The Ministry of Labor, Social Security and Migration of Kyrgyzstan and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) have signed a memorandum of cooperation aimed at strengthening joint efforts to fight poverty and improve food security in the country.

The new document defines the key areas of cooperation for the first half of 2025 and is designed to ensure the achievement of the goals set out in the WFP Country Strategic Plan for Kyrgyzstan for 2023-2027.

The Food/Cash for Work/Education program, implemented since 2014, has become one of the key tools in the fight against poverty.

“In the first half of 2024 alone, more than 12 thousand 334 low-income families participated in the program's projects, which allowed creating more than 460 jobs and distributing more than 3.1 thousand tons of food, flour and vegetable oil,” the minister said.

In addition, 3 thousand 953 low-income families, which is 21 thousand 775 recipients, participated in 157 projects under the scheme “money for work (training)”.

The Social Contract program is also being implemented in the country.  Within the framework of this program, over the last three years, more than 35 thousand poor families have received state support in the form of a lump sum payment of 100 thousand soms to start their own business and have been trained in financial literacy. Within the framework of the new memorandum it is planned to strengthen control over the effectiveness of projects implemented under this program.