The conference was supported by the Swiss-funded Public Service Improvement project. It provided a platform to present and exchange on concrete examples of improved services at the local level in the municipalities of Issyk-Kul and Jalal-Abad provinces. For example, representatives of Kumbel municipality shared their experience in organizing the drinking water supply service, and representatives of Toktogul city spoke about improving the collection and removal of solid waste in their city. In addition, other municipalities shared their experience on improving services on lightning of public areas, preschool education, including education for children with special educational needs, and maintenance of internal roads.

The head of the Development Department of Local Self-Governments at the State Agency on Local Self-Government and Interethnic Relations Azamat Shameyev noted the importance of such events in development of regions and improvement of services at the local level. He informed that the Development Program of Local Self-Governments has been recently adopted, which includes a number of activities to improve services at the local level. Also Azamat Shameyev informed that jointly with the Ministry of Economy they work on the document that will reflect the public opinion about the quality of provided services.

The Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Switzerland in the Kyrgyz Republic, Danielle Meuwly Monteleone, emphasized that the next important step will be to ensure that improved services are sustainable and best practices are institutionalized at the national level. It will also be crucial to enhance local finances and to address deficiencies in intergovernmental relations.

150’000 people benefit from the 38 action plans on improving services supported by the project over the past four years. This included 9 initiatives to ensure sustainable access to clean drinking water, 11 services to improve the quality and accessibility of pre-school and school education (including education for children with special educational needs), 9 services in the field of cultural and leisure activities (park areas, cultural and sports services) and 8 plans for maintenance and cleaning of public areas.

The overall cost of the implementation of these action plans was more than 97 million soms. The own contribution of the municipalities amounted to more than 33 million soms or almost 26%, which shows the importance and relevance of the problems in municipalities.

The Public Service Improvement Project is funded by the Swiss Government through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented by Helvetas Kyrgyzstan and the Development Policy Institute.

The event was organized by the project "Strengthening Voice and Accountability: Citizens’ Participation and Oversight of Budgetary Processes". This project is implemented by the Development Policy Institute and financed by the Swiss Government through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It ensures participation of citizens in budgetary processes and strengthens the capacity of municipalities to improve citizens’ livelihoods.

Citizens participate in budgetary hearings organized by municipalities during which they identify and select priority problems. Municipalities then applied for grant support from the Swiss-funded project. The grants were awarded on a competitive basis to provide funding for municipalities to realize these community initiatives.

“I hope that citizens will continue to be involved in the budgetary processes at the local level, it is an important element of democracy, which strengthens accountability of local authorities towards citizens and enables an effective and efficient use of public resources,” - said Danielle Meuwly Monteleone, Deputy Head of the Embassy of Switzerland in the Kyrgyz Republic. 

The competition for grant support covered all municipalities of the Osh and Naryn provinces, which are applying a participatory budgetary process model. The committee has selected 38 projects out of more than 120 applications. The committee consisted of the representatives of the President’s Administration of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Ministry of Finance, the State Agency for Local Self-Governance and Interethnic Relations, the Union of Local Self Governments and the Development Policy Institute.

Out of 38 initiatives, 20 (53%) will address pre-school and school education services; 11 (29%) will improve access to municipal services; 6 (16%) - recreation services for local community members; and 1 (2%) - access to information.

The list of winning municipalities is as follows:

The Swiss-funded project "Strengthening Voice and Accountability” has been working since 2011. Previously, it covered Issyk-Kul, Jalal-Abad and Chui provinces.