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   The UN Link / The United Nations System in Kyrgyzstan
# 151
December 04, 2001

In this issue:


UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEERS

  • The International UNV Day to be celebrated 5 December
  • UNV Annual Report 2001 “Giving Development a Human Face” has been released recently

UNDP LOCAL GOVERNANCE PROGRAMME

  • UN Volunteers’ contribution to the local development
  • A series of trainings on conflict resolution to be held in pilot villages

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

  • The European Children’s Trust Study Tour to India
  • Opening of the Consultative Center to support small and medium enterprises and NGOs is planned
  • A one-day training "Financial Reporting. Internal Control" conducted by Counterpart Consortium

UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEERS

The International UNV Day. On the 5th December all volunteers from different countries, academic backgrounds, race, ethnicity and age will celebrate the International Volunteers Day. Volunteer service is an act of free will to assist others and to be assisted by others. The concept of volunteerism is not new to Kyrgyzstan; it prevails at the community level through ashar and within the extended family where relatives do support each other. Civil societies in the form of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and Volunteer Organizations are playing a major role in humanitarian, rehabilitation and development activities of the changing world.

There are two major benefits of volunteering for the government. First, an economic one: volunteering makes an important economic contribution to society. Activities undertaken by volunteers would otherwise have to be funded by the state or by private capital. Volunteering adds to the overall economic output of a country and reduces the burden on government spending. But volunteering has a second and perhaps more important benefit. Volunteering helps in building of strong and cohesive communities. It fosters trust between citizens and helps develop norms of solidarity and reciprocity, which are essential to stable communities. Moreover, by helping to build this “social capital” volunteering also plays a role in economic regeneration.

One by one volunteers are changing the face of the world in nearly 150 countries. They are planting trees; teaching disabled children, monitoring elections and helping soldiers put down their guns. They are designing water systems, delivering food relief, and promoting human rights, democratic governance and poverty eradication. The corporate UNV Programme has about 4,500 volunteers annually in the field, out of which about two-thirds come from developing countries. These are volunteers who are highly qualified and at mid-managerial level who do not seek to impose their values, ideas or agendas on their hosts. Rather, they find out what the people need and want, and work with them to make it happen. The caliber of volunteers today is quite in contrast to volunteers some 30 to 50 years ago who were conceived to be irresponsible and not matured. Today’s volunteers are highly skilled with about 60% holding a post graduate degree and about 15% a doctorate degree and of an average age of 39 years old.

The UNV Programme commenced in Kyrgyzstan with about 15 International UNVs and 5 NUNV. Today Kyrgyzstan has 11 International UNVs and 37 National UNVs. The twinning of NUNVs with IUNVs has been a successful implementation mechanism of the United Nations Development Programme in Kyrgyzstan. The NUNVs have brought a sense of national ownership to programs implemented by UNDP and provide valuable traditional norms and values to their international colleagues in their work, whereas the international have transferred skills to their national colleagues who would be the captains of the future development of Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan is getting international recognition and putting itself high on the development map through the UNV Programme by sending women and men of Kyrgyzstan outside their country as International UNVs. Today we have sons and daughters of this beautiful mountainous country who are serving as International UNV specialists with important UN missions in East Timor and Kosovo. Two Kyrgyz women are serving as UN Volunteers with UNDP and UNIFEM assisted projects in neighboring Kazakhstan. There are also 13 dedicated Kyrgyz citizens on the UNV corporate roster waiting for placement around the globe.

Contact: Mr. Idrissa Kargbo, UNV Coordinator. Phone: (996 312) 66 12 13, e-mail:

UNV Kyrgyzstan Annual Report 2001 “Giving Development a Human Face” has been released recently. It focuses on the overall country development situation trends and assistance to the country rendered by the UN in general and UNV in particular and collaboration of UNV with other UN Agencies. The report concentrates on the main achievements of the UNV country programme in social mobilization and micro - crediting, the participation of UNVs in poverty alleviation and decentralization in rural areas, UNVs field visits and missions, UNDP re-profiling exercise and participation of UNV Kyrgyzstan in this process and other issues. The Chronology of International Year of Volunteers in 2001 is given.

Contact: Mr. Idrissa Kargbo, UNV Coordinator. Phone: (996 312) 66 12 13, e-mail:

UNDP LOCAL GOVERNANCE PROGRAMME

UN Volunteers’ contribution to the local development. UNDP/ Decentralization Programme in Kyrgyzstan was initiated in mid 1998. Since then, the UN volunteers are involved in various development activities in their respective duty stations.

The Decentralization Programme has major components at the micro level: Participatory Development Planning, Social Mobilization, Information Systems, Micro-grants Initiatives, Micro-crediting and the Human Resources Development (training component). Decentralization and local self-governance system is a new concept for the people of the Kyrgyz Republic. People had been used to know the Centralized system of planning. After the initiation of Decentralization programme, the UN Volunteers took initiatives to train on these new concepts of development. They started carrying out training activities at different levels: regional level, district levels, village levels and the community levels. So, we undertook training the higher-level government officials, as well as the people at the grass root levels. It is to mention here that we did the job to our full satisfaction. Presently the people of the pilot areas do have the knowledge and talk freely about the Decentralization and its need for the development of the rural Kyrgyzstan. People started realizing about the social mobilization principles and forming the community based organizations (CBOs) in all the villages.

The UNVs have put tremendous efforts in forming CBOs. Presently, these CBOs are involved in various development activities. They have been involved in the preparation of participatory village annual development plans, and are totally responsible for implementation of the annual development plans as the major portion of implementation costs (43%) is borne by the CBO members. The UNVs are also involved likewise in training the CBOs on skill development, management and accounting system. The UNVs are continuing training the rural poor to undertake various self- reliant activities for their own development and realize that they are undertaking great efforts in improvement of the lives of Kyrgyzstan people.

Contact: Ms. Anara Salamatova, Coordinator for Decentralization Component, UNDP Local Governance Programme. Phone: (996 312) 66 00 80, e-mail:

A series of trainings on conflict resolution will be held in pilot villages of Preventive Development Component by the local staff. These trainings, as part of the skill development process, will be focusing on the establishment of a firm knowledge basis about conflict, its sources and types within the population. The trainings will be conducted by Preventive Development staff, who already have been trained earlier this year by a local NGO representative in collaboration with an international trainer from Columbia University, USA. Five training sessions are to be held in the five respective pilot village and city municipalities of Batken province on December 6 - 12, and will cover the following topics “The concept and types of conflicts”, “Escaping conflict, stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination”, “Styles of behavior” and other. The main beneficiaries of the trainings are the local administrations’ staff and the members and leaders of CBOs.

Contact: Mr. Ruslan Monolbaev, Coordinator for Preventive Development Component, UNDP Local Governance Programme. Phone: (996 312) 66 01 69, e-mail:

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

The European Children’s Trust Study Tour to India. A delegation from Bishkek has just returned from a Study Tour to India. The tour took place as part of the training component for the Centre of Children’s Social Adaptation, a project developed by UNDP together with Bishkek Mayor’s Office. The European Children’s Trust took a delegation of five Centre staff and a Mayor’s office representative to visit Bangalore between the 19th and 28th November to study approaches of working with street children used by Indian NGOs and local authorities. Six representatives of NGOs and the Centre for Protection of Children (CPC) that operates a shelter and feeding project for street children in Bishkek participated in the study tour. The main focus of the visit was to study Indian NGOs working with street children (sixteen in Bangalore) to assess if the models of service developed there can be replicated and adapted to meet the needs of the street children here in Bishkek. Visits were made to:

  • 3 residential centers, one of which is run by the Government with assistance from local NGO's;
  • vocational and formal education programmes;
  • rehabilitation centers for children with addictions;
  • volunteer projects that help street and working children access education;
  • street-worker programmes that work with those families living on the street;
  • children’s help line that provides free of charge service for vulnerable children that need assistance. This project is implemented jointly by the Bangalore police department and local NGOs.

The group is ready to share their experience and happy to answer any questions concerning their visit. They are committed to start working together both at the government and NGOs level to address the needs of Bishkek 's street children. The delegation will be giving a briefing on the visit at the Bishkek Mayor’s Office on Monday 10th December. If you would like to attend, please contact The European Children’s Trust.

Contact: Galina Podobedova, Training Programme Manager, The European Children’s Trust, 86 Toktogul Street, Bishkek. Tel/Fax 66 62 53, email:

Opening of the Consultative Center to support small and medium enterprises and NGOs is planned. On November 28, 2001 the representatives of the Civil Society Support Center based in Kara -Balta had a meeting with the representatives of the Center of Support to Small and Medium Enterprises of Bishkek implementing the projects in the framework of UNDP and UNIDO. At the meeting held in Jail regional administration building of Kara-Balta 13 representatives including members of SDBC, deputy head of Jail region, leading expert -chief of the department of support to small and medium business, representatives of business sector (joint-stock companies, credit unions) and representatives of the local NGOs participated.

The purpose of the meeting was to inform about opening of the Consultative Center to support small and medium enterprises and non-commercial organizations in partnership with the government, business structures and representatives of civil society, and to provide with information about the goals and tasks of the established center. As a result of the meeting the representatives of the SDBC received support of Jail regional administration that allocated space for an office and telephone line. The representatives of the Civil Society Support Center also contributed by offering to conduct trainings designed by the trainers - contractors on business planning and micro-financing. The opening ceremony of the Center is planned for February - March 2002.

Contact: Counterpart Consortium, Lilia Kuchenova, IU/AUK Program Coordinator, NGO Information Coordinator, 107 Kievskaya str., 5th floor, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Phone: (996 312) 61 01 35, 61 00 22, 66 46 36; fax: (996 312) 61 00 21; e-mail: Internet: http://www.cango.net.kg

A one-day training "Financial Reporting. Internal Control" was conducted on November 30 in Counterpart Consortium within the framework of the projects of the European Union and "Health NGO Capacity Building Initiative Program", implemented by Counterpart Consortium. 15 representatives of the target medical non-commercial organizations, target groups and communities of Bishkek took part in the training. The goal of the training was to acquire knowledge and obtain skills to establish internal control and precise financial reporting to donors. At the training the participants analyzed the value of monitoring and evaluation of projects, examined goals and values of the internal control and financial reporting to donor organizations. The participants were asked to make presentations of their work.

Contact: Counterpart Consortium, Lilia Kuchenova, IU/AUK Program Coordinator, NGO Information Coordinator, 107 Kievskaya str., 5th floor, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Phone: (996 312) 61 01 35, 61 00 22, 66 46 36; fax: (996 312) 61 00 21; e-mail: Internet: http://www.cango.net.kg


     Millennium Development Goals Progress Report - 2003

     Common Country Assessment - 2003

 
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