Women’s leadership – a force for change

Winter mornings are late, and it’s still dark when Ainura Omorova leaves for work in the village of Saruu in Kyrgyzstan, where she heads the district hospital’s infectious diseases department. Her day starts early, and she apologizes when she wakes her patients to examine them.

In 2020, COVID-19 was a game changer. The sudden influx of patients, a shortage of hospital beds, sick doctors, exhausted nurses, shortages of drugs and medical equipment, and no idea of when the situation would improve – all of this tested Ainura’s limits, but she fought for her patients every day.

Maybe because she’s a fighter, maybe because of her dedication to helping people, or maybe because of her late husband’s support, Ainura decided to participate in the September 2019 local council elections. She was elected, and not for the first time, but it was the first time she was elected through the minimum 30 per cent gender quota for local council elections adopted and signed into law one month earlier, thanks in part to years of comprehensive support by the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek. Ainura and eight other women won nine, or 43 per cent, of the council’s 21 seats.

In April 2021, thousands of other women won seats in some 420 local councils across Kyrgyzstan. Thanks to the gender quota, today women occupy 39 per cent of seats across 452 local councils, and 43 of them, including Ainura, chair councils. 

“Women are very responsible and meticulous, which is especially helpful during council sessions when we try to ensure gender-sensitive budgeting,” Ainura told the Grodno Forum of Women Leaders organized by ODIHR in 2019.

Ainura shared her inspiring story with women from Kyrgyzstan participating in Leadership Schools organized by the Programme Office in 2020 and 2021, urging them to rid themselves of doubts, to stay focused and to work hard for their communities.  

This is exactly what Ainura has been doing as chair of her village council. Under her leadership, the council completely renovated classrooms and repaired the wiring and fencing at one school, which had not been done since Soviet times; installed new boilers in another school so that children can stay warm during class; widened and paved Saruu’s narrow streets; and installed 110 new streetlights to keep them illuminated and safe.

“We have KGS 4 million [c. EUR 42,000] left that we plan to spend on construction of a new small hydroelectric power plant, and also to build a facility that creates small artificial glaciers by the riverside up in the mountains that would create extra water flow during the dry summer months,” says Ainura, aiming to fully disburse the council’s funds by year-end. 

At 9:00 p.m. Ainura finishes her hospital work and drives to a council session, which will run until midnight. On her way, a nurse phones: one of Ainura’s patients’ blood tests are not good. Ainura says she will swing by again in the morning.