Community Outreach 

Community Outreach program implementation during the extension period was carried out in 

accordance with the regional and country program plans. The main focus was on adapting the M&E 

system for the Community Outreach to country contexts. It has been a valuable exercise to analyze the 

lessons learned for future programmatic activities by both the Hub and CSSCs. The participatory 

approach of M&E in community projects has enabled staff to convey this expertise directly to project 

beneficiaries, especially in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.  

The regional Community Network training has been another big event for the program. It was held on 

June 27 30 with participation of Community Outreach country and regional program coordinators, the 

regional training program coordinator, CSSCs program staff and community initiative group leaders. 

The trainers were from the Rural Community Network in Belfast, Northern Ireland and were the 

trainers of the previous training in Community Network Development in Samarkand in November 

2002. The follow up training gathered practitioners directly involved in establishing networks 

throughout the region. Beyond their knowledge of social capital and mechanisms for community 

networking, the trainers challenged participants to think of alternate solutions to problems. The 

training participants came up with realistic plans of activity for developing community networks.  

Advocacy was carried out in Kyrgyzstan by promoting of NGOs' interests throughout the country 

where the CSSCs actively participated in public hearings.  

In Kazakhstan the CSSCs were actively involved in organizing forums on the Law on NGOs to be 

passed by state. At Counterpart Kazakhstan's initiative NGOs throughout the country signed a 

petition appealing to parliament to revise and amend this law. An informational support of this 

campaign was organized through Internet and media sources.  

In Uzbekistan local advocacy campaigns were held successfully in Bukhara to save the cultural 

and historical heritage of this ancient city, and in Navoyi Oblast to protect residents from 

tuberculosis. 

In Tajikistan Advocacy activities focused on trafficking and early marriage problems. Several 

intersectoral roundtables were held to inform government of the need to change legislation. 

One of remarkable events this past quarter was the Volunteer Forum held in Turkmenistan in May. 

The forum brought together 50 participants representing all three sectors and international 

organizations operating in the country and introduced the Resource Book on Development of 

Volunteerism. This resource is recommended for successful promotion of volunteerism in the region. 

Monitoring and Evaluation  

Activity Overview and Major Achievements in M&E Program 

From April to June, Counterpart continued the ongoing process of conducting field evaluations for 

community projects (CAGs) and entering data into Regional CAG MIS. The Country M&E 

coordinators, along with the CSSCs, developed M&E plans for projects to be evaluated during the 

extension period April June. The planned numbers for project close out and follow up evaluations 

were submitted to Regional M&E Coordinator in April. According to these plans and given numbers, 

at the end of June 2003 the Regional CAG MIS has been containing project close out evaluation data 

for 216 projects (from the project pool of 348 CAGs, plus MIPs in UZ), and project follow up 

evaluation data for 142 projects: 

Type 

of 

evaluation 

reports  KZ KG TJ TM UZ 

Close Out Evaluation Reports 

51 

79 

32 

15 

39 

Follow Up 

Evaluation 

reports 36 43  7  31 25 

These numbers reflect the substantial scope of work performed by CSSCs in conducting participatory 

field evaluations of community based projects. From MIS data observation, it could be concluded that 

almost all the projects, evaluated by close out evaluation, had achieved their objectives:  

15