Design of components on development of Fairs of Social Project, submitted to TACIS' BISTRO 

Program.  

A partners meeting was held from June 18 20 in the Yermin Sanatorium (Kapchaghai reservoir) and 

gathered over 45 representatives of the Support Centers, focus NGOs and the Hub office program 

staff. The retreat sessions covered the CSSCs' presentation, master classes, and final reports from 

Program Coordinators (OD, Community Outreach, Grant, Training and Reporting).  

The Joint Platform of Civil Society Organizations (JPCSO) 

The Kazakhstan Network of Civil Society Support Centers, Institute for Development & Cooperation 

(IDC), and Youth Information Service of Kazakhstan (YISK) initiated the Joint Platform of Civil 

Society Organizations (JPCSO) that was formed to promote the development of effective state policy 

and legislation governing the activities of non governmental non profit organizations (NGOs) in 

Kazakhstan. In pursuit of its mission, the JPCSO has designed and conducted a campaign for 

promoting a weightier participation of NGOs and independent experts in drafting the Law On Non 

Governmental Organizations:  

April 11, a constituent meeting was conducted to establish JPCSO.  

April 16, JPCSO appealed to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, parliamentary deputies 

and Political Councils of seven parties regarding the problems with the draft Law On NGOs.   

April 21, JPCSO conducted a press conference on the draft Law On NGOs.  

April 23 28, JPCSO conducted regional forums for NGOs from Astana, Almaty, Aqtobe, 

Oskemen, Semey, Qaraghandy and Qostanai to design the conceptual and procedural 

recommendations and proposals on the draft Law On NGOs. 

April 23 30, JPCSO collected signatures of over 200 Kazakhstan NGOs in support of its Appeal 

to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, parliamentary deputies and Political Councils of 7 

parties of Kazakhstan.   

April 25, JPCSO headquarters launched a special web page of the campaign for overcoming the 

crisis with the draft Law On NGOs on the Web site 

www.ngo.kz

.   

May 6, JPCSO clarified their stance on the draft Law On NGOs at a roundtable in Almaty, 

organized by the US National Democratic Institute of International Relations (NDI). 

May 15 16, JPCSO conducted a number of meetings with deputies and representatives of the 

Ministry of Culture, Information & Public Accord for overcoming the crisis of legislation 

governing the country's NGO sector.  

May 16, JPCSO held a roundtable in Parliament with the state deputies, representatives of the 

President Administration, Ministry of Culture, Information & Public Accord. 

May 19, Youth Information Service (YISK) and Diabetic Association of the Republic Kazakhstan 

(DARK), supported by National Democratic Institute (NDI), conducted their advocacy session 

among over 40 deputies of Mazhilis and Senate of the Parliament.  

May 19 20, over 200 NGOs signed the Platform's Appeal that was submitted to the Presidential 

Administration, Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan.  

May 20, the JPCSO conducted a press conference on the results of the campaign to overcome the 

crisis of the legislation governing the non profit sector of Kazakhstan. 

May 26, the JPCSO conducted informational briefing in Almaty to publicize the results of its 

advocacy campaign.  

Based on the results of the above campaign, the JPCSO stated the need to establish effective 

mechanisms for NGO participation in the decision making process and drafting legislation regulating 

the NGO sector. To break through the given crisis, the JPCSO suggested the following: 

To organize Parliamentary hearings on the draft Law On NGOs and On State Social Delivery, 

To publicize texts of the draft Laws On NGOs and On State Social Delivery through the national 

mass media, particularly in the newspaper Kazakhstanskaya Pravda. 

To conduct a full scale discussion of the concepts underlying the above draft laws at the Standing 

Conference on Democratization & Civil Society Development. 

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