Blog of Kanagat Alyshbayev, coordinator of the project " Digital skills and opportunities for youth employment towards digital economy ".

As the virus spreads in Kyrgyzstan and other countries, the number of technologies that are trying to stop the disease or at least help patients and healthcare professionals is increasing. We are trying to pay attention and support people who are on forced self-isolation.

Digital solutions make it possible to receive timely relevant information, perform self-diagnostics, reduce the burden on medical professionals and interact in a non-contact manner to obtain various information and services.

We support local programmers, innovative and creative communities that can offer their solutions. UNDP launching the "Inno4KG Innovation Competition" together with strategic partners. Each winning organization/company can win up to $10,000. More detailed information is available on the website.

At the same time, UNDP has sent experts to the IT Shtab to State Committee for Information Technology and Communications (SCITC) to promote innovative tools to help combat the spread of the virus. IT Shtab already provides all possible assistance in creating rapid digital solutions that improve the situation in the country. Thus, several digital products have already been developed and launched, including an Internet resource where the latest information on the current situation in the country is posted, a platform that allows conducting primary self-diagnostics for citizens who have suspicious symptoms. The system of issuing electronic passes during the emergency situation has also been launched. The full catalogue of IT solutions can be viewed here.

As for short-term plans, we are launching Hakaton with UNICEF to support women, children and youth during quarantine. Hakaton is a workshop where developers, experts and designers work in a two-day sprint mode to develop programs, websites or applications.  Objective: In 48 hours, teams will be required to develop IT solutions to mitigate the negative impact of quarantine on children, girls and women to predict incidents such as violence and abuse. 

Digitization and promotion of youth employment in the digital economy is one of the key priorities of Kyrgyzstan, and UNDP is contributing to the introduction of information technology integration in Kyrgyzstan. This, in turn, will open new opportunities for young people in today's rapidly developing world. The Digital Skills and Employment Opportunities for Youth in the Digital Economy Project is actively cooperating with technical universities in the north and south of the country - Razzakov KSTU (Bishkek) and Abdyshev Technological University (Osh).

We are trying to change educational standards and help them to transform. On a permanent basis we also organize: master classes on robotics, hakatons, business training, courses on online - sales, digital entrepreneurship, freelance, etc.

We are also working on recommendations for the National Strategy on the introduction of modern standards in youth education. In the long-term plans of the project it is planned to create an IT hub in Osh city with possible expansion of services throughout the Ferghana Valley. For this purpose, assistance in creation of human resources, including special training for more than 1000 young people will be provided.

Development of digital skills and competencies among the population is one of the most important areas of our project. UNDP Kyrgyzstan intends to continue providing assistance and support to the Government of the country in combating coronavirus infection. 

This initiative is implemented with the financial support of the Russian Federation, as part of the UNDP project "Digital skills and opportunities for youth employment towards digital economy''