Sustainability of the Kyrgyz Republic further development depends on capability of local self-government (LSG) to provide decent living conditions for the citizens

12.03.2015 14:09

13-14 March 2015 the International Conference “Consolidation and Effective Interaction between the Government Branches, Local Self-Government and Citizens: Resources, Efficiency and Trust” will be held in Bishkek.

The conference organizers: the Committee on Human Rights, Constitutional Legislation and State System of Jogorku Kenesh (Parliament) of the Kyrgyz Republic and Development Policy Institute in the framework of “Voice of Citizens and Accountability of Local Self-Government: Budget Process” Project financed by the Swiss Government in cooperation with the Department for International Development, UK.

Currently the position of the Kyrgyz Republic in respect of LSG development became clearer than it was in the period from 2010 to 2012 - the National Strategy for Sustainable Development (NSSD), a number of other strategic documents and policy of the public authorities confirm the Government's commitment to the principles of decentralization of public administration. However, number of outstanding issues still remain including those related to relationship between the state and local self-governments; relationships of major governance reforms, administrative and territorial reforms; building a system of regional governance in general, and engagement of the citizens in decision-making at the local level (realization of the citizens’ constitutional right to participate in local self-government). Addressing these issues requires concerted efforts at legislative and executive levels of governance. In order to hold a discussion of the strategic course of the agreed reforms in LSG the Committee on Human Rights, Constitutional Legislation and State System of Jogorku Kenesh initiates conducting the international conference, which will allow to compare directions for LSG development in the Kyrgyz Republic with international best practices, and discuss progressive experience and failures accumulated in the country.

The Conference will be attended by the Toraga (Speaker) and the deputies of Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Prime Minister and members of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, the heads of public authorities and LSG bodies, representatives of civil society, donor agencies and mass media.

The presentations of Session 1 "State, local self-government and citizens: evolution of cooperation" will discuss the interaction of three parties - the state, local self-government and the citizens. Links of the reforms will be considered: administrative, territorial, local self-government, transition to "e-government". Presentation on results of the administrative-territorial reform in Latvia is envisaged, while it is the closest to the Kyrgyz Republic in geographical and historical sense, examples of such transformations. An important topic of discussion will be the negotiation process between the LSG bodies (municipal movement) and the government, without it effective and balanced operation of the "state - LSG" system is impossible. Finally, applying inter-sectoral approach in municipal governance will be discussed, as it combines the efforts of state, local self-government, civil society and business.

Speakers of Session 2 “Efficiency and transparency of resource management at local self-government level, corruption control” will talk about the issues of the state control over local self-government; will assess the corruption risks in budget process at the local level and consider measures to minimize the risks; assess the practice in preventing violations of legislation by the LSG bodies, and also take an effort to answer the question about what the priority of the control bodies is –inspections or prevention measures? Also aspects of transparency and corruption in land resources management from the perspective of international and Kyrgyzstan’s experience in municipal property and land management will be considered.

Session 3 “Strengthening financial and economic capabilities of local self-government” includes speeches about successes and challenges of reforms in inter-budgetary relations, experience of building budget equalization system, tax administration reform.

Session 4 “Citizens’ participation in budget process. Transparency and accountability of local self-government” will be devoted to the issues of population trust to the bodies of LSG, practice of the citizens’ participation in budget process and decision-making process in Kyrgyzstan and Poland, as well as innovative tools for assessing transparency and accountability of the LSG bodies (including municipal index of budget transparency).

Presentations of Session 5 “Factors of sustainability and success of local self-government in favor and with participation of citizens: actual problems and accomplishments” will discuss other topical problems of local self-government, in particular, interaction between executive and representative branches of LSG, advancing election process and influence of the party system on decision-making process at the LSG level; participation of the municipal servants in design of retraining programs in response to challenges of community.

Journalists interested in participating in the Conference should contact Nurgul DJAMANKULOVA for registration at +996 770 771 711, NJamankulova@dpi.kg