Uzbekistan Country Gender Assessment: Update

Gender and Development Indicators

table 1 provides basic statistics on social indicators in Uzbekistan.

Table 1: Basic Statistics

Item No.	Indicator	year	Value
1.	population (million)	2016	31.85
2.	population below the poverty line (%)^a	2015	12.8^b
3.	average annual population growth^c(%)	2011–2016	1.9
4.	Maternal mortality rate (’000)	2016	17.4
5.	Infant mortality rate (’000)	2016	10.7
6.	population with access to safe drinking water^d(%, urban)	2016	93.2
7.	population with access to safe drinking water (%, rural)	2016	75.3
8.	population with access to sanitation (%, urban)	2016	78.7
9.	population with access to sanitation (%, rural)	2016	42.1
10.	primary school gross enrollment (%), for both girls and boys	2016	99.9

^a Cabinet of Ministers. 1998. On the establishment of the Oila National Scientific[en dash]practical Center (decree No. 54). 2 February. tashkent http://old.lex.uz/pages/Getact.aspx?lact_id=844011.
^b adB. 2017. Basic Statistics. Manila. https://www.adb.org/publications/basic-statistics-2017.
^c From data provided to adB in april 2018 by the State Committee on Statistics for items 3–9.
^d proportion of households whose source of drinking water is surface water, well water drawn with the help of buckets or a hand pump, or bottled water.
^e United Nations development programme. 2016. Human Development Report 2016. New York. http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/UZB.pdf.


⁶ president of the Republic of Uzbekistan. 2018. On Measures for Radical Improvement of activities in the Field of Support of Women and Strengthening of the Institute of the Family. 2 February. tashkent.
4 Uzbekistan Country Gender Assessment Update

In 2016, Uzbekistan ranked 105th out of 185 countries in the Human development Index and was categorized as a high human development country. In the Gender Inequality Index that same year, Uzbekistan was rated 57th out of 188 countries, mainly because of women’s.⁷

In 2014, the Organisation for economic Co-operation and development (OeCd) included Uzbekistan in its Social Institutions and Gender Index. ⁸ Uzbekistan ranked 52nd out of 86 non- OeCd countries and received an overall score of 0.1475 (medium category).⁹

Both the Global Gender Gap Index¹⁰ and the Gender equity Index¹¹ show that Uzbekistan is close to attaining gender equality in education (enrollment, educational attainment, and literacy) and health (sex ratio at birth and healthy life expectancy).

despite these positive indicators, issues related to the status of women and gender equality still require attention, especially issues regarding (i) significant gender disparities in property ownership; (ii) gender asymmetry in higher segments of decision making and managerial positions; (iii) horizontal and vertical segregation in the labor market, where women mostly

have seasonal and low-paid jobs in the formal and informal sectors; and (iv) traditional attitudes toward the roles of women and men in the family and society, which predominantly position women as mothers and family caretakers.

according to World Bank estimations of the national poverty line, the low-income population made up 27.5 % of the total population in 2001.¹² In 2015, 12.8% of the population was below the poverty line.¹³ poverty-level estimates in Uzbekistan are based on estimates of the World Bank, which sets the absolute poverty line according to calorie consumption per person per day (2,100). In addition, the government classifies the vulnerable and low-income population as poor, and sets the low-income threshold at 1.5 times the minimum wage.¹⁴ although rural poverty declined in 2015 (to 15.9%), it remained significantly higher than urban poverty (9.5%) (footnote 12).

⁷ United Nations development programme. 2016. Human Development Report 2016. New York. New York.
⁸ Social institutions are conceived as long-lasting codes of conduct, norms, traditions, and informal and formal laws that influence gender equality. (OeCd. 2015. Social Institutions and Gender Index 2014. Country Profiles: Uzbekistan. paris. https://www.oecd.org/dev/development-gender/42289479.pdf . a newer dataset is not yet available.)
⁹ (OeCd. 2017. Social Institutions and Gender Index 2017. paris. http://www.genderindex.org/. a score of “0” represents a situation of equality, and “1” indicates that women experience discrimination.)
¹⁰ World economic Forum. 2017. Global Gender Gap Report. Geneva. https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-gender- gap-report-2017.
¹¹ european Institute for Gender equality. 2017. Global Gender Equality Index: Progress at a Snail’s Pace. Vilnius, Lithuania. http://eige.europa.eu/news-and-events/news/gender-equality-index-2017-progress-snails-pace.
¹² World Bank. 2016. Systemic Country Diagnostics for Uzbekistan. Washington, dC. http://documents.worldbank.org/ curated/en/304791468184434621/pdf/106454-ReVISed-pUBLIC-SecM2016-0167-1.pdf.
¹³ adB. 2017. Manila. Basic Statistics. https://www.adb.org/publications/basic-statistics-2017.
¹⁴ this threshold is defined in the 2012 regulation On the Procedure of Appointment and Payment of Social Allowances and Material Aid to Low-Income Families. Used by makhallyas for the award of poverty allowances. the official minimum wage in January 2017 was set at SUM149,775 per month. (From data provided by the State Committee on Statistics to adB in May 2018 for this CGa update).
Introduction 5