UNiting Efforts for a Greener Future: UNICEF's Partnership with Kazakhstan on Climate Change and Cybersecurity Issues
In Kazakhstan, a growing number of children and adolescents are grappling with mental health issues, and access to timely, high-quality care remains a concern. These challenges are compounded by environmental risks, such as extreme heat, water shortages, and air pollution, as well as digital risks associated with cybersecurity.
UNICEF, in partnership with the Kazakh government and the World Health Organization (WHO), is working to address these issues through a multipronged approach. The aim is to improve mental health care quality, promote child protection, and enhance resilience to environmental and digital risks.
Mental Health Burden and Service Capacity Constraints
Like many countries in the WHO European Region, Kazakhstan faces increasing mental health challenges among children and adolescents. A significant proportion of young people suffer from stress and psychological issues. However, mental health services, particularly for children and adolescents, often have limited workforce capacity, insufficient training, and lack standardized quality indicators.
Geographical Diversity and Climate Change
Due to rural and remote areas, access to family doctors and mental health professionals is uneven, with several populations facing health inequities. These challenges also complicate delivering timely support. Climate change, while not detailed explicitly for Kazakhstan, is recognised globally as a stressor worsening children's safety and well-being by disrupting communities, increasing environmental risks, and compounding mental health burdens.
Addressing Intersecting Vulnerabilities
UNICEF's global mandate includes addressing climate change and cybersecurity. They typically incorporate child-sensitive climate action and digital safety measures into broader child protection and mental health strategies, collaborating with governments to tailor interventions locally.
Collaborative Efforts
UNICEF works with partners such as WHO to build capacity in Kazakhstan for child and adolescent mental health care through training, community mental health centers expansion, and promotion of mental health programs aligned with global health frameworks. They also support the development and implementation of dedicated mental health policies for youth, integrating standardized quality frameworks to improve care delivery across different regions and populations.
UNICEF emphasises reaching underserved populations, including rural and displaced communities, through mobile teams and community engagement, thereby addressing geographical disparities in service availability.
Long-Term Initiatives
UNICEF is shifting towards long-term, sustainable programs, such as initiatives supporting children with special educational needs. They remain optimistic about Kazakhstan's potential to address emerging threats to children's well-being.
Over the past 30 years, Kazakhstan and UNICEF have partnered to achieve significant milestones in children's well-being, including reduced child mortality, expanded access to education, social services, and immunization.
Cybersecurity and Online Safety
The 2023 Kazakhstan Kids Online study revealed that cyberbullying, explicit content sharing, and sexually explicit messages are concerns for many children. It is crucial for UNICEF to engage both corporations and individuals in its initiatives to ensure the safety and well-being of children in the digital age.
In an interview, Dr. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar, UNICEF Representative in Kazakhstan, highlighted the country's progress but also its challenges. He commended the Kazakh government for working with UNICEF to address the challenges in children's well-being and emphasised the importance of deepening a culture of giving in Kazakhstan for children's development.
Addressing issues at the local level often brings faster results, according to Dr. Sarwar. Cybersecurity and online safety are major challenges today, with the internet posing risks despite being a huge resource for learning.
The interview with Dr. Sarwar can be watched on The Astana Times YouTube channel.
- In their multifaceted approach to address the mental health issues faced by children and adolescents in Kazakhstan, UNICEF incorporates child-sensitive climate action and digital safety measures as essential components of their broader child protection and mental health strategies.
- Recognizing the digital age's potential risks, UNICEF is working to ensure the safety and well-being of children in Kazakhstan by engaging both corporations and individuals in its initiatives, acknowledging concerns such as cyberbullying, explicit content sharing, and sexually explicit messages revealed in the 2023 Kazakhstan Kids Online study.
- As part of their long-term, sustainable programs, UNICEF is supporting children with special educational needs in Kazakhstan. This effort is one of several milestones achieved through the collaboration between Kazakhstan and UNICEF over the past 30 years, focused on improving children's well-being overall, including reduced child mortality, expanded access to education, social services, and immunization.
