NGOs to Help the State

The Kyrgyz government plans to contract non-government organisations, NGOs, to plug gaps in areas where the state cannot provide adequate welfare. However, NBCentralAsia analysts note that many NGOs in Kyrgyzstan are involved in quasi-political work, and are thus likely to be wary of accepting government money.



The plan was made public in a document signed by Prime Minister Felix Kulov on September 14, laying the ground for new legislation on contracting out social-sector activities. The government hopes that, assuming parliament and the president approve the bill, it will allow more efficient spending on tackling a range of social and economic problems, using NGOs as implementing agents.



Some experts from the NGO world see much that is positive in this bill, and believe it could allow ministries and government agencies to focus on strategic management and development issues, instead of being overburdened by day-to-day administration as they are now.



For those NGOs whose mission currently overlaps with state-run social services, the law will certainly allow for greater impact. If they get to work closely with the state, it could also help make government more transparent.



However, other experts are cautioning that NGOs may find themselves over-dependent on the state organisations that fund them.



In the past few years, Kyrgyzstan has developed a robust NGO sector, which has often served as intermediary in the stand-off between government and opposition. Civil society groups prize their independence, and fears that the new law could dilute this will be especially high among those NGOs that work in politically sensitive areas such as human rights, monitoring the performance of state institutions, and anti-corruption programmes. Such groups are likely to opt to remain with independent sources of financing.



Analysts interviewed by NBCentralAsia experts highlighted a further risk: that the bill might lend legitimacy to the government's tactic of channeling funding to those quasi-political NGOs that happen to support it.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)