The meeting has brought together three Deputy Ministers of Labour and Social Development dealing with different aspects of maternity protection, as well as 35 representatives of line ministries, the Deputy Head of the Federation of Trade Unions and employers’ organizations – members of the task forces established by the Ministry of Labour and Social Development to improve labour legislation and draft a Roadmap leading towards ratification of ILO Convention 183.

“The presence of three of us today  demonstrates the importance and relevance of discussed topic. The Ministry of Labour appreciates  ILO’s technical support in  undertaking two comprehensive assessments that provide a very solid information and strengthens the knowledge base and understanding of international labour standards on maternity protection and the level of national legislation compliance to international labour norms. We strongly believe the Government will adhere its commitment to explore the ratification of the ILO Convention No. 183 as stipulated in the National Actions Plan for Gender Equality for 2018-2020 in the Kyrgyz Republic”, - said Ms. Janyl Alybaeva, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Development.

Following to the presentation on Compliance Analysis by Ms. Kaiyrgul Sadybakasova, ILO consultant, the participants have focused on ratification of the Convention No. 183.

“The Federation of Trade Unions has repeatedly urged  ratification of the Convention No. 183 and welcomes the Government decision to develop a Roadmap towards the ratification of the Convention”, - said Ms. Rysgul Babaeva, Deputy Head of the Federation of Trade Unions.

“Maternity protection has been identified by the constituents  as one of the priority areas to bring the  relevant national legislation in conformity  with the international labour standards.  ILO will continue to support its tripartite constituents in operationalization of recommendations in the Comprehensive Legislative Review undertaken with the ILO support in 2017-2018 and Assessment Based National Dialogue on Social Protection (ABND) held in 2015-2017 by the Kyrgyz Government and the UN Country Team”, - said Mr. Bolotbek Orokov, ILO National Coordinator ILO in the Kyrgyz Republic.

The participants were also briefed on the findings of the maternity allowance methodology analysis made by the ILO upon request of the Ministry of Labour and Social Development. The preliminary findings were presented by Ms. Tatiana Chubarova, ILO international consultant, Head of Centre for Economic and Social Policy Research, Russian Academy of Science.

“Tis is a high quality analysis and the Ministry now needs to undertake additional consultations on the suggested options to improve the methodology ”, said  Ms. Aliza Soltonbekova, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Development of the Kyrgyz Republic.