“Population issues are very relevant today. Researching and solving issues in this area allows countries to avoid problems in the future."

Miramon Murodov, 29, from Tajikistan, is one of four young demographers from Central Asia to take part in a UNFPA-supported training programme that ran throughout 2023.

The training focused on the development of demographic and family policies, labour migration and youth employment regulations and is part of the CISPop project. Launched by UNFPA in 2019, the US$4 million project is aimed at strengthening population data collection, analysis and utilization for evidence-based policy-making in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. A total of 256 demographers from 9 CIS countries have so far been trained as part of the project.

“The most important lessons I have learned are in understanding the role of demography in the development of society," said Asem Aldangarkyzy, 28, from Kazakhstan, a trainee on the programme. "I gained new knowledge about modern approaches and methods of demographic analysis and forecasting."