The Central Asia Women Leaders Caucus was established in December 2020 as an informal regional platform to support women of the region, enhance their political, economic and social roles and empower them to have a greater impact on decision-making processes on issues related to sustainable development.

In a short time, the Central Asia Women Leaders Caucus has proven to be an important informal coalition of women committed to promoting gender equality and sustainable development, solidarity and practical interaction among women in the region.

Since the inception of the Caucus, a number of meetings have been held and many topical issues of gender equality, women's empowerment and the prospects for regional cooperation in this direction have been discussed.

During chairing the Caucus, Uzbekistan made every effort to make it an effective platform for consultations aimed at developing comprehensive cooperation among Central Asian women.

On 21 December 2021, Central Asia Women Leaders Caucus held its Annual Meeting in order to summarize the results of the past period, consider priorities for future activities and prospects for institutional development, and establish links between the Caucus and similar associations of women leaders in other regions of the world.

The Senate of Uzbekistan and UNDP together with UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia and UN Women organized this event.

Members of the Central Asia Women Leaders Caucus, representatives of parliaments and governments of the region, Heads of UNDP, the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, UN Women, representatives of the Arab Women Parliamentarians Network for Equality "Ra'edat" and the African Women Leaders Network participated in the meeting.

Chairperson of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Chairperson of the Central Asia Women Leaders Caucus Tanzila Narbaeva noted that this regional platform managed to implement everything the founding members agreed on less than a year ago when creating the platform, including the Action Plan of the Caucus for 2021. "The 12 events held under the auspices of the Caucus, which resulted in the adoption of 8 documents, covered almost all aspects of gender equality and sustainable development. Next year we should support this positive dynamic by identifying priority areas of regional cooperation within the framework of the Caucus and focusing our efforts on achieving specific results on them," T.Narbaeva said.

Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS Mirjana Spoljaric Egger thanking all UN, international and national partners for their valuable support noted that women leaders of Central Asia became champions of women’s voices. “A year ago when we launched the Caucus we could not have foreseen how successful and impactful it would become. The series of events held within the Caucus demonstrate how much women can achieve when they join forces and drive in political support around common objectives”, M.S. Egger said.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Central Asia and Head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia Natalia Gherman noted that the Caucus plays a significant role in coordinating, promoting and highlighting the regional initiatives on gender equality. "The very establishment of this platform has a crucial political and symbolic value, as it shows the intention and desire of countries to make progress in this area," N.Gherman said.

UN Women Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia Alia El-Yassir noted that Caucus provides valuable opportunities for regional cooperation and networking for women leaders. "In its first year of existence, the Caucus has become a crucial women’s platform, a convener of leaders and ideas in Central Asia," A.El-Yassir said.

The participants discussed the outcomes of the first year of the Caucus activities under Uzbekistan’s chairpersonship, considered the experience of regional coalitions of women leaders in boosting women's participation and leadership, and identified priority areas of the Caucus in 2022 and prospects for its institutional development.

As a result of the chairpersonship of Uzbekistan in 2021, the Caucus held more than 10 events and adopted eight outcome documents, which served to strengthen interaction between women in Central Asia in the areas of governance, preventive diplomacy, environmental protection, entrepreneurship and business, culture, education, science, art, gender equality and sustainable development in general.

During its annual meeting, the Caucus adopted an Address to the Heads of State of Central Asia, which includes priority areas of work for the regional platform in 2022, including ensuring peace, stability and security in Central Asia, increasing the participation of women in political and socio-economic transformation, and expanding economic opportunities for women.

Joint efforts and practical support from international partners have helped establish the Caucus as a full-fledged platform for the exchange of experiences and best practices in the field of gender equality. Over 2021, Central Asia Women Leaders Caucus was able to gain the highest level of recognition and support for the aspirations of women of the countries of the region to play a more active role in the political, socio-economic, cultural and humanitarian processes on the way to sustainable development and ensuring peace and stability in the region.