Senior Researcher, Institute of Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, Germany

Andrea Berg is senior researcher at the Institute of Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, Germany. She has conducted field research in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan in the past several years, focusing particularly on problems of democratization, community development, education, and gender issues. She is a consultant for development organizations, the OSCE chairmanship, and the German MfA. Berg has published widely in both academic and development journals and books.

Program Officer, Open Society Foundation - London

Alisher Ilkhamov graduated from Tashkent State University in 1981 and defended his PhD (candidate of social sciences) dissertation in 1986. In 1991 he established a private research company, Expert, in Tashkent and was its President until December 2001, when he became Executive Director of the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation in Uzbekistan. In June 2004 he moved to London, where he is Program Officer at the Open Society Foundation and Research Fellow at the Centre of Contemporary Central Asia and the Caucasus, SOAS, University of London. He has published on a variety of issues including Islamic Movements, Nationalism, Civil Society, and Political Economy of the Agricultural Sector in Uzbekistan.

Research Facilitator, Westminster International University, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Daniel Stevens PhD studied at the London School of Economics before completing his doctorate in 2004 at the department of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, on international attempts to promote civil society in Uzbekistan. He has spent over four years in Uzbekistan conducting research and teaching and is currently research facilitator at Westminster International University in Tashkent, lecturing in research methods and assisting students and staff in developing their own research projects.