on both national and local levels, can better cooperate with local NGOs to achieve mutual objectives. 

NGO representatives from all over the country, the heads of various government ministries from the 

Republic of Tajikistan, as well as the representatives from a number of foreign embassies and 

international organizations, and members of the local press took part in the meetings.  

A total of 123 people participated in the second part of the Conference. In the second part of the 

conference the participants worked in four groups: 

Civil society, democratization, human rights, and mass media 

Small and medium business development, and agriculture 

Community development, and poverty alleviation.  

Health, environment, education, women youth and children, and vulnerable categories of 

population. 

At the final session the four groups presented a summarized list of recommendations on how the 

Government of Tajikistan and local NGOs can engage in effective partnerships. One of the problems 

that NGOs had been facing was a lack of access to government controlled mass media outlets. As a 

result of the conference, the President instructed the director of the State TV and Radio Committee to 

cover the activities of local NGOs. The following week the State TV televised special reports on the 

Social Partnership Conference and in addition televised three other programs focusing on the work of 

local NGOs. Counterpart Tajikistan and AED are working on developing regional follow up 

seminars. 

Community Outreach 

This quarter Counterpart Tajikistan's Community Outreach Coordinator, Monitoring and Evaluation 

Coordinator, Grant Coordinator and Grant Coordinator Assistant visited all the community action 

projects funded by Counterpart. In total 21 Community Action Grants (CAG) have been approved by 

Counterpart under the Phase III Program and by the end of the last quarter almost all of these projects 

were completed. Counterpart Tajikistan plans to fund almost twenty additional projects by the end of 

the Phase III Project. 

In the Karategin Valley, three CAGs  were successfully completed this quarter. Two of the projects 

addressed a drinking water supply problem and one project involved the rehabilitation of a bridge. In 

the Khatlon Province, four CAGs are being successfully implemented and will be completed by the 

end of the next quarter. Three communities are working on a water supply system and one community 

is rehabilitating a school. During a site visit, Counterpart's program staff discovered that two 

communities were behind schedule. The program staff discussed the issue with the Initiative Groups 

of these two communities and agreed to revise the timeframe for their Community Action Plans. The 

communities have learned how to involve the local government as social partners in almost all of the 

projects.  

Counterpart's NGO partners in Gorno Badakhshan, Kalam and Madad, successfully accomplished 

Participatory Community Appraisals (PCA) in three communities and are presently working on 

completing their CAGs awarded by Counterpart Tajikistan. Although the communities have enjoyed a 

high level of community mobilization, all of the projects are somewhat behind schedule. At the 

request of the communities Counterpart extended the duration of the grant terms. The main reason for 

that is an increase in the cost of water pipes, since all the projects concern water supply problems; the 

communities have had to find cheaper pipes from a greater distance at their own expense. 

Counterpart's NGO partners have provided additional support to help the communities solve project 

problems.  

In the Sughd Province, four CAGs have been completed in accordance with their action plans. One of 

the projects that was initiated and supported by the Public Consultative Group, a social partnership 

group, was a natural gas supply project for a small community in the city of Khujand. The project was 

completed ahead of time. Three rural water supply projects were completed after minor delays. The 

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