UN Assistant Secretary General and UN Women Deputy Executive Director John Hendra visited two major cities of Kazakhstan - Almaty and Astana

UN Assistant Secretary General and UN Women Deputy Executive Director John Hendra visited two major cities of Kazakhstan - Almaty and Astana. The purpose of the visit was to meet with UN Women’s partners in Government as part of the ongoing consultations and dialogue with member states, including on the regional architecture of UN Women, and to be updated by UN Women SRO EECA staff on ongoing and planned programmes and partnerships in the country and sub-region.

In Almaty Mr. Hendra met with UN Women SRO staff, Deputy Major of the city of Almaty Maulen Mukashev, head of the MFA office in Almaty Igor Musalimov, UN Resident Coordinator Steven Tull and heads of UN agencies in Kazakhstan. In Astana John Hendra had meetings with Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population and Chairperson of National Commission of Women and Family Demographic Affairs under the President of Kazakhstan Gulshara Abdykalikova and Minister of Foreign Affairs Yerzhan Kazykhanov.

The city of Almaty is one of the three major contenders to host UN Women Regional Centre for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The other two contenders are Bratislava, Slovakia and Istanbul, Turkey. Deputy Executive Director told that Almaty is a serious applicant and its chances to host a Regional Centre are quite high.

It should be mentioned that Kazakhstan plays an active diplomatic role in the region and actively participates in the realization of UN Women regional programmes and projects on migration, gender-responsive budgeting, self-employment, women’s economic empowerment and other spheres. With UN Women’s technical support Kazakhstan developed and adopted the Gender Equality Strategy of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2006-2016. Adoption of the laws "On state guarantees of equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women" and "Prevention of Domestic Violence" which have become the key mechanisms of gender policy is another UN Women’s great achievement.

In 2011 Kazakhstan donated 100,000 US dollars to UN Women funds. In 2012 Kazakhstan is also planning to transfer voluntary contributions to UN Women.