ASTANA, June 30, 2011 – The World Bank Country Office in Kazakhstan is pleased to announce results of the grant competition under the Civil Society Social Development Fund (further on - CSF) for the total amount of US$ 61,000 for nonprofit, nongovernmental, nonacademic organizations of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The World Bank received 66 applications from urban and rural non-profit organizations working all over Kazakhstan to address the development issues. Winning projects were selected on competitive basis in accordance with the World Bank policies. As a result, 10 organizations were awarded a grant of US$6,000 in average.
NGO’s from Pavlodar, Atbasar, Almaty, Aktau, Shymkent and Kostanai are among the winners. Selected projects are aimed at activation of social and economic activity of rural women and enhancing their role in local self-governance; building capacity of civil society organizations in leveraging funds for potential projects and strengthening their institutional capacity; promoting interests of vulnerable groups of population, including disabled, children, and youth; developing the culture of public assessment and monitoring of rural development programs; improving information access for children and youth; involving youth in civic activities; and facilitating public access to information on the transparency initiatives.
The Civil Society Social Development Fund, which operated as the WB Small Grants program till 2007, was created in 1983 to promote dialogue and information dissemination on the topic of international development via open discussions beyond the World Bank operations. While working in Kazakhstan from 1998 to 2011 thirteen grant competitions were conducted under which the CSF has supported 111 projects for the total amount of US$ 494,000.
