From 20 to 27 January, three MA students of the OSCE Academy and a recent graduate participated in the 2nd ECPR-OSCE/ODIHR Winter School on Political Parties and Democracy held in Warsaw. Academy Director Dr. Wolters also attended several days of the School and contributed as Discussant to the session on gender aspects in voting and women participation.

From 13 to 23 January the OSCE Academy hosted a group of nine MA students from the Kazakh-German University in Almaty, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, for a short research stay within the framework of cooperation between the OSCE Academy and Kazakh-German University.

On 12 December, Dr. Asel Doolotkeldieva, Post-Doc Researcher at the OSCE Academy, delivered a Public Lecture “To Bring the State Back: Mining Conflicts and Struggles for Political Participation and Social Justice in Kyrgyzstan.” During the lecture, Dr. Doolotkeldieva reviewed mining industry and mining governance in Kyrgyzstan.

On 12 December, the OSCE Academy organized the Leadership Development Workshop for alumni from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan of the MA Programmes working in managerial positions. This one-day intensive training was divided into two sessions. The first part was on gender mainstreaming in management strategy led by Ms. Gulnara Ibraeva, a prominent sociologist and expert on gender issues, where Ms. Ibraeva and the participants discussed basic concepts of gender equality, gender equity and gender mainstreaming in an interactive format.