Infotour as part of the Initiative to Support Good Governance (ISGG)

From December 26, 2014 to January 12, 2015, representatives of the Initiative to Support Good Governance team visited several regions of Kazakhstan. Informational outreach meetings began in the Southern region of Kazakhstan, where representatives from the South Kazakhstan, Zhambyl, Kyzylorda, and Almaty regions were the first to learn about the project, the concept of effective management, and expectations for project ideas.

Other meetings — no less informative than those in the South! —  took place in cities such as Aktobe, Karaganda, Pavlodar, and Uralsk. All interested parties were invited to the meeting: representatives of non-governmental, non-profit organizations, initiative groups, representatives of the public sector, etc.

The informational meetings described effective management, concept competition, rules to apply to participate in the competition, and more in detail. Each meeting began with the presentation of the ISGG project and ended with a Q and A session. Many participants showed great interest in the project and very positively responded to the terms of concept submission, namely, the brief, succinct presentation of concepts on 1-4 pages, instead of filling out detailed applications. In order to clarify the terms of the contest, a video interview with the regional head of the Initiative to Support Good Governance (ISGG) in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, Azaliya Dairbekova, was posted on Youtube.

With the help of Internet resources and television, the ISGG team covered a wide audience of interested individuals. In the Akmola, Atyrau, and North-Kazakhstan regions, an announcement about the launch of the grant project was broadcasted on the KTK channel.

Informational materials included leaflets, answers to frequently asked questions, presentations, videos, the competition announcement, concept forms, and a press release. All these materials were distributed through social networks, meetings, and personal meetings with EFCA employees.

To date, EFCA has received more than 300 applications. The Grant Committee will have a difficult, but very decisive role in reviewing all the concepts that have been submitted. The results of the competition will be announced in February 2015. Follow us on social networks and on the site www.ef-ca.kz

The project aims to promote initiatives in the field of effective institutional governance through the promotion of systematic interaction between civil society organizations and government bodies, which should lead to the long-term improvement of specific public services, elements of the legal framework or policies, mechanisms, and processes, irrespective of industry or sphere. The implementer of this project is the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia with the financial support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).