From 10 to 21 June 2019, participants of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics had professional internships in the analytical centers of Georgia. The internship was organized by the IWPR Office in Central Asia.
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The purpose of the internship program is to increase the capacity of young analysts, the opportunity to share experiences, opinions, compare processes in the inter-regional segment. The analytical publications on issues and problems of Central Asian countries through the prism of the Georgian experience will be the logical completion of the internship.
The interns were selected by the number of published articles on the analytical platform CABAR.asia website, engagement in discussions and other events of the platform, as well as the active use of knowledge in their activities. Internship involved young analysts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Askar Mukashev, analyst, participant of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics from Nur-Sultan, was an intern at the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC) in Tbilisi.
One of the goals of the EPRC is to create the first international standard think-tank in Georgia aimed at maintaining and developing a new format of economic thinking among specialists. EPRC is also engaged in introducing new analytical and research tools to study unexplored phenomena in the country’s economy. It is no coincidence that Mukashev chose the EPRC: the topic of his analytical article studies Kazakhstan’s position in the business rankings based on Georgian experience.
An independent researcher, Nurbek Bekmurzayev, participant of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics from Bishkek, was an intern at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (Rondeli Foundation), where he studied the experience of Georgia in the areas of digital transformation and cyber security.
The Rondeli Foundation is considered as one of the foremost research centers that studies strategically important political and economic issues, as well as topics related to the country’s foreign policy. The subject of Bekmurzaev’s analytical article is related to the cyber security issues in Kyrgyzstan. During the two weeks, he was able to familiarize himself with the construction of cyber and information security architecture, and the mechanisms of interaction between various government structures among themselves and with the private sector.
Participant of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics from Dushanbe, political scientist Muslimbek Buriev was an intern at the Caucasus Institute for Peace Democracy and Development (CIPDD). Buriev is writing a small study on the ethnic policy of Tajikistan. The CIPDD is aimed at the integration of ethnic and religious minorities, and shaping state policy with respect to such groups, often with which many problematic issues are associated. According to Muslimbek Buriev, a comparative analysis with Georgia is of great importance for studying since there are no such organizations in Tajikistan. Instead of them, there are diaspora associations that prioritize the preservation of language and culture in their work.
Yuri Sarukhanyan, a specialist in international relations, participant of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics from Tashkent had an internship at the Georgian Fund for Strategic and International Studies named after Rondeli. Sarukhanyan is writing an analytical article on the topic of Uzbekistan’s mediation policy in relation to Afghanistan. During the meetings with the experts of the Rondeli Foundation, Sarukhanyan managed to understand how Georgia sees itself in the medium term in modern international relations, what development challenges Tbilisi prioritizes and what the country’s leadership is trying to take for prevention.
Ermek Baisalov, editor of analytical materials CABAR.asia, along with other participants of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics, completed his internship at the Media Development Foundation in Tbilisi (MDF). This organization promotes standards of journalistic ethics and media literacy, monitors the media, protects freedom of speech, human rights, encourages youth initiatives and civic engagement, etc. Baisalov is preparing an article on the fight against disinformation in Kyrgyzstan, taking into account the Georgian experience. During the two-week internship, he published several articles for the local Myth Detector fact-checking source, conducted a number of interviews, and collected the necessary information about the Georgian experience in dealing with fake news and the development of media literacy.
Besides doing internships in these organizations, participants of the internship program in Georgia, took part and made presentations in a panel discussion on the role of civil society and the media in governance. The event was organized by the IWPR office in Georgia. In addition to representatives of the Central Asia countries and Georgia, journalists and media specialists from Ukraine and Moldova took part in the meeting. There was an engaging exchange of views of different regions on state accountability, development of investigative journalism, the role of media and civil society in protecting the rights of minorities, etc.
See also: a detailed personal review of the participants of the internship program in Georgia.