Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia presented the results of the EU project to support rural NGOs

February 27, 2015 Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia (EFCA) announced the results of the "Rural Civil Society Support" project which was implemented with the financial support from the EU Delegation to the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The "Rural Civil Society Support" project was implemented within 28 months from November 2012 to February 2015 with an overall project budget of 297,000 euro. The project covered 7 regions of Kazakhstan, including Atyrau, Aktobe, East Kazakhstan, Pavlodar, South Kazakhstan, Kyzylorda, and Almaty regions.

As a result of the project, rural community living conditions were improved for vulnerable social groups through improved quality and variety of services provided to people by local CSOs. Through the implementation of CSO small grant projects across 7 regions, over 1,300 vulnerable group beneficiaries were directly impacted by the project. The project also strengthened the relationship between rural NGOs and local authorities, facilitating future cooperation on a range of common issues. Representatives of civil society have gained new knowledge and skills to enhance their professional development, improve their working conditions, and build upon pilot initiatives introduced at the local level.

The project aimed to support the development of a more equitable and democratic civil society in rural areas, through the strengthening of institutional capacity and development of rural CSOs. The main activities of the project were aimed at strengthening dialogue platforms for non-profit organizations by increasing the capacity of NGO resource centers, rural CSOs, attracting the attention of the local community, government and business to the initiatives of local NGOs in solving social problems for vulnerable groups through small grant initiatives and local forums.

During the project, representatives of Resource centers and NGOs from 7 regions of Kazakhstan have been trained to assess the needs of NGOs and community, institutional and organizational development and project management. After the series of trainings, the grant competition with the grant amount of € 3,000 for each NGO was held among the participants of the project, as a result initiatives of 16 rural NGOs were supported. Projects were different topics such as social assistance for vulnerable groups, children and youth, services in education and health, etc.

The press conference was attended by representatives of EFCA, the project partners, civil society experts, representatives of resource centers and rural NGOs, and representatives of local and national media.