resentatives and field staff, who teamed up with the State Committee on Migration and Employment, the Department of Passport and Visa Control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and NGO partners Legal Clinic Adilet, Counterpart Sheriktesh, Help Refugees, Sairon, Ferghana Valley Lawyers without Borders, and the Centre for International Protection. 1.9 Relationship between the Government and UNHCR UNHCR Representation in the Kyrgyz Republic, directly as well as with implementing partners, have succeeded in maintaining regular and positive dialogue with the Kyrgyz Parliament and government, and in securing broad-based political and technical support for initiatives to improve citizenship legislation and administration. UNHCR, in collaboration with NGO Legal Clinic Adilet - contributed to the most recent amendment of the citizenship legislation, and their combined comments were taken into account in the drafting of the 2007 Citizenship Law. In September 2009, UNHCR and the administration of the President held a high level meeting with representatives of key ministries and governmental agencies, including: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, the State Committee on Migration and Employment, the Citizenship Commission of the President, and Parliamentarians. The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss statelessness issues including existing legal and administrative frameworks. The meeting also evaluated the recommendations developed by the Working Group over the summer of 2009 with the aim of reaching an agreement on a comprehensive action plan for the prevention and reduction of statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic. Promotion of accession to the UN Statelessness Conventions was also discussed. It was agreed by participants at the meeting that it was necessary to study the experiences of other countries that have ratified the UN Statelessness Conventions in order to determine whether it has assisted in the reduction and prevention of statelessness. 1.10 National and regional development policies There are no specific nationally development programs that target stateless persons in particular. However, there are other development programs as carried out by the government that address some of the needs of the population concerned. For example, the State Program on Realisation of the Rights of Children in the Kyrgyz Republic “New Generation”, which was approved by the government of the Kyrgyz Republic on 14 August 2001, revised on 30 September 2004 and runs until the end of this year, declares as one of its actions under the civil rights and freedoms section: “to secure the free and timely registration of births of all newborns”. Birth registration is an important measure to prevent children from statelessness. No distinction is made between nationals and foreigners in programs that cover social issues rather such government programs encompass the whole population in general, for example, the State Program on Development of Land and Immovable Market in Rural Areas which was adopted on 11 February 2005, and runs until 2010. However, it is difficult to determine the precise influence of each of these programs on the everyday lives of the stateless population or on individuals whose nationality has not yet been established as such an assessment has not been conducted. The outcomes of the Focus Group meetings UNHCR organized in the North and South of the country, as well as discussions held with NGOs, such as Counterpart Sheriktesh, Help Refugees and Sairon, in the North; and the Centre for International Protection, and Fergana Lawyers without Border in the South, revealed that, in general, the identified individuals who are stateless or at risk of statelessness have access to national public programs but face administrative obstacles related to lack of proper documentation that often Small Changes ‫ ـ‬Big Gains: An Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic 60