LIST OF ACRONYMS
AMEP – Activity Monitoring and Evaluation Plan
AOR – Agreement
Office Representative
ARGO – Civil Society Development Association
COP – Chief of Party
CR – Central Region
CSO – Civil Society Organization
CV
– Curriculum Vitae
DRC – Development via Regional Cooperation
HR – Human
Rights
ID – Institutional
Development
LG – Local Government
LLP – Limited Liability Partnership
M&E – Monitoring and Evaluation
NPA – National Public Association
OD – Organizational Development
PA – Public Association
PAD – Public Association of Disabled
PCA – Participatory Community Appraisal
PDM – Project Development and Management
PDP – Partnership for Development and Prosperity
PF – Public Fund
RK – Republic of
Kazakhstan
PLA – Participatory Learning and Action
PMC – Project Management Committee
PRA – Participatory Rural Appraisal
PR – Public Relations
SF – Standard Form
SKO – South
Kazakhstan Oblast
SMEDA – Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency
SR – Southern Region
SSC – State Social Contracting
TOT – Training of
Trainers
USAID – United States Agency for International Development
WPA – Women's Public Association
WP – Work Plan
YPA – Youth Public Association
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
During the first year all planned activities were carried out to meet the overall goal of the project –
developing democratic society in four regions of Kazakhstan including South Kazakhstan,
Zhambyl, Akmola and Karaganda oblasts through strengthening the institutional and organizational
capacities of local CSOs and promoting broad-based citizen dialogue and participation in the
communities, thus building the foundation for good governance.
PA "Bereke" has been implementing the Program in partnership with its key partner/sub-grantee,
PA "ECOCENTER" Karaganda, which has been assisting with implementation of the program
activities in Akmola and Karaganda oblasts. A three-stage development model of building
organizational and institutional capacity of rural CSOs, already tested in previous projects, has been
applied by Bereke:
(a) All 121 CSOs that applied for participation in the PDP Program have been assessed for their
institutional development capacities and the top 100 CSOs have been selected to participate in the
Program. Selected CSOs have been broken into two cluster groups reflecting stages of their ID
development: 20 Level-2 (upper level) CSOs and 80 Level-1 (lower level) CSOs;
(b); 20 Level-2 CSOs have been assessed for their organizational development capacities utilizing
an
assessment tool, grading on a 4-point scale six spheres of organizational development, elaborated
by Counterpart International. As a result of the assessment each Level-2 CSO developed an action
plan for their further OD development;
(c) Tailored packages of training and technical assistance in the form of consultations, study tours,
small grants have been developed and provided for the CSOs in each of the above groups. 20 Level-
2 CSOs have received grants equal to $ 4000 each for their OD projects elaborated on the basis of
their developed action plans. As for the 80 Level-1 CSOs, they have been provided a number of
trainings aimed at their institutional development. Subsequently a call for proposals for community
development grants was announced and only 20 of them won the grants on a competitive basis in
the amount of $2000 each. Each CSO that has successfully implemented the project will get another
community development grant equal to $4000 for implementation of community oriented projects
in the second year of the Program. The Program anticipates that these 20 Level-2 CSOs and 20
Level-1 CSOs will act as catalysts for civil society development in their rayons in future. Limiting
the grant portion of the Program only to the more developed and motivated 40 CSOs the Program
ensures optimum impact and sustainability.
The following infographics illustrates the activities and outputs of the first year of the Program:
II. ACTIVITY AND RESULTS
During the the first year of PDP Program all planned activities were carried out according to the
work plan to meet four objectives of the Program.
Objective 1. Enable local CSOs to achieve their goals and increase their ability to be proactive
in mobilizing the community for social projects, in order to establish a new approach for
community problem-solving, as well as to perform advocacy, governance and accountability
work.
1. Competitive Selection of Target Rural CSOs
In September 2015 Project partners PA "Bereke" and PA "ECOCENTER" offered rural CSOs of
the target regions to apply for participation via filling in the questionnaires developed by the project
team. Questionnaires have been distributed among rural CSOs via informational resource centers
established within their previous projects, oblast level partner CSOs working on CSO development,
Akimat Internal Policy Departments, direct e-mail as well as at the informational meetings
conducted by Bereke and ECOCENTER in all rayons of four Project target oblasts. According to
the answers the most reputable, acknowledged, institutionally prepared and displaying their
motivation for further development 100 rural CSOs have been selected to participate in the
Program.
In August – September 2015 two selection committees including representatives of advanced oblast
level CSOs, experts in CSO development and LG were organized in Program target central
(Akmola and Karaganda oblasts) and southern (Zhambyl and South Kazakhstan oblasts) regions.
2. Submission of questionnaires completed by rural CSOs.
By October 9, 2016 (deadline for submission of questionnaires for participating in the Program) 62
rural CSOs from the southern region (22 CSOs from Zhambyl oblast and 40 CSOs from South
Kazakhstan oblast) and 59 rural CSOs from the central region (22 CSOs from Akmola oblast and 37
CSOs from Karaganda oblast) submitted their questionnaires. The project team undertook analysis
of the questionnaires to identify rural CSOs’ needs and define environment they work in.
The analysis of questionnaires completed by rural CSOs
(The table does not cover all the questions of a questionnaire. It highlights only major issues)