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2022 started with an abnormally warm January for North and Central Asia, followed by civil unrest, and the lingering impacts of COVID-19. How the year ahead would look like is still fraught with…

Photo credit: iStock/Czgur Blog

Countries in North and Central Asia are increasingly trying to make their energy sectors greener and more sustainable. With stagnating economic growth and climate change on the horizon, countries are…

Photo credit: Johannes Plenio/Pexels Blog

In the summer of 2021, record high temperatures scorched Central Asia. Distressing videos and news showed livestock dying on pastures in the western provinces of Kazakhstan due to water shortages and…

Photo credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Blog

Ending poverty in all its forms is the first of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While significant progress to reduce poverty had been made at the global and regional levels by 2019, the…

iStockphoto/Pavel Talashov Blog

North and Central Asia is on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7: affordable and clean energy, based on aggregated data for the whole subregion. However, general statistics may conceal…

Photo Credit: Arnie Chou Blog

As the world enters its second year of living with the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus has shifted from containing the spread of the disease towards recovering from socio-economic disruptions. COVID-19…

Photo credit: ASEAN Foundation Blog

Last month, the world marked the first anniversary since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 virus as a pandemic. Throughout the year, we witnessed how a virus can bring forth a…

shutterstock / arrowsmith2 Blog

In many places around the world, schools are left with deserted classrooms, quiet hallways and empty playgrounds. COVID-19 has forced students and teachers to rapidly adapt to extended school…

Photo credit: Yang Shuo on Unsplash Blog

In the first quarter of 2020, as news of lockdown measures in other parts of Asia and the Pacific rolled in, Kazakhstan was holding its breath and developing appropriate urgent measures in…

Unsplash / Laurentiu Morariu Blog

In the 2000s, the streets of Bishkek city in Kyrgyzstan were buzzing with private minibuses, ferrying people from Osh Bazaar to Ala Too Square&nbsp…