ASTANA, June 7, 2010 – Eleven non-governmental organizations in Kazakhstan became winners of the 2010 World Bank Civil Society Social Development Fund grant competition. This grant program is the World Bank’s only annual program that directly funds small projects from nonprofit, nongovernmental, and nonacademic organizations in Kazakhstan.
The goal of the Civil Society Social Development Fund is to promote better engagement of the civil society in the development and decision-making processes in the country. This year, 77 non-governmental organizations from both urban and rural areas all over Kazakhstan participated in the competition, and eleven winners were selected after thorough evaluation by the Grant Committee.
Total size of the grant program this year was US$ 55,000 and the size of an individual grant varies from USD 4,200 to USD 5,300.
Organizations from Almaty, Ereimentau, Petropavlovsk, Shymkent, Taldykorgan, Arnasay village of Akmola oblast, Zhezkazgan, Ust-Kamenogorsk, and Aktau are among the winners. The winning projects are aimed at:
- establishment of a resource center for civic mindset formation of rural youth;
- monitoring of rights of citizens for provision of state guaranteed healthcare services;
- training on grant funds leveraging;
- development of active personality- and environment-oriented interests, skills and abilities among youth;
- promoting evaluation and monitoring practices to improve effectiveness of projects and programs implemented by rural NGOs;
- strengthening organizational and institutional potential of civil society organizations;
- developing potential of rural women via education, public awareness and social activities;
- introduction of the self-help groups concept in rural areas;
- facilitating civil activities of population to realize the right for a clean environment;
- promoting equal opportunities and integration of disabled people into society; and
- implementing a sustainable self-government in 3 regions.
The Civil Society Social Development Fund, known as the World Bank Small Grants program until 2007, was created in 1983 to promote dialogue and information dissemination on the topic of international development via open discussions beyond the World Bank regular operations. From 1998 to 2010, twelve grant competitions were conducted in Kazakhstan under which the World Bank has supported 85 projects for the amount of US$ 388,000.
