Summary

The ‘Life in Kyrgyzstan’ Study is a research-based, open access, multi-topic longitudinal survey of households and individuals in Kyrgyzstan. It tracks the same 3000 households and 8000 individuals over time in all seven Kyrgyz regions (oblasts) and the two cities of Bishkek and Osh. The surveyed households also operate 1500 micro enterprises. The data are representative nationally and at the regional level (East, West, North, South).

The survey interviews all adult household members about household demographics, assets, expenditure, migration, employment, agricultural markets, shocks, social networks, subjective well-being, and many other topics. Some of these topics are addressed in each wave while other topics are only addressed in selected waves.

The survey was first conducted in the fall of 2010 and it has been repeated three times in 2011, 2012 and 2013. All members of the households in 2010 are tracked for each wave and new household members are added to the survey and tracked as well.

History of the LiK Study

The ‘Life in Kyrgyzstan’ Study was established by Professor Tilman Brück as a project funded by the German Volkswagen Foundation from 2010 till 2012. The project included several institutions in Central Asia and Europe with the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) as the consortium leader.

In the period 2013-2015 the ‘Life in Kyrgyzstan’ Study is being funded by DFID as part of the Growth and Labour Market-Low Income Country (GLM-LIC) Programme. The Principal Investigator of the project is Professor Tilman Brück, who is also the Director of ISDC – International Security and Development Center based in Berlin and Team Leader, Development Economics at IGZ near Berlin. The consortium currently includes SIPRI as the lead institution, the University of Central Asia as the main Kyrgyz partner and several research institutions from Asia, Europe and North America.

Data Access

The ‘Life in Kyrgyzstan’ Study data is openly available: it can be used by any interested party for non-for-profit research, policy analysis and teaching purposes. The survey questionnaires and interviewer manuals can be downloaded here or on the project web site.

The 2013 Life in Kyrgyzstan Study data is available for external researchers from IZA’s International Data Service Center (IDSC). The platform contains the page for the data, including data, documentation and publications. The data are made available after registration of the users and signing a data use contract. The LiK data survey link is here.

“Life in Kyrgyzstan” Conference, Bishkek, 1-2 October 2015

The 2015 LiK Conference includes over 35 papers and presentations from over 40 presenters from over 15 countries on research and policy matters about Life in Kyrgyzstan, many of which use LiK data. The conference will include invited plenary talks and topical sessions on labor markets, gender,  migration, poverty, health, security, and integration processes in Central Asia.  It will also feature a presentation of the results of the research project ‘Gender and Employment in Central Asia: Evidence from Panel Data’ carried out in 2013-2015 by an international consortium of research institutions with the support of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) and the Department for International Development (DFID). For the full programme, please see the conference web site here.

“Life in Kyrgyzstan” Session at the World Congress of Comparative Economics, Rome

A panel session on “Life in Kyrgyzstan” was included in the programme of the World Congress of Comparative Economics to be held in Rome in June 25-27, 2015 (see here for more information). Four papers were presented by Armando Barrientos, Kathryn Anderson, Neil Fergusson, and Susan Steiner. Hartmut Lehmann and Giovanna d’Adda served as the panel reviewers.

“Life in Kyrgyzstan” Summer School

ISDC,  the Institute of Public Policy and Administration of the University of Central Asia (UCA), SIPRI, the United Nations University Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT) and 3ie will offer a Summer School in Kyrgyzstan in June 2015 entitled ‘Life in Kyrgyzstan International Summer School on Impact Evaluation Methods in Central Asia ’. The Summer School will teach the theory and practice of theory-based impact evaluations and related state-of-the-art quantitative and qualitative techniques. Participants will gain a high-level understanding of the importance of these instruments and their role in the design and assessment of public policies and development interventions. Applications are invited from practitioners, professionals and academics commissioning, conducting or interpreting impact evaluations at national or international organisations, non-governmental organisations, agencies, ministries, universities and think tanks based in or working with Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). Applicants residing and working outside Central Asia will be considered on a case-by-case basis. The application deadline is 15 March 2015. Further information can be accessed here.

Call for Applications: Summer School on Social Cohesion 2017

The Summer School on Social Cohesion: Concept, Implementation and Impact Evaluation is a capacity-building initiative for researchers, practitioners and policymakers in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia. It is organised as part of the Social Cohesion through Community-based Development project implemented in Kyrgyzstan from 2014 to 2017. The project aims to identify, pilot and build capacity for social cohesion mechanisms in community-driven development approaches. The Summer School will be held from 11–18 June 2017 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Researchers, primarily young professors, PhD students, development practitioners, and policy analysts from government, international agencies and civil society organisations based in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) are encouraged to apply. The application deadline is 5 April 2017. More details can be found here.

Contact the Life in Kyrgyzstan Study

You can reach us by email (lifeinkyrgyzstan at the email provider gmail.com). Or follow the LiK Study on Twitter via @LiK_Study.