Poverty in Uzbekistan

The standard 1990 baseline year for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is inappropriate in Uzbekistan due to the sharp fall in living standards that followed independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Instead the baseline refers to surveys conducted in the years immediately before and after the millennium. For example, extreme poverty was assessed in 2001 at 27.5%, based on the cost of essential daily food intake. Progress towards the target of 14% by 2015 is slow, the rate having reduced only to 25.8% in 2005. The 2008 Amnesty International Report suggests that the rate may have since risen to 30% and a Unicef report published in 2007 records that 15% of children experience chronic malnutrition.

Nevertheless, the MDG Progress Report published in 2006 concludes that Uzbekistan can “potentially” or “probably” meet all the Goals except that for combating HIV/AIDS. The Uzbekistan government does recognise that poverty is widespread and its Welfare Improvement Strategy for 2005-2010 integrates the MDGs. Capacity for monitoring and reporting MDG indicators has however been assessed as either fair or weak; uneven economic policy, high income inequality, widespread injustice and corruption also continue to hamper progress.

One legacy of the Soviet period is more positive; Uzbekistan's children benefit from near universal access to primary and secondary education, boasting almost 100% literacy. However, the National Human Development Report for 2007/08 expresses concern that the education system is geared only to children of average ability, producing high basic literacy but low knowledge relevant to a modern economy.

Health in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan’s healthcare system remains a challenge and inadequate detection and unreliable reporting are pervasive. Standards and coverage are certainly higher than in the poorest developing countries and child mortality rates are falling steadily towards the MDG targets. However, the Unicef report refers to a “rising trend” in maternal mortality with women’s health impaired by iodine and iron deficiency - in the poorest regions almost 100% of pregnant women are anaemic.

Poverty and squalid living conditions also contribute to a high incidence of tuberculosis cases which increased every year between 1995 and 2004 until a grant from The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria enabled the authorities to gain some control over the situation. The multi-drug resistant variety of the disease is common. Uzbekistan has experienced a higher spread of HIV than its neighbours in Central Asia, a region which itself stands out for failure to match global trends in reducing prevalence. The rate in Uzbekistan is low at 0.3% but there is anxiety that spiralling infection amongst drug users and the prison population could translate into wider prevalence.

Ship stranded in the Aral sea © United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network

Environmental degradation contributes to the country’s health problems. The diversion of two rivers, Amy Darya and Syr Darya, to support three decades of rapidly expanding cotton production has reduced what was formerly the fourth largest lake of the world, the Aral Sea, to 15% of its original size. The ecological and health consequences have been severe particularly in the poorest western provinces. Likewise, poor farming practices, particularly the over utilisation of fertilizers and pesticides, have led to higher salinity, soil degradation and water pollution, all of which are associated with the increase in respiratory system diseases, birth defects and high infant mortality.
The Economy in Uzbekistan

It is difficult to interpret the true condition of the Uzbek economy. The IMF issued an extraordinary statement after a visit in May 2008 lavishing praise on the government for its economic management whilst avoiding a single reference to the welfare of the population. By contrast the International Crisis Group has concluded that “Uzbekistan is well down the path of self-destruction followed by such countries as Burma, Zimbabwe and North Korea, in which an elite prospers while the majority lives in worsening poverty”.

Amongst the former Soviet bloc countries, Uzbekistan has made the least progress in converting from a centrally-managed, planned economy to open markets. The economy rests on two main export commodities – gold and cotton fibre – boosted in recent years by increases in world market prices but both controlled by the state. The non-state economy largely consists of a black market financed by $500 million of remittances from up to 3 million Uzbeks working in poor conditions in Kazakhstan or Russia. Unemployment is estimated at 40%. It is very likely that rising food prices will force significant numbers into the category of extreme poverty.
Politics in Uzbekistan

The poor in Uzbekistan have no voice and no vote with which to influence their fate. A ruthless authoritarian regime permits no opposition, no right of protest, no activist civil society and no independent media or foreign journalists – its writ imposed by brutal security forces.

The Communist Party leader since 1989, Islam Karimov, was installed as president on independence in 1991. Presidential “elections” held in 2000, 2004 and 2007 have been no more than symbolic gestures to correctness, involving token opponents who supported government policy and publicly endorsed the president. Karimov has presented no policy agenda on which he can be held accountable and had no qualms in brushing aside a Constitutional requirement that his term of office should end in 2007. Not surprisingly the political process in Uzbekistan is viewed with deep cynicism by ordinary citizens.

Meaningful opposition to Karimov in the 2007 election was impossible as candidates must be members of registered political parties and the authorities refuse to register any party not allied with the government. Two national political opposition movements in Uzbekistan - Erk and Birlik - have enjoyed popular support but their leaders have either been arrested or fled into exile.

Internews has been expelled from Uzbekistan © Internews Network, Inc.

Uzbekistan's efforts for civil society development are equally undermined by the government's authoritarian grip. Since early 2004, local and international NGOs have been pressured to use only two banks as dictated by the government. The authorities introduced new registration laws for all local and international NGOs, requiring them to re-register with the Justice Ministry instead of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as before. By early 2006 relationships deteriorated still further and local offices for a number of international NGOs, mainly US-based, have been closed.
Human Rights in Uzbekistan

According to the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, the declining band of activists remaining in Uzbekistan who are prepared to challenge the government “suffer unrelenting persecution…at constant risk of their life and safety”. The Federation says that defenders of human rights are “singled out” by police, raising concerns about their treatment in a country where torture is practised as a matter of course.

Bread for Uzbek refugees © Eurasianet (Open Society Institute)

The government's atrocious record on human rights had been widely documented and condemned even before the Andijan massacre in May 2005 in which over 500 demonstrators are thought to have been killed by government troops. The tragedy proved to be an extreme example of the government's record of attributing social unrest to religious activists, often labelling them as Islamic extremists under the banner of "the war on terror". No independent investigation of the 2005 events in Andijan has been allowed by the Uzbek government and refugees who fled into Kyrgyzstan have been pursued by means which have been condemned by the international community. Over 300 convictions have been secured in controversial trials, with the fifteen so-called leaders sentenced to terms of up to 20 years on charges of plotting to establish an Islamic Caliphate. Such accusations together with the harassment of ordinary Muslims in communities of declining social welfare may be creating an environment in which radical Islam might take hold.

Child labour in cotton (Environmental Justice Foundation)

Prior to 2005 Uzbekistan was a key territorial partner for United States and NATO in their battle against the Taliban, which absolved the Uzbek government of foreign pressure and scrutiny of its dismal domestic human rights record. Reaction to Andijan changed the relationship with the west. Uzbekistan gave formal notice to the US to quit the military base in Karshi-Khanabad, NATO was banned from using Uzbek airspace whilst the EU imposed an arms embargo and visa restrictions. However, in 2008 the EU appeared anxious to improve relations and has suspended sanctions, citing Uzbekistan’s decision to abolish the death penalty and to recognise the principle of habeas corpus. This decision overlooks the failure to meet the original condition for lifting sanctions – an independent inquiry into the Andijan massacre – and has disappointed human rights observers especially as it closely followed revelations that tens of thousands of children are being taken out of school in Uzbekistan and forced to labour for the cotton harvest.
Information and Media

The Uzbek government has an appalling record for its denial of free expression. Press freedom is severely restricted. The government continues to unofficially censor local media outlets and violates the rights of independent journalists. No independent media groups exist. Alisher Saipov, a young ethnic Uzbek journalist based in Osh in Kyrgyzstan, whose reports on conditions in Uzbekistan were reaching the public, was murdered by contract gunmen in October 2007 in circumstances suggesting the involvement of Uzbek authorities.

Information technology is available but off limits to the general population. The government strictly controls all media, including the internet, through the information law which states that freedom to inform the public can be restricted to "protect the moral values of society, national security and the country's spiritual, cultural and scientific potential."
Conflict in Uzbekistan

The Tashkent bombings and incursions into Kyrgyzstan in 1999 by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) – an extremist group active throughout Central Asia - were used by the Uzbek government to justify laying minefields around the Tajik enclave of Sokh in the southern Batken region of Kyrgyzstan, around the Shakhi-Mardan enclave, and along the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border areas in the Ferghana Valley. The minefields lie within disputed border territories often used for shepherding and collecting wood and can claim the lives of innocent civilians.

Uzbekistan is located in the Ferghana Valley - a densely populated region sharing borders with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, often described as a tinderbox to the threat of conflict in Central Asia. The region is complex, with a myriad of enclaves and disputed territories. Continuing socio-economic crisis exacerbates local border disputes over natural resources, which are potential catalysts for violent social unrest in the country and for destabilising regional security.

Competition for water is often cited as the most serious of these risks. Uzbekistan’s heavy consumption of water for cotton production places high demands on the up-stream countries, particularly neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. Climate change injects a further uncertainty for water management which is a high priority for Uzbekistan.



The OneWorld Uzbekistan Guide was first published in December 2004 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Angelina Karavaeva

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