overview PRSP process and identify entry points for civil society participation, and eventually to 

forge links among participants. 

The idea of new partnership project, submitted to the TACIS/BISTRO Programme on May 31, 

was finalized after consultations with partners from Counterpart Deutschland. The proposed 

project, titled Ensuring Citizens Participation on a Local Level, seeks to institutionalize the 

process of participation of rural communities and citizens on a grass root level in 2 pilot locations. 

Technical assistance will be consisting of three interrelated components: (1) assisting rural 

communities and NGOs in developing representation and participation mechanisms, (2) 

promoting electing representative bodies (committees) to ensure equal dialogue with 

governments, and (3) building local advocacy capacities. It is expected that resulted from the 

project, the process of regular participation of citizens in local governance and effective dialogue 

between local communities, NGOs and local governments will be established. 

The 4

th

 round of OD re assessments of the CSSCs was completed, the Hub Office accomplished 

assessments for the CSSCs of Bishkek, Jalalabad, Kara Balta, Kant, Kerben, Naryn, and Nookat. Data 

was summarized and analyzed, and the best practices and lessons learned were documented. Three 

case management meetings were held in order to assess progress toward achieving programmatic 

goals, identifying gaps, patterns and trends, and applying learning to future OD work. These meetings 

were attended by all coordinators (USAID,  EC, and Healthy Communities). Main accomplishments 

and achievements are: 

In April all 11 CSSCs signed institutional grant contracts with the Hub Office for the period of 

April  June 2003, totaling $41,940 (Attachment 1). 

The OD team assisted CSSCs in developing plans for financial sustainability beyond the term of 

institutional agreements.  

As a result of OD assessments, the main priorities for CSSCs to build their capacity include: 

revise strategic plans, develop marketing plan, intensify activities on diversifying funding sources, 

build staff capacity, build capacity of contract trainers and facilitators, improve the quality of 

services, improve the work of governing body, and ensure networking. 

According the analysis of the scores of the last OD assessments in 11 CSSCs the increase of the 

OD score was estimated as 8.46%, much lower than the planned 25%. There are several factors 

behind such low figures:  

A lack of information of partners and clients (governments, business, NGOs) about CSSCs' 

activities, which stipulated unjustified high scores in the first assessment 

A lack of knowledge of the CSSCs' staff in the OD capacity building areas, which also led to 

overestimating their capacity during the first assessments. 

Technical difficulties in using the Model of Sustainable CSSC (insufficiently clear 

formulation of questions, the scoring system from 0 4 limits opportunities in more objective 

assessment of organizations). 

Community Outreach 

The Hub Office focused on assisting CSSCs in conducting close out and follow up evaluation visits, 

and ensuring that all CAGs are completed so that final financial and narrative reports can be 

submitted by the end of June. The other accomplishments include: 

The CSSCs have conducted 37 monitoring visits to the target communities, 55 close out and 67 

follow up PM&E of CAGs. To date, 118 close out and 99 follow up evaluation reports are being 

incorporated into the regional database by the Hub Office. 

7 Volunteer Centers (Kerben, Kara Balta, Nookat, Talas, Naryn, Jalal Abad and Osh) become 

members of the Network of Volunteer Centers initiated by the NGO League of Volunteers. On 

April 25 28, the second meeting of the Network was held in Bishkek. 

Based on results of monitoring visits of the Hub Office staff to 8 CSSCs and their target 

communities, the main recommendations were highlighted: 

Localize the monitoring and evaluation process to community level through providing 

additional coaching for community structures (revision commissions, elder people's 

committee   sovet aksakalov, etc.), that can assume M&E functions. 

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