KYRGYZSTAN TODAY Policy briefs on - Department of Geography

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it has been only partly carried out. The concept has presented too–general aims and objectives on improving government support for NGOs, but no real actions. According to the concept, the Cabinet of the Kyrgyz Republic was meant to develop the state NGO support programme and an action plan to implement it; unfortunately, this did not happen. A lack of these key documents made the concept more declarative than actual. It can be assumed that this happened because the Cabinet, which was responsible for developing the documents, lacked commitment. Furthermore, no one from the government followed up the implementation of the concept. Nevertheless, different government institutions and NGO representatives have contributed to the implementation of some objectives of the concept. The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, jointly with NGO representatives, has been lobbying for a law on social contracting since 2006 (the third objective of the concept). This law is an institutionalized mechanism, which delineates how the state can provide funding to NGOs. In June 2008, the law was finally adopted by the Kyrgyz Parliament. NGOs have high hopes for it since they consider state funding as a way to financial sustainability. The fifth objective of the concept encourages the government and NGOs to conduct joint activities such as conferences, roundtables, and others. According to the research, this is the most widespread form of government-NGO interaction in Kyrgyzstan at all levels and in all areas; however, it is difficult to claim that it was due to the impact of the concept because other factors might have had a greater impact. The first factor is donor grants, which encourage NGOs to work with the government in order to influence decision-making. The second factor is that NGOs have come to understand that any problem can be solved only by working closely with the government; therefore, their interaction with the government and political activeness have increased. Most NGO interviewees said that, no matter how hard they tried to solve problems, they could not solve them because they were addressing the consequences of the problems and not the reasons creating them. On the whole, the main reason for most problems is poor legislation or policy, therefore, the interviewees noted that now they concentrated more on influencing policy-making processes. Examples of this were the demonstrations conducted by civil activist groups throughout 2006 and 2007 (winter). Besides the above-described concept, one more legislative document touches on government-NGO interaction. It is a law on non-commercial organizations (NCOs), adopted in October 1999 (Law on NCOs, 1999, according to which the government can support NGOs by providing them with funding to carry out their programmes aimed at the public interest and in any other ways, which are not prohibited by the legislation (Law on NCOs, article 5, 1999). However, the law does not provide any details on how the government should provide funding. In other words, it lacks implementation mechanisms. To sum up, the government and NGOs have had quite positive experience in working together, however this has been small-scale and short-term in most cases. To date, government-NGO collaboration has been mainly within donor-funded projects. Unfortunately, the government has not had a clear state policy on cooperation with NGOs; consequently the relationship between two actors has developed unsystematically and disconnectedly. The attempt of the government to create a state programme on NGO interaction and support failed due to the poor implementation of this initiative. This indicates that, in addition to a bare initiative, the state needs enhanced commitment to and control 86
over the implementation of its initiatives. In other words, there is a need not only for legal documents such as concepts, decrees, laws, and others on NGO relations but also for an institutionalized mechanism which would coordinate the development and implementation of these documents. Recommendation: The More Government Engagement, the Better the Government- NGO Relations The study of the government-NGO relationship in Kyrgyzstan has suggested that a lack of state policy on working with NGOs is a major barrier to building more productive collaboration between the government and NGOs. A solution to the problem might seem evident. The government needs to develop a clear policy for its various institutions at all levels, which would give them basic guidance on how to work with the NGO sector on an undiscriminating, systematic and regular basis. However, it is necessary to take into account the lessons learned from the previous experience of the government with the concept on government-NGO collaboration. The above overview of the concept and its outcomes indicates that the government should be more committed to the implementation of its legal documents on cooperation with NGOs. Put differently, the government should have not only initiatives, but also an institutionalized mechanism that would coordinate their development and implementation. Based on this, this policy brief suggests creating a State Department on NGO Relations. From an administrative perspective, the Department would be part of the government. Its key mission would be ensuring that the proper legal basis for the government-NGOs relationship is in place and implemented accordingly. The main functions of the Department would be: 1) to coordinate the development and implementation of legal documents such as laws, concepts, policies, decrees and others on government-NGO collaboration; 2) to provide government institutions in all areas and at all levels with information about and advice on the legal documents on the government-NGO relationship. To contribute to establishing a more effective partnership between the government and NGOs, the State Department on NGO Relations would also have two more subsidiary functions. The first function is to cooperate with representatives of the NGO sector (e.g. the Association of Civil Society Support Centres) to disseminate information about the legal documents on the government-NGO relationship to NGOs so that NGOs are also aware of them and can refer to them when working with their government institutions in their field and at their level. The second function is to maintain a database on NGOs and their activities in cooperation with representatives of the NGO sector and competent government institutions (e.g. National Statistical Committee and Ministry of Justice) to increase awareness of all government institutions of NGOs and their activities so that they would be properly informed about NGOs and could cooperate with them easily. Challenges of the Proposed Initiative Notwithstanding its great potential to improve the government-NGO relationship, there are some risks to the proposal to establish a State Department on NGO Relations. The first risk is that the Department might merely promote the interests of the government and its institutions when developing and implementing the legal documents on the government-NGO relationship, without taking the interests of NGOs into account. The 87
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Social Research Center American Uni
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The Social Research Center (SRC) at
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What needs to be studied is whether
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policy, but on the politics of loya
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them set up with the sole aim of ac
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has been made. As democratization i
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For a country where the main active
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seemingly happen to form regionally
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• Support the development of self
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synonymous with civil society. Thes
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and to the fact that it is popularl
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in a politically-advanced society w
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Galina Plakhotnikova, Aida Kurbanov
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For such individuals, personal sati
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to focus on donors’ priorities, w
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Sheradil Baktygulov, Independent Ex
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By having good knowledge and unders
Page 35 and 36: In this context, the Kyrgyz state v
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Page 41 and 42: 200. This means that about USD 20 m
Page 43 and 44: New Middle Classes Classes are anta
Page 45 and 46: References and Sources 1. Bates R.
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Page 49 and 50: Kyrgyzstan, they did not have a cle
Page 51 and 52: impossible. Even though the Moldova
Page 53 and 54: Summing up, it should be emphasized
Page 55 and 56: 24. Romedi Arkvint’s Speech//Kiev
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Page 61 and 62: also tried to participate in develo
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Page 75 and 76: and (2) the Law on Charity doesn’
Page 77 and 78: 6. To change numbering of items in
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Page 83 and 84: Kanykey Jailobaeva, PhD Candidate a
Page 85: NGOs to involve the government and
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Page 97 and 98: Some believe and argue that Kyrgyz
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Page 113 and 114: Global Donor Platform for Rural Dev
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Page 117 and 118: Simplifying the process of getting
Page 119 and 120: Nurdin Tynaev, Director of the Publ
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Page 123 and 124: Recommendations • Improve the imm
Page 125 and 126: In Kyrgyzstan, there are the Spirit
Page 127 and 128: Following are some examples of mode
Page 129 and 130: Timur Kozukulov, Senior lecturer, r
Page 131 and 132: 2. These problems are also typical
Page 133 and 134: Shakhnoza Madaeva, Candidate of phi
Page 135 and 136: women). About 50 percent of student
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3. International institutions and i
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present this image of woman as an i
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you from a single person created of
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standpoint of such an approach, one
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Types and scale of judicial corrupt
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The evidence demonstrates that the
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other indirect features of judicial
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albeit very unlikely. However, many
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Many factors contribute to this cor
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also collapsed, and the academic co
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To university students: 1. To chang
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protectionism, unfair competition,
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authority to levy tax backlogs with
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Kubanychbek Omuraliev, Independent
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On the subject of barriers, it is a
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and other similar is ten times grea
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participation in economic activitie
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• adopt laws that recognize and p
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Emil Nasritdinov. Discrimination of
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