The Republic of Tajikistan is a landlocked country. It borders Kyrgyzstan in the north, Afghanistan in the south, China in the east and Uzbekistan in the west. More than 90% of Tajikistan’s territory is mountainous as part of extensions of the Tien-Shan and Pamir mountain ranges (Encyclopedia Brittanica 2011). The Syr Darya and the Amu Darya and their tributaries are the main rivers that flow through Tajikistan’s territory. Despite the high reliance on agriculture, only 7% of the country’s land is arable with sand, shingle, bare rock and permanent snow and ice covering about two-thirds of its surface (Central Intelligence Agency 2011). However, Tajikistan’s soil is rich in minerals. In fact, the country possesses large natural deposits of uranium, mercury, lead, zinc, silver and gold (Central Intelligence Agency 2011).
The climate in Tajikistan is continental with cold winters and hot summers, although the length of the seasons and the temperatures vary considerably depending on each region’s elevation. The Fergana Valley, located in the northeast of Tajikistan, is shielded by mountains from Arctic air masses and is an oasis for agriculture and cotton production, as well as human settlement (Library of Congress 2011). In contrast to the urbanization trend in other countries of the region, the population of Tajikistan remains predominantly rural. In 2010, only 26% of Tajikistan’s population resided in urban areas (UN Data 2011). Most Tajiks continue to live in qyshlaqs, consisting of 200 to 700 single-family houses built along an irrigation canal or the banks of a river (Encyclopedia Brittanica 2011).
The main environmental problems faced by Tajikistan are related to natural disasters and radioactive waste. The country, due to its mountainous terrain, is highly prone to water-related disasters. Steep slopes and unstable soils contribute to the 50,000 landslides that occur every year; annual floods take place during periods of heavy precipitation and when snow melts in spring (Asian Development Bank n.d.). Tajikistan’s uranium sources were once the backbone of the Soviet nuclear programme. Today, approximately 54.8 million tonnes of waste from uranium mining operations are still located in unsecured sites in northern Tajikistan, a number of them close to Khujand, the country’s second-largest city (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe n.d.).
UN sources estimate the population of Tajikistan at approximately 6.8 million in 2010. With 37% of its citizens under the age of 15 and only 4.4% over the age of 65, the Republic’s population is very young (UN DESA 2011). The total fertility rate is also quite high with an average of 3.45 births per woman. Similar to other post-Soviet countries, there is a significant difference between the life expectancy of women and that of men. For the 2010-15 period, the average lifespan of a Tajik female is estimated at 71 years and that of a male is estimated at 65 years. It should be noted that since independence, life expectancy rose by 6 years for both sexes (UN DESA 2011). On the other hand, the sex ratio in Tajikistan has decreased to 0.96 males per female - down from the ratio of 1 in 1995.
Although Tajikistan is a highly multi-cultural country, 80% of the population is ethnic Tajik according to the last national census (UNESCO 2008). Uzbeks, the second largest ethnic group in the nation, make up approximately 15% of the population. Other ethnicities such as Russians (as well as some Belarusians and Ukrainians), who once presented almost 10% of the nationals, now account for approximately 1% of the total (Migration Information Source 2011). The civil war and the 1992 Law that denied official language status to Russian, provoked mass exodus of ethnic Russians living in Tajikistan (Migration Information Source 2011).
Tajikistan was the poorest republic of the Soviet Union (Encyclopedia Brittanica 2011). It was heavily dependent on Soviet’s supply and trade networks and the high social spending, which permitted the country to develop a sophisticated education system, was supported by budgetary transfers from Moscow worth as much as 40% of GDP in the 1980s (Falkingham 2000). After independence, the interruption of monetary aid from Moscow and the civil war that ensued pushed the Tajik economy to the brink. It resulted in widespread poverty and a sharp decline in both industrial and agricultural production (Jones, Black & Skeldon 2007).
In the post independence era, the economy of the Republic of Tajikistan became heavily reliant on agriculture, particularly on cotton production (UNESCO 2008). Almost 40% of total arable land is used for cotton cultivation (Jones, Black & Skeldon 2007). In 2009, 66% of the labour force was employed in the agricultural sector (UN ECE n.d.). In fact, this figure has remained constant for the past decade despite agriculture’s decreasing contribution to the national GDP (UN ECE 2009). The other main areas of industrial development consist of aluminum production and a number of hydroelectric plants (Jones, Black & Skeldon 2007). Both the agricultural and the industrial sector contributed 24% of Tajikistan’s economy in 2006 (UN ECE 2009). Although Tajikistan is quite rich in mineral resources, only a quarter of 400 known deposits have been exploited, and none on a large scale. Poor transportation links do not attract investors to invest in large-scale industrial exploitation, a problem exacerbated in Tajikistan as a result of the country’s mountainous geography (Jones, Black & Skeldon 2007). Tajikistan’s true richness lies in the hydropower resources that fuel both its cotton and aluminum industries. In fact, more than half of the water used by Central Asia’s 60 million inhabitants comes from rivers whose headwaters rise in Tajikistan (UNDP 2011).
Tajikistan's most valuable export is its manual labour (McMahan 2009). Tajikistan’s economy has experienced sustained growth at the rate of 7% to 10% annually since 2001; this growth has been primarily driven by remittances from abroad (Freedom House n.d.). Every year some 800,000 to 1.5 million Tajikistan’s citizens work abroad (UNDP 2011). The principal destination of Tajik migrants is Russia (83%), followed by Kazakhstan (14%) and Kyrgyzstan (2%) (Jones, Black & Skeldon 2007). Migration studies estimate that 30% of economically active males now earn a living outside Tajikistan (McMahan 2009). The World Bank predicts that these remittances account for over 30% of GDP (Jones, Black & Skeldon 2007). The IMF and the National Bank of Tajikistan estimate that migrants sent home $2.4 billion in remittances in 2010—roughly double the US $1.2 billion earned from exporting aluminum, cotton and other commodities and manufactured goods combined (UNDP 2011).
Tajikistan became a sovereign state in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Tajikistan is a republic with a mixed system of government with both an office of the Presidency and a parliament headed by a Prime Minister. Emomali Rahmon, the People’s deputy to the Supreme Council of the Tajik SSR at the time of independence, was elected President in 1994 and re-elected in 1999. Presidential elections are required to be held every 7 years with one-time eligibility for re-election. However, in 2003, Rahmon won a referendum granting him power to run for two more consecutive presidential terms. Tajikistan also has a bicameral parliament with an Assembly of Representatives and a National Assembly. The Members of the Assembly of Representatives are elected by a popular vote and serve 5-year terms. As for the members of the National Assembly, 25 members are selected by local deputies, while 8 are appointed by the president serving 5-year terms. One seat at the National Assembly is reserved for the former president. The members of the cabinet (Council of Ministers) are appointed by the President and approved by the National Assembly (Central Intelligence Agency 2011).
Tajikistan is divided into provinces and districts. There are 2 provinces (viloyatho): Khatlon and Sughd, and 1 autonomous province (viloyati mukhtor): Kuhistoni Badakhshon, commonly known by the GBAO acronym (Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast is the former Russian name of the province that is still commonly used in the literature on Tajikistan) (Central Intelligence Agency 2011). The latter is located in the remote south-eastern region of the country’s Pamir Mountains and makes up 45% of Tajikistan’s territory but is home to only 3% of the population. In addition to the 3 provinces, the Region of Republican Administration with the national capital of Dushanbe is the fourth administrative region of Tajikistan. Each province is divided into districts and each district is in turn divided into jamoats - self-governing entities at the village level – and then villages (qyshlaqs). As of 2006, there were 58 districts and 367 jamoats in Tajikistan (State Statistical Agency 2011).
Tajikistan’s unstable economic progress combined with its recent turbulent political history, have culminated in a number of pressing development issues. These include: high poverty levels with significant regional disparities, child labour and gender inequality. A handful of issues related to governance such as political freedoms, political instability and corruption are also major concerns.
In 2008, Tajikistan ranked 124th out of 177 countries in the world on the human development index (UNDP 2008a). As of 2009, 53% of its population were living below the US $2 a day poverty line (UNICEF 2007). While this rate is an improvement on the 1999 poverty level, when 4 in 5 people were living in poverty, much work is still needed in terms of poverty reduction strategies, particularly because the decrease is a result of the recent economic growth and not of explicit government policies (UNICEF 2007). International statistics have indicated that urban poverty was at 40%, while rural poverty was at 41% in 2007 (UN ECE n.d.; IMF 2010). While no recent reliable statistics exist on regional differences in poverty levels, several studies In Tajikistan, the rural population – heavily dependent on agriculture – has increased since independence, yet the sector’s output and productivity has been gradually decreasing (FAO 2007). These changes combined with ineffective governance, corruption, and poor land management have exacerbated rural poverty (UNDP 2008b).
Child labour is a particularly important issue in Tajikistan, where the cultivation of cotton takes hundreds of thousands of children out of school every year. Official statistics indicate that 10% of children aged between 5 and 14 are involved in economic activities (State Committee on Statistics of the Republic of Tajikistan 2005). The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates the number of working children in Tajikistan to be 200,000, 10% of whom have never attended school (ILO 2011). ILO findings also indicate that working children are becoming younger. Today, it is no longer a surprise to see children aged 5 or 6 working. The prevalence of child labour varies by region. For instance, the proportion of children involved in child labour is highest in GBAO, encompassing nearly one-quarter of children aged 5 to 14 (State Committee on Statistics of the Republic of Tajikistan 2005).
Gender inequalities are also striking in Tajikistan. The latest statistics pegged women’s participation in the economy at 42% (UN ECE n.d.). The gender gap in monthly earnings has decreased significantly from 56% in 2000 to 40% in 2008; however, it still remains alarmingly high. The predominance of women in low paying sectors such as health care, education and agriculture are the main causes for the disparities in income (SDC-Gender Equality Network 2009). In 2009, there were 12 women MPs in the Tajik parliament, who constitute 19% of the total number of MPs. In sum, only 12% of Tajik women were in professional, technical and managerial positions (SDC-Gender Equality Network 2009).
