Mitigating Conflicts in Border Villages of Kyrgyzstan by Improving Local Government Service Delivery to the Population Project
The border areas of Kyrgyzstan are the most remote from cities, the least economically developed with the highest level of poverty. Among them, aiyl aimaks with no delimited state borders are in a particularly difficult situation, where interethnic conflicts constantly flare up, sometimes developing into violent clashes in which the civilian population suffers. These conflicts are partly fueled by the fact that the economic and social problems of the population of these border villages have not been resolved for years by local authorities and the government. People, out of helplessness and lack of state support in protecting their rights and interests, resort to force, which only further exacerbates the problems and exacerbates existing conflicts.
The project was aimed at reducing conflicts by protecting the rights and promoting the interests of Kyrgyz citizens living in the border areas by strengthening the capacity and awareness of local governments, improving the quality of services they provide to the local population in partnership with community groups and jointly promoting the interests of the population of border areas at the Government level.
Years of implementation: October 2012 - October 2013.
Place of implementation: Ak-Tatyr, Ak-Sai, Samarkandek, Tortkul, Karabak, Suu-Bashy, Kyshtut Aiyl Aimaks Batken District, Batken Region
Donor: National Endowment for Democracy - NED
The goal of the project was to help mitigate conflicts by protecting the rights and promoting the interests of citizens and local self-government bodies in the Batken district of the Batken region of Kyrgyzstan, located on the border territories with Tajikistan without demarcated borders by collecting, summarizing, analyzing and lobbying their rights and interests at the level of the Government and regional administration through the creation of a network of local governments and community organizations of border areas and strengthening their potential.
Within the framework of the project, the RDF carried out the following work:
- Conducts an assessment of the basic needs of residents of border areas with non-delimited borders in the provision of services to local self-government bodies to mitigate conflicts by conducting a survey and focus group discussions. The focus groups involved women's and youth groups;
- Selected those issues that require communication and solutions at the level of the Government and regional administrations;
- Conducted a study among local self-government bodies on the provision of services to the population to mitigate conflicts and also select those issues that require bringing and solving at the level of the Government and regional administration;
- Promoted the creation of an informal network of border local self-government bodies with non-demarcated borders;
- Taught the members of the network about promoting rights and interests, assisted to draw up a strategy to promote the identified interests of citizens and local self-government bodies and contributed to the implementation of one company to protect the rights and interests of citizens and local self-government bodies from the strategy developed by the network;
- Conducted an analysis of the regulatory framework of Kyrgyzstan in order to identify special rights and opportunities for residents of border areas;
- Conducted an information campaign to disseminate and inform about special rights and opportunities of residents of border areas;
- Provided assistance in promoting the rights and interests of citizens through the created network of local governments and local community organizations in the implementation of local strategies;
- Conducted at the district level a presentation of the identified problems and interests of citizens and local self-government bodies. The round table highlighted the results of the project to draw the government's attention to these problems and highlighted the experience in solving these problems, and their application in other border areas.
The results of the project were:
- The problems of local residents and local self-government bodies of the Batken district of the Batken region, related to the restriction, lack of rights, and the need to develop and adopt normative legal acts, both for residents and local self-government bodies, have been identified and summarized;
- On the basis of the information campaign carried out among residents and local self-government bodies of the Batken district of the Batken region, a strategy was developed to promote the rights and interests of citizens of the Batken district of the Batken region through the creation of a network of local self-government bodies and community and non-governmental organizations;
- One of the questions was selected from the strategy for carrying out the advocacy campaign and promoting its implementation.
Based on the above, a discussion of the results of the implementation of the advocacy campaign and strategy at the district level was held to expand the application of the experience gained and the decision of especially