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Is It Easy to Be Young? IWPR Held an Expert Meeting on Youth Policy in Tajikistan

“Is It Easy to Be Young? The New Faces in the Politics and Economy of Tajikistan” was the topic of the online expert meeting by IWPR Central Asia on September 30.


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The experts, Parviz Mullojanov, Ph.D., political scientist and independent researcher from Tajikistan, currently working by Uppsala University (Sweden) invitation, Muslimbek Buriev, young political scientist, CABAR.asia Editor in Tajikistan and Aziz Temurov, director of the Tajikistan Free Market Center NGO discussed whether it is easy to build a career in politics for young people in Tajikistan. Is it possible to run a business? How effective are state programs for the youth’s involvement in business and management?

Political scientist Parviz Mullojanov. Photo: CABAR.asia

Political scientist Parviz Mullojanov analysed the problems of promoting young personnel in politics and the youth policy in general. He focused on several aspects of the youth policy: political, economic, social and psychological.

“Young people are the most dynamic part of the population, they are more critical. Each new generation rethinks what to do to live better. Therefore, it is critical. Young people are more intolerant of any manifestation of lies and injustice by society and authorities. In general, there are many examples in history. Any government faces the fact that it is more difficult to negotiate with young people. They are more difficult to control because they have nothing to lose,” Mullojanov said.

Since young people are the most economically and socially vulnerable part of the society, they are easier to manipulate, but more difficult to control at the same time. Usually, in the revolutions, a greater number of people on the squares are young. They are also the main force in all evolutionary transformations. Therefore, any government that is going to carry out reforms should educate young people, and pay attention to all categories of youth. The government should be constantly renewed, including constant update of the state personnel.

Mullojanov concluded with recommendations, among which he stated several conditions that should be provided for successful work with youth. The first thing any government needs to do is to create conditions for young people to earn decent money in their country.

“In Tajikistan, the labour migration is generally considered as a good thing. However, the other countries’ experience shows that migration is good when it does not exceed 4%-5% and lasts no longer than 8 years. For the successful development of the country, it is necessary to create conditions for returned migrants so they could invest the money they earned in their country, not in buying medicines or their daily needs, but in developing a business that brings constant income and is useful for the country,” he said.

In addition, according to Mullojanov, the government has to prevent the departure of talented, educated youth from the country, to prevent a brain drain, since this violates the continuity of generations and has other negative consequences for the country’s development.

Muslimbek Buriev, editor of CABAR.asia in Tajikistan. Photo from personal archive

Analyst Muslimbek Buriev, CABAR.asia Editor in Tajikistan, analysed how effective are the efforts to bring in more young people to the state apparatus. Despite complaints that salaries in the state service are low, however, as statistics show, the interest of young people in working in government agencies is not decreasing.

According to Buriev’s observations, despite the fact that almost half of state servants are young, the renewal of the staff does not change the quality and efficiency of these government agencies’ work. Young people coming to the place of the previous staff simply copy the previous activities, without introducing anything new.

The young analyst suggested young workers at the state agencies to interact actively with the civil society. This can help them to think outside the box regarding various problems, gain experience in working with the population and use this in their future work, which will help them to succeed as a civil servant.

Aziz Temurov, participant of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics

Aziz Temurov, participant of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics, spoke about whether it is easy to run a business for young people. He noted that he had not heard of the support programs for young entrepreneurs in the country. However, he does not believe such programs are necessary. In his opinion, business has its own laws, and young entrepreneurs should follow exactly these laws.

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