Model OSCE conference in Bishkek engages youth in building consensus on managing trans-boundary waters

BISHKEK, 9 April, 2016 – Thirty-five young people gathered in Bishkek today for the start of a two-day Model OSCE conference, simulating a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, to discuss challenges to cross-border water management in Central Asia.  

This is the first Model OSCE conference in Kyrgyzstan and it is organized by the OSCE Centre in Bishkek with the aim of encouraging students to brainstorm possible solutions to the major issues facing the region, practice their negotiation skills, learn about OSCE activities and encourage them to build a constructive dialogue. Participants will develop an ‘action plan’ of measures and recommendations which they will be asked to adopt by consensus at a simulation of an OSCE Permanent Council.

“The conference will give students an opportunity to better understand the workings of one of the main OSCE’s decision-making bodies, and to expand their knowledge of the Organization as a comprehensive security actor,” said Diana Digol, Institution Building Officer at the OSCE Centre in Bishkek.

Before taking part in the event, participants attended a one-day intensive preparation training course in strategic multilateral negotiation and public speaking and took part in a workshop on OSCE institutions and activities.

The participants of the Model OSCE underwent an open and competitive selection process. Among the finalists are mainly students from Kyrgyzstan, but also from Kazakhstan and Afghanistan.

The activity is part of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek’s project on strengthening democratic governance in Kyrgyzstan, and it is implemented together with the American Councils for International Education and OSCE Academy in Bishkek.