The third round of OD re assessments is underway; the Hub Center has completed OD re assessments 

for the CSSCs of Batken, Jalalabad, Kant, Karakol, Kerben, Naryn, and Nookat. The results have 

been summarized and analysed. To complete the process, OD re assessments will be done for CSSCs 

of Bishkek and Kara Balta. The Hub Center completed the OD re assessments for the Bishkek Center 

of Social Initiatives (BCSI), Bayastan, and Chintamani. The results have been summarized and 

analysed. The OD re assessment for Talas Oblast Farmers' Union remains. In general, the focus 

NGOs have made progress in building their capacity. After the staff of BCSI and Chintamani 

participated in the Regional Advanced workshop in Governance, the governing structure of the NGOs 

was revised to better meet the needs of the organization. The Talas Oblast Farmers' Union was 

awarded the Soros grant of $2,000 to conduct seminars on land law and commercial law in 24 

villages. To intensify training/coaching of the focus NGOs' staff, the Hub Center intends to conduct 

more site visits because personal consultations seem more effective than remote ones. 

Three case management meetings were held in the Hub Center to assess progress on programmatic 

goals, identify gaps, patterns and trends, and apply the lessons learned to future OD work. All of the 

coordinators attended these meetings (USAID, EC, and Health Programs). The main trends in 

building organizational capacities that were found include: 

The CSSCs worked to diversify their funding resources this quarter. They provided training 

workshops on a contractual basis (CSSCs of Talas, Naryn, Nookat), and developed funding 

proposals for ADB (Jalalabad CSSC), and IOM (Kerben CSSC). 

The CSSCs have better realized the needs and challenges of building their organizational capacity 

versus focusing their efforts on the completion of current projects. The CSSCs are now working 

on revising their organizational structures and developing governing bodies within their 

organizations. 

Network Development 

The CSSCs cooperated during the nationwide advocacy campaign to revoke Decree #20; they 

conducted 42 roundtables, on line discussions, and meetings with various media outlets. The 

campaign was successful   President A. Akaev vetoed the Decree at the end of May 2002. Next, the 

CSSCs are planning a public campaign for fall 2002 concerning the NGO Taxation bill. 

Community Outreach 

During the first quarter, Hub Center staff designed a new training module on PCA that emphasized 

the development of economic activity and sent it to all the CSSCs. To date, the CSSC conducted 

PCAs in 51 target locations, 46 were conducted in the new format and 5 were conducted in last year's 

format (in the newly selected communities of Nookat Rayon). The number of target communities 

increased to 66 including 4 new refugee communities added in May 2002.  

The second round of PCAs revealed some difficulties in identifying funding sources for business 

oriented projects. While the communities were revising their CAPs, they discussed independent local 

funding sources like local revolving funds (i.e. the initiative group of Kairat   Talas Oblast   

implements a potato planting project; revenue from its first crop would form the basis for a revolving 

fund). 

The localization of grant making and administrative capacities is still on the agenda. After 

consultations with their Stakeholders Committees and the finalization of the CAG guidelines, LGC 

operational procedures, and criteria for selecting LGC members, all of the CSSCs have formed local 

grant review committees (LGCs). The CSSCs conducted seminars for the LCG members to orient 

them to the Community Outreach Program, roles and responsibilities of the LGCs, and the criteria for 

selecting projects. The LGCs members were also briefed on log frames.  

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