Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 16th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview I. Working Group on Local Government Author(s) Galima Eshmukhamedova I do not belong to any Institution Moscow Russian Federation Title Local self-government in the Kyrgyz Republic. New strategy. The ways to improve the local self government system. File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract Eshmukhamedova Galima Academy of Languages and Business, Moscow Researcher in Political and Administrative Reforms in the Kyrgyz Republic LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE KYRGYZ REPUBLIC. NEW STRATEGY. THE WAYS TO IMPROVE THE LOCAL-SELF GOVERNMENT SYSTEM The Kyrgyz Republic is the most developed country among former soviet republics in orienting its strategy on the development of decentralization and improving local self-governance. National Strategy For Further Decentralization and Local Self-Government Development in the Kyrgyz Republic Till 2010 was adopted in 2006. The aim of the strategy is to determine basic directions, ways of decentralization of state administration and development of the effective system of local self-government by 2010 as a necessary condition for Kyrgyzstan to acquire qualities of a civil democratic state. The problems of local self-government in the Kyrgyz Republic The analysis of the current situation in the Republic shows that the most important outstanding problems of further decentralization and local self-government development are: • Incomplete legal framework. A legal framework which provides for optimal decentralization of state administration, creation of effective institutes of management at the level of local power, effective economic and financial decentralization, creation of the municipal civil service system and development of its potential, social mobilization has not yet been created. • Slow implementation of the processes of decentralization of state administration and insufficient government support of LSG bodies. Local self-government bodies do not have sufficient powers and financial and economic resources for effective implementation of their authorities. The legislation does not provide clear delineation of functions and authorities, responsibilities between different levels of executive bodies of state power and local self-government bodies. The process of function transfer and transfer of relevant financial-economic resources to LSG bodies is protracted. There is no clear mechanism of their transfer. This obviously slows down the process of more intensified introduction of democratic forms of mass activity of local communities and it also slows down the development of local self-government bodies . • Ineffective devices of financial- economic regulation. Finances and local budgets are still centralized, there is no effective tax base and the budget opportunities of LSGs are very limited. The legal framework for economic and financial decentralization has not been created yet. No mechanism has been developed for transfer of financial and economic resources to LSG bodies according to their functions and authorities. • Weak professional capacity of municipal civil servants, lack of effective manpower policy. The law on municipal civil service has not been adopted and the system of municipal civil servants’ training, retraining and upgrading of qualification has not been created. There is no motivation and social protection system. There is also no informational-technical and scientific-methodological service for the local self-government personnel. • Limited scale of social mobilization and development of human potential. The social mobilization of local people in a form created by their own organizations, assistance and advancement of its further development, use of personnel and other resources take place but, as yet, it is an insufficiently active process. It is noteworthy that the population still prefers to take a passive role in the process of making decisions which could improve their standards of living. • Undeveloped partnership and interaction of state administration with bodies of local self-governance, NGOs, private sector. The successful experience of pilot ayl-okmotu in social mobilization and strengthening of the public-private partnerships between government and community-based organizations is distributed to all regions of the Republic but remains limited in scope and is not supported by an appropriate legal base. In 2001, the President of the Kyrgyz Republic decreed that the process of social mobilization should be carried out in all areas. The ways to improve the local-self-government situation are as follows: 1. Formation of a harmonious legal framework 2. Political and administrative reforms and state support of local self-government bodies 3. Economic and financial decentralization 4. Municipal and civil service development and improvement of work with personnel 5. Social mobilization and development of human capacities 6. Civil society consolidation 7. Principle of strategy implementation
