KYRGYZSTAN TODAY Policy briefs on - Department of Geography

a trend exists in which civil society organizations replace the state in providing social
services and strengthening the social welfare of a country.
Relevant legislation
The national legislation of Kyrgyzstan is largely vague and inconsistent in defining
the status of a civil society and its organizations. The law that regulates activities
of non-governmental organizations is the Law on Non-Commercial Organizations,
adopted on October 1, 1999. 5 This law does not define the widely used concept of
“NGO,” but instead defines the nature of a “non-commercial organization” and
points out its two main characteristics. These are a) making a profit is not a major
objective and b) the obtained profit is not distributed among members, founders and
official persons. 6 Unlike the earlier Law of Public Associations, this law is not applied
to political parties, trade unions, religious organizations and cooperatives. However,
according to this law, one can see what a non-commercial organization shall not be
rather than what it shall be.
It is well-known that no commonly accepted definition of NGO exists. The definition
used by the World Bank is too wide-ranging but, since it is comprehensive, deserves
full citation to offer a broad sense of what it is:
“The diversity of NGOs strains any simple definition. They include many groups
and institutions that are entirely or largely independent of government and that
have primarily humanitarian or cooperative rather than commercial objectives. They
are private agencies in industrial countries that support international development;
indigenous groups organized regionally or nationally; and member-groups in villages.
NGOs include charitable and religious associations that mobilize private funds for
development, distribute food and family planning services and promote community
organization. They also include independent cooperatives, community associations,
water-user societies, women’s groups and pastoral associations. Citizen Groups that
raise awareness and influence policy are also NGOs.” 7
Obviously, this description cannot serve as a working definition to enable analysis
of the relationship between government and NGOs. Therefore, the author proposes
understanding “NGO” as an organization that is officially registered in a form of
public associations, foundations and institutions (i.e. in accordance with the Law on
Non-Commercial Organizations of KR, 1999), is democratic in its organization, and
attempts to serve the people without profit for itself. It is timely to mention another two
problems that are important in understanding NGOs as independent actors within the
public policy process. These are the issue of representation: i.e., whose interests NGOs
represent and the more general question of NGO legitimacy. These two questions are
interconnected and very theoretical. For the purposes of clarity, it is sufficient to suggest
that NGOs may represent the interests of various groups of the population, but also exist
as independent interest groups when they represent the general interests of the entire
non-government sector. In this case, the problem of internal integrity and consolidation
5
For the on-line version of the law, see http://www.legislationline.org/legislation.php?tid=220&lid=
1230&less=false (Accessed June 10, 2008).
6
Ibid., Article 2.
7
Accessed at “Role of Nongovernmental Organizations in Development Cooperation,” by Prof. Bradford
Gentry and Olena P. Maslyukivska, UNDP Public-Private Partnerships for the Urban Environment, May
10, 1999 [http://www.undp.org/pppue/pppueold/library/files/maslyu01.html]
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