INTRODUCTION Women in lower income countries experience unintended pregnancies at a higher rate compared with women in higher income countries. Unintended pregnancy is associated with numerous poorer health outcomes for both women and their children. In Tajikistan, an estimated 26% of married individuals aged 15-24 years have an unmet need for contraception. The strong cultural value placed on ...

BACKGROUND The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 resulted in a transition from centrally planned socialist systems to largely free-market systems for post-Soviet states. The health systems of Central Asian Post-Soviet (CAPS) countries (Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) have undergone a profound revolution. External development partners have been crucial to this ...

his study is dedicated to an examination of factors shaping religious and regional politics in Central Asia, and more specifically in the states of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The particular geographic focus is on the Ferghana Valley, the most densely populated area in Central Asia and home to 20 percent of its total population, but the implications of the eventual findings will be much broader,...