In this issue:

CENTRAL GOVERNANCE

• Up-date of Program Implementation Unit activity
• A new Budget Website created
• A Seminar for Mass Media on Budget Formulation and Executing

LOCAL GOVERNANCE

• A new United nations Volunteers in Kyrgyzstan

MASS MEDIA

• Workshop "Journalists in extreme situations”

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

• Update on Counterpart Consortium/USAID/UN/EU-Supported NGO activities

CENTRAL GOVERNANCE

A series of meetings with government officials (from President’s Administration, Prime-minister’s Office, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Education and Culture), representatives of Academy of Management, donor community (IMF, USAID, ADB) took place recently in the framework of the programme activity. As a result of meeting with the Ministry of Finance the principle agreement of the Ministry to work further on the resource agreement with two pilot Ministries (Education and Health) has been confirmed and the relevant counterparts identified. The meeting with IMF clarified the issues of how IMF conditionalities could influence the implementation of the resource agreement. During the meeting with the representative of the Academy of Management the areas of possible involvement of the Program have been identified, focusing primarily on pre-entry training of civil servants, qualification upgrading of civil servants and also provision of consulting services in developing curricula, structure, etc.

During the field trip of the ICT Coordinator to Osh the activities of the Osh Citizens’ Information Center have been evaluated and future prospects of development identified in cooperation with IREX. It is planned to expand Internet points, thus opening them in Naryn and Talas regions.

Kyrgyz Republic Makes Major Advance in Budget Transparency. The Kyrgyz Republic has taken an important step in budget transparency, becoming one of the first CIS/Eastern European countries to release significant program budgeting documents on the Internet, with access available to anyone with an Internet connection. In an example of cooperation between the Ministry of Finance of the Kyrgyz Government, the Jogorku Kenesh, and donor agencies, this new web site – http://www.kenesh.gov.kg/budget – was constructed by UNDP analysts using information developed in a collaborative effort by individual Kyrgyz government agencies and USAID advisors.

The new documents put complex budget information into a simple, approachable format, easily understood by both policy makers and informed members of the public. The information available on the Internet is identical to that submitted by the government to the parliament and on which budget decisions will be based this year. This innovative use of the Internet not only ensures that all Members of Parliament and key government leaders have the latest budget information at their fingertips, but also that the media and general public can access that same data.

The release of this information is a major part of a budget transparency initiative that began earlier this year at the direction of the Kyrgyz Government and Ministry of Finance, designed to better open the budget process to the public and mass media. Future activities are a planned training for NGOs on the budget process and a seminar on the budget for the mass media sponsored by UNDP on November 6th. As part of this initiative towards budget transparency, the Legislative Assemby Budget Committee, Chaired by Marat Sultanov, will conduct its first public budget hearing ever on November 14th, with the process culminating in a new Budget Code to be adopted later this year, putting these transparency initiatives into law.

Contacts: Mr. Eamon Doran, USAID/CAR Kyrgyzstan, Private Sector Advisor. Email: Phone: (996 312) 55-12-41. Cell: (996 517) 72-01-44. Fax: (996 517) 77-72-03 or Ms. Dinara Rakhmanova, UNDP “Political and Administrative Governance on Central Level” Program Task Manager. Email: Phone: (996 312) 66-21-08. Fax: (996 312) 66-05-73

Seminar for Mass Media “The Problems of Formulation and Execution of the Republican Budget”. Budget is an extremely important part of the state’s activity and one of the main areas of Government’s and Parliament’s work. Development and approval of the budget is a complex procedure that now and then is accompanied by an issue of public trust to the Government. This is frequently happening because of population being insufficiently informed and, as a consequence, lacking in understanding the process of budget formation and execution, and the roles of Government and Parliament in this process. In relation to the mentioned above, prior to considering the budget of the Kyrgyz Republic for 2002 and parliamentary hearings, it is planned to hold a seminar for mass media called “The Problems of Formulation and Execution of the Republican Budget” at Pinara Bishkek Hotel, November 6, 2001.

Mass media are an important means of informing the country’s population. The involvement of population in the process and as a consequence its support of the Government and Parliament in this area would, to a large extent, depend on how well the journalists are knowledgeable about budget formulation and execution and how they communicate this information to the public.

During the seminar parliamentarians, journalists, representatives of donor organizations, Kyrgyz Government and Account Chamber will freely discuss general principles of the budget formulation in Kyrgyzstan, its definitions, structure, arrangements, role of the budget in democratic governance, and its macroeconomic parameters. The participants of the seminar will try to answer a number of questions, such as, for example:

• How the budget revenues are formed;
• How the expenditure priorities are identified and where the money goes.

The issues of budget deficiency and its connection to the external debt, control over budget execution, legal budget issues and other important issues will be also discussed at the seminar.

The seminar is organized by the Budget and Finance Committee of the Legislative Assembly, JK and UNDP Program on Political and Administrative Central Governance.

Contact: Ms. Dinara Rakhmanova, CTM for Political and Administrative Central Governance UNDP Programme, Tel.: 996 (312) 66-21-08, 66-50-55. Fax: 996 (312) 66-05-73. Email:

LOCAL GOVERNANCE

A new United Nations Volunteers in Kyrgyzstan. As part of the Decentralization Programs recent expansion into three new pilot oblasts, additional two new International UN Volunteers have been recruited to provide technical support in the implementation of program activities and to National UNVs already working at the field level. Ms. Margaret Logose arrived in Bishkek to work in Chui and Talas oblasts from Uganda where she has over eight years of experience in community development. Her wealth of work experience includes an extensive background in participatory planning methods and monitoring and evaluation at the community level. Ms. Logose joins UNDP/UNV Kyrgyzstan from her latest UNV post in Tanzania where she served as a PRA Specialist under UNDP.

Similarly, to assist the implementation of program activities in the new pilot oblasts of Naryn and Issyk-kul, Mr. Mizanur Rahman from Bangladesh joins the program. Mr. Rahman has over five years of professional experience working with international organizations in the areas of community development and micro-crediting. His strong background includes posts in his home country as well as positions in Libera, Azerbijan and Papau New Guinea, where he worked with UNDP.

The wealth of experience that Ms. Logose and Mr. Rahman bring with them will be a strong asset to the development of program activities in the program's pilot areas where they will be serving as Regional Development Advisors.

Contact: UNDP/UNV Decentralization Program, Kalyan Pandey, Chief Technical Advisor, Government House, 205 Prospekt Chui, Bishkek. Phone: (996 312) 66-00-80, E-mail: General information on the UNDP/UNV Decentralization Program can be found on the UNDP Internet homepage at http://www.undp.kg/ (see'UNDP activities') and DP Internet webpage http://www.dppiu.elcat.kg

MASS MEDIA

Workshop "Journalists in extreme situations". Osh, Kyrgyz Republic - October 23rd, 2001. Internews Network together with the OSCE held a workshop for journalists in Osh, Kyrgyz Republic on October 22nd and 23rd, 2001. 25 journalists (TV, radio and print) from Osh, Jalal-Abad, Kadamzhai, Batken and neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan took part in the two-day workshop focusing on the professional work of journalists in conflict situations. Trainers of the seminar were Oleg Panfilov, Director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations (CJES, http://www.cjes.ru ) and Alexander Knyazev, journalist and researcher from Bishkek (http://www.ctaj.elcat.kg ). In addition to the trainer reports, Aziz Ghaziev held a guest lecture from the International Crisis Group in Osh (http://www.crisisweb.org ). The main aim of the workshop was to further train the journalists and improve their knowledge on how journalists should act and react in conflict situations. An introduction to modern conflictology, the history of local conflicts, an update on the situation in the Ferghana Valley after September 11th as well as first-aid measures are the core components of the workshop being held in the Hotel Intourist in Osh. The program was rounded up by three films, which are also focused on journalists in extreme situations (Moscow 1993 and Chechnya). The seminar was organized by Internews Network (www.internews.kg) with financial support from the OSCE Head Office in Bishkek. Internews Network's activities in the Kyrgyz Republic are made possible mainly through a grant from the United States Agency of International Development (USAID).

Contact: Mr. Chris Schuepp, Country Director with Internews in the Kyrgyz Republic. Tel.: 996(312)68-20-24, 68-20-42. Fax: 996 (312) 68-15-99. Email: Additional information on Internews Network in Bishkek could be obtained on the website: http://www.internews.kg

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

Update on Counterpart Consortium/USAID/UN/EU-Supported NGO activities – On October 22, 2001 the staff of the Civil Society Support Center in Karakol visited the village Mihailovka of the Tup region, where the meeting with the community was held and the initiative group to work with the communities during the program implementation was selected. The initiative group consists of 14 villagers. In total 95 men took part at the meeting. It was agreed to meet once more again with the community members for scheduling an action plan of the community on October 30, 2001. On October 22, 2001 in the same village the specialist of the information campaign "Your rights for land" from the Chemonics International spoke about the issues related with land in compliance with the new legislation.

Opening of the Internet Center in Civil Society Support Center in Naryn oblast. A Round table with participation of representatives of the non-governmental organizations, regional state administration, journalists of the newspaper "Tenir-Too", correspondent of the newspaper "Evening Bishkek", radio stations "Azattyk" and " Tenir-Too", TV "Naryn" and "Ayan" was held in the Civil Society Support Center (CSSC) of the Naryn oblast on October 23, 2001. The key moment of the Round Table was a presentation of the Center of the Public Internet Access, made by IREX in collaboration with the CSSC in the Naryn oblast.

The coordinator of Internet Access and training Program (IATP) Dmitri Aleinikov informed the Round Table participants that the goal of establishing the Centers of Public Internet Access was providing the population of Kyrgyzstan with access to modern telecommunication technologies, latest news and increase of an educational level of the population in the field of new Internet technologies. He also informed the participants that anyone who wishes could receive free access to the following resources of Internet network in the Center:

• email;
• information Web-pages;
• Courses on Computers and Internet usage.

It was decided that the courses on Computers and Internet Usage will be conducted free-of-charge starting November 1, 2001; it was also decided to make preliminary recording of the visitors for using Internet and 3 computers will be available for interested visitors in turn.

During the period of October 22 till October 26, 2001 a seminar "Advocacy. Creation of a Coalition", was held in the sanatoriums "Issyk-Kul". 30 representatives of eleven CSSC of Jalal-Abad, Batken, Osh, Issyk-Kul, Talas, Naryn, Chu regions of the Kyrgyz Republic and twelve Counterpart Consortium staff members participated in its work. During the 4-day training the participants examined a number of issues, especially:

• Concept of "Advocacy",
• Positive concept of policy from the point of view of "Advocacy",
• Political perception and critical thinking,
• Various methods of "Advocacy" strategy,
• Legislative process in the Kyrgyz Republic,
• Budget hearings,
• Advocacy through mass media,
• Planning of Advocacy campaigns,
• Definition of a coalition,
• Steps for creating coalitions,
• Guidelines and promotion of coalitions,
• Power of networks,
• Network as the form of a coalition

The training was conducted in the framework of the Counterpart Consortium/European Union program Participation of local communities in the civil society in the Kyrgyz Republic.

On October 29, 2001 Counterpart Consortium conducted monitoring of the activities of the Civic Society Support Center (CSSC) in Karakol and communities in Kyzil-Su and Jele Dobo villages, implementing the projects "Repair of sewerage system" and "Pure water - full fledged life" correspondingly within the framework of Community Action Grants Program.

The same day the staff of the Karakol’s CSSC participated at the international conference of the Global Training for Development Project "Social Partnership: State and NGOs ", where the following issues discussed:

• Basic Methods of Cooperation Between State and NGOs,
• NGOs - State: Perspectives of Collaboration,
• Regional Experience of Inter Sector cooperation
• Legislative Basics of Inter Sector Cooperation
• Practical Mechanisms of Cooperation Between NGOs and State.

There were 29 participants from Kyrgyzstan, 10 from Kazakhstan and representatives of the International Center for Not-For - Profit Law.

From 29 till October 31 the CSSC in Karakol conducted training "Project Design" within the framework of the Soros Foundation and Counterpart Consortium joint program "Support of Non- Governmental Organizations". The participants were taught to design projects-proposals, learned criteria to be met and correctness of filling necessary documentation. There were 17 representatives of the Issyk-Kul oblast NGOs at the training.

From October 12 till October 25 A. Alymkulova, a project manager, visited Germany within the framework of the project "Strengthening Participation of Communities in Civil Society in the Kyrgyz Republic", funded by the European Union. The main purpose of the visit was development of partnership with Counterpart/Germany. The issues of creating web-site that will contain information on a status and development of noncommercial sector in Central Asia and Kyrgyzstan were discussed during the visit. The given site will allow to establish and to increase contacts between European and Kyrgyzstan organizations. The forthcoming trip of the Counterpart Consortium/ Kyrgyzstan group of employees and network of the CSSC, working within the framework of the given project next year, 2002 to Germany was also discussed. A number of meetings was held with the representatives of the noncommercial sector, such as Diakonishes Werk Berlin - Branderburg, Association of Branderburg Farmers, with the representatives of the program "Quartersmanagement in Berlin/Wedding Quarter" to discuss participation of the members of the given organizations in conducting workshops and trainings.

Contact: Counterpart Consortium, Lilia Kuchenova, IU/AUK Program Coordinator, Information Coordinator of NGO, 107 Kievskaya str., 5th floor, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Phone: 996(312) 610 135, 610 022, 664 636 Fax: 996(312) 610 021 Email: Internet: http://www.cango.net.kg