KYRGYZSTAN TODAY Policy briefs on - Department of Geography

them set up with the sole aim of acquiring grants. This attitude can be partially explained
by the fact that NGOs are all exclusively professional entities that operate with external
funding and have to orient their activities toward the priorities of donors.
The donors’ aid programmes are based on their own pre-formulated presumptions,
which often lack understanding of the local reality. For instance, many donors
supported the government in adopting a large number of administrative and legislative
acts that incorporated Western democratic experience, yet many laws and strategies
did not work because the government lacked the relevant experience, managers and
sometimes motivation to develop mechanisms for their implementation. For example,
the laws on self-governance were supposed to create a basis for decentralization, but
resulted in weak implementation. This also concerns the strategy on good governance
that the government adopted in 2003 with the help of international experts and has
never been implemented. The confidence of donors in the idea that NGOs can be the
main actors in promoting democracy and free market relations is yet another illusion
that has not produced feasible results. Donors have not paid attention to the fact that
democratization requires socially driven reforms, the successful implementation of
which depends on reforms in governance and the effectiveness of government in stimulating
such reforms. 6
Genuine localization of NGOs has not started yet. There are local forms of social
organization (e.g. jaamats, councils of the elders - aksakals), but they have been not been
effectively involved in the democratization activities run by NGOs. As the development
of civil society in Kyrgyzstan was initiated by international actors with the focus on
the creation of NGOs and democratization activities, it is quite difficult to link other
traditional forms of social organization in Kyrgyzstan to the concept of a liberal
democratic civil society. Nevertheless, the question as to how local social structures can
be included in the process of democratization remains open. Islamic organizations, for
example, have proved that it is possible to effectively promote their ideas by cooperating
with traditional social institutions, speaking the language of values familiar to the local
community and addressing people’s needs. Indeed, if NGOs cooperate with local forms
of social organization to promote democratic ideas among the local population, they
will have to work on democratizing these institutions themselves.
Defining a common approach towards other sectors
Defining the position and role of civil society in the current political and social
context has been a top issue for many NGOs in Kyrgyzstan. Such events as the National
Forums of NGOs held in 2005 and 2007 represent practical attempts by local NGOs
to discuss their agendas in the new political circumstances and define the position of
the NGO sector vis-а-vis donors, the state and business, with the main focus on the
relationship with public authorities.
The content of the forum discussions was often driven by attempts to find common
positions that all NGOs should adhere to. Some human rights NGOs argued with their
colleagues from the sector that NGOs should not cooperate with public authorities
in order to preserve their independence and impartiality. The contesting watchdog
approach of human rights NGOs is, indeed, valid when the goal of an NGO is to monitor
and counterbalance the state in order to make it accountable for its actions. However,
6
See Kyrgyzstan: The Path Forward, by Talaibek Koichumanov, Joomart Otorbaev, S.Frederic Starr,
Silk Road Paper November 2005, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Silk Road Studies Programme
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