Projects with Tajikistan

IBSG Opportunity

3 projects with US State Department Open Delegation Visitors

Republic of Tajikistan

On October 10^th, 2013, IBSG hosted an event to welcome visitors from the Republic of Tajikistan to ASM and UNM.  Our purpose was to have a discussion on the status of youth development and its relationship to emerging forms of global citizenship.  Following this discussion, several opportunities made themselves available to us from our partners and attendees.  Below is a list of several of these opportunities.  Rikki Quintana and Karen Shaffer, our partners in this event, have continued dialogue with our visitors and they are excited to have students provide assistance in working on any of these projects. 

Opportunity 1:  Assist in the provision of English language books to our visitors through their educational and youth service non-profits.

Description:  Sharing English language books is a large part of the agenda for addressing educational opportunities within the greater Tajik region.  As they address brain drain issues (young people moving to Russia for short-term economic opportunities) they must also address the need for basic books that provide youth and children exposure to English-language training.

Type of work:  Help these non-profits figure out the most effective way to receive and ship books from the USA to Tajikistan.  Assist in creating a book fundraising and logistics strategy.  Assist also in the development of a real-time Distance Learning module for youth that is either Skype-based or uses some other type of online interface.

Opportunity 2:  Create a strategy for creating internet access to remote parts of Tajikistan. 

Description:  Providing low-cost internet access is essential to Tajikistan’s economic development.  With little support from its government, remote parts of the country, particularly near Garm are eager to develop some form of low-cost tech that can provide the demand needed to institutionalize internet communication as essential to the region’s infrastructure.

Type of work:  Create a strategic plan that will help encourage larger internet companies to provide low-cost opportunities in that part of the world.  Incorporate a PR and Diplomacy effort as part of the pitch to these companies.

Opportunity 3:  Encourage the development of handcrafts.  Help design a handcrafts business incubator that can create international trade opportunities.

Description:  Handcrafts are still an important part of the Tajik economy.  Given strong gender disparity, this becomes one way for women to develop entrepreneurial opportunities that can grow into future forms of economic empowerment. 

Type of work:  Develop a plan for a handcrafts business incubator.  Provide tips for potential partners and outlets for this work, including the American Chamber of Commerce, the Eurasia Foundation, etc.

All three opportunities are excellent chances to develop a strong set of experiences in international business and truly impactful public service.  If interested, please contact mrmonto@unm.edu for more information.