Roundtable on Community Dialogue and Democratisation of Society in Uzbekistan
Organised by Cambridge Central Asia Forum, Jesus College, University of Cambridge, GCRF RCUK COMPASS Communities Engagement Initiative, Centre for Development Studies, University of Cambridge & Independent Institute for Monitoring Civil Society in Uzbekistan, Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the UK, Office of OSCE Project Coordinator in Uzbekistan
Venue: Room 336, Raised Faculty Building, Sidgwick Site, University of Cambridge
10:30-13:00, 15 November 2018
10am Arrival, Tea and Coffee
Moderator: Dr Diana T. Kudaibergenova, PDRA and Communities Engagement Lead, RCUK GCRF COMPASS, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge
10:30am Welcome Address by Nick Ray, Convenor, Cambridge Central Asia Forum & Emeritus Fellow, Jesus College, University of Cambridge
10:40am Aliyor Tilavov, Embassy of Uzbekistan, UK ‘UK-Uzbek cooperation and UK’s assistance in carrying out reforms in Uzbekistan’
10:50am Narzullo Naimovich Oblomuradov, Head of the Sector of the Presidential Administration, Republic of Uzbekistan, ‘Modern system of open dialogue (experience of Uzbekistan)’
11:05am Prajakti Kalra, Research Fellow, Cambridge Central Asia Forum & Events and Communications Officer, RCUK GCRF COMPASS, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, Introduction to Cambridge Central Asia Forum’s Engagement with Civil Society in Central Asia
Moderator: Prajakti Kalra, Research Fellow, Cambridge Central Asia Forum & Events and Communications Officer, RCUK GCRF COMPASS, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge
11:15am Dr Anise Waljee, Cambridge Central Asia Forum & RCUK COMPASS Affiliate, ‘Civil Society in Central Asia: Methodologies and Recommendations’
11:25am Oleg Vitalevich Limanov, Sector of the Independent Institute of the Monitoring Formation of Civil Society, ‘Enhancing the role of civil society institutions of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the democratisation of state and public life’
Moderator: Dr Anise Waljee, Cambridge Central Asia Forum & RCUK GCRF COMPASS Affiliate, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge,
11:40am Avazbek Мehmonovich Khalbekov, Sector of the Independent Institute of the Monitoring Formation of Civil Society, ‘Formation of the best conditions for people - Guarantees for sustainable development’
11:55am Dr Diana T. Kudaibergenova, PDRA, RCUK GCRF COMPASS, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, ‘Communities Engagement and Culture in the Bazaar’
12:05pm Discussion with researchers, academics and students
1pm Lunch , Alison Richard Building Ground Floor
2pm City Tour & Departure
Speaker Biographies
Narzullo Naimovich Oblomuradov, Head of Sector of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Uzbekistan. He was Dean at the Tashkent Institute of Finance before joining the President's office. He has also worked for UNDP, Tashkent and other International NGOs. He is an expert on banking and investments. He holds a PhD in economics from the National University of Uzbekistan and MBA in International banking and finance from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Rasul Djalaladdinovich Khodjaev graduated from the Tashkent State Law Institute, the High School of Strategic Analysis and Forecasting of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Previously, he worked as a leading consultant at the Office of the National Security Council under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Chief specialist of the analytical department of the Independent Institute for Monitoring the Formation of a Civil Society. Currently, he is the head of the International Cooperation Department of the Institute.
Oleg Vitalevich Limanov graduated from the Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies, faculty of International Economic Relations, with a degree in economics-orientalist with knowledge of Chinese and English in 1996. He began his career in September 1996 at the Institute of Strategic and Interregional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, where he worked in various positions until February 2017, the last position being the chief researcher at the Center for Regional Studies. From September 2017 to the present, he is the head of the Sector for the Study of Factors Influencing the Social Well-Being of the Institute's Population.
Avazbek Мehmonovich Khalbekov graduated from the Tashkent State University (now the National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek), the faculty of geography (the direction of socio-economic geography) in 1994. From April 1994, he began his career as a laboratory assistant in the research laboratory on population issues. Since 1996, in the department of problems of regional development at Uzistikbolstat. Since September 2018, he has held the position of head of the sector for monitoring the development of dialogue with the people and the openness of the activities of state bodies of an independent institute for monitoring the formation of civil society.
Holmirza Husanovich Kuldashev graduated from Tashkent State University (jurisprudence). Previously, he worked in prosecutors in various positions of responsibility. From 2000 to 2004, he has worked in the Office of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Currently, he is the head of the People’s Office of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the Syrdarya region.
Aliyor Tilavov is counsellor at the Embassy of Uzbekistan in the UK. He received his BA Degree on Politics and International Relations from the University of Hull, UK, MA in International Relations from the Academy of State and Society, Uzbekistan. Aliyor worked as a research fellow at the Institute of Strategic and Inter-regional Studies under the President of Uzbekistan and was the head of the analytical department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Nick Ray is Convenor of Cambridge Central Asia Forum & Emeritus Fellow, Jesus College, University of Cambridge. Nick obtained his degree from Cambridge and University College, London and his teaching was primarily focused on design. He has published numerous journal articles and two books. His publications to date have concentrated on studies of 20th century architects (Alvar Aalto, 2005 and Rafael Moneo, 2015, both with Yale University Press), and more theoretical work (Architecture and its Ethical Dilemmas, 2015 and Philosophy of Architecture, 2014). He is currently also an Honorary Visiting Professor in Architectural Theory at the University of Liverpool. Nick Ray played a significant role in conceptualising Central for High Technology in Tashkent and has conducted field visits to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan on numerous occasions.
Prajakti Kalra is a researcher, historian and political scientist. She received her MPhil from the University of Cambridge in Persian Studies, MA from the University of Chicago in International Relations and BA from Indiana University, Bloomington in History and Psychology. She is currently the Communications and Events Officer for the GCRF COMPASS project in Cambridge. Her book, ‘The Silk Road and the Political Economy of
the Mongol Empire’ came out in 2018. Her work focuses on Uzbekistan, Eurasia, regional organisations like the Eurasian Economic Union, Customs Union and SCO. She has worked on issues relating to civil society as a research associate with ARTICLE 19, a research based NGO, in the UK. Her paper on ‘Uzbek Relations with the Countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council in modern and pre-modern times,’ was published by the Gulf Research Centre in a book entitled, ‘Russian and CIS Relations with the Gulf Region Current Trends in Political and Economic Dynamics’ in 2009. She has worked with MPhil and PhD students in the Centre of Development Studies since 2010. She has organized international conferences and presented her works in Uzbekistan.
Dr Anise Waljee has worked in Central Asia for nearly two decades managing the Aga Khan Foundation education programme for Tajikistan working with the government to reform the education system to adapt to the transition from communism to capitalism and from a centrally planned economy to a market one. One of her chief tasks was to manage the institutional transformation of the teacher in-service institution in Badakhshan, Tajikistan. Her role as team manager included oversight of curriculum and materials development, educational management, community mobilisation, capacity building, facilitating decentralisation and school autonomy. Her areas of expertise and interests include: organisational change and strategic planning in and for various NGOs in Central Asia, London, Lebanon and Pakistan; biodiversity and the permeating of local knowledge in conjunction with Central Asian academics, practitioners, local community of farmers, parents, teachers and government ministries of education as well as other universities and Academies of Science; environmental and health education in various capacities including curriculum development, research, international course director and writer of material for children and teachers/youth workers on health and well -being; early childhood education (East Timor, Tajikistan, Macedonia, Moldova); student in-take issues for emerging universities in East Africa and examining ways of defining, identifying and nurturing talent in marginalised communities in East Africa; and inclusive education policy and practice (Ghana, Tajikistan). She has conducted numerous field missions in Uzbekistan.
Adham Khudaykulov is a second year PhD student from Uzbekistan working on Regulative regimes and their impact on development in Central Asia. His interests lie in models of development for developing countries like Uzbekistan. He worked in University of World Economy and Diplomacy (UWED) and Ministry of Education in Uzbekistan before coming to Cambridge. He studied in Nottingham, UK and Tokyo, Japan for his MA degrees.
Dr Diana T. Kudaibergenova is a cultural and political sociologist. She studies different intersections of power relations through lens of political sociology of new states of post-soviet space, cultural sociology, gender studies, and socio-legal studies. Her work on socio-legal studies of citizenship, minorities, and nation- as well as state-building is connected to the study of power, norms and social meaning of law. In her current projects she focuses on legal and cultural understanding of nationalism, norms and social aspects of law in Central Asia she continuing to engagement with communities and their relationship with formal and informal institutions. She has authored numerous publications and two recent monographs based on extended field studies in Central Asia, Eastern Neighbourhood and Europe.
Dr Temur Yunusov completed his PhD degree under Dr Matthias Landgraf, aiming to characterise a subset of interneurons involved in locomotion of Drosophila melanogaster larvae. During his studies he gained understanding and experience in diverse genetic expression tools available in the fruit fly to label, manipulate, characterise and catalogue individual neurons. He obtained his BSc from the National University of Uzbekistan in Tashkent, focusing on a specific biochemical adaptation mechanism of Artemisia diffusa to drought and high salinity stress environments. After graduation he went to work under Dr Kristina Toderich at the Institute of Regional Problems, where he monitored the quality of soil and water in the Zerafshan river basin to investigate the impact these abiotic environmental factors had on the flora of the region. Temur is currently working as a laboratory manager with Dr Sebastian Schornack in the Sainsbury Laboratory in the University of Cambridge.
List of Participants
Ana Anta-Pirez-Gomez, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge
Adina Asanova, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge
Callie Berman, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge
Dr Sally Church, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge
Jakub Csabay, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge
Julia Darmenova, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge
Sarah T. Dickson, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge
Y. Ji, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge
Adham Khudaykulov, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge
Serik Onalbaiuly, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge
Tina Schivatcheva, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge
Dr Temur Yunusov, Sainsbury Laboratory & Jesus College, University of Cambridge
K.E. Zhang, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge