistan and international experts on population and demography to share knowledge, discuss demographic trends and raise the importance of population issues.

The Mahalla and Family Research Institute and UNFPA Uzbekistan organised the school in the framework of  UNFPA’s regional programme “CISPop: Better Data for Better Policies” funded by the Russian Federation.

"The summer school serves as a platform for knowledge-sharing and is critical for integrating population dynamics in policy-making and the ongoing reforms,” said Mr. Yu Yu, UNFPA Representative in Uzbekistan.

Participants discussed demographic trend forecasting in Uzbekistan up to 2050. They developed a variety of proposals and recommendations on measures that need to be taken in the future to address demographic issues in the country. Moreover, participants discussed such topics as the current demographic situation in Uzbekistan, the theory of demographic transition as a key to understanding trends in demographic development, and censuses as the main source of information about the population.

“This [training] proved [to] me once again the importance of understanding  demographic shifts to solve current population issues,” said Surayyo Otakuzieva, a student at Tashkent State University of economics who participated in the school.

UNFPA’s Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the Russian Federation launched a three-year CISPop programme in 2019 to support policymakers in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.