On November 25, 2021 the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia (EFCA) corporate foundation published the “Complicated things in simple words” guidebook for monitoring and assessment of social projects’ effectiveness and launched it to 18 resource centers of the Civil alliance for NGO across the Kazakhstan. The guidebook is published in the framework of the School of NGO Program implemented with the financial support of Tengizchevroil LLP (TCO).
The “Complicated things in simple words” guidebook for social projects’ effectiveness monitoring and assessment (here and after referred to as Guidebook) was presented in Almaty. This is the first guidebook that was developed for NGOs in Kazakhstan and published in Russian and Kazakh.
According to the Republic of Kazakhstan (RoK) Ministry of Information and Social Development data, the State funded the NGO sector to the amount of more than 16 billion tenge for 1681 projects in 2021 alone, along with funding from private sector sponsors. Up to now NGOs had no precise tools to monitor their projects’ progress and assess how effective they are performing. Meanwhile, the civilian sector’s activities are primarily focused on youth, support of vulnerable groups of people and the defense of a human rights.
Considering the fact that the number of social projects has grew tenfold and their role in society has become critical, TCO together with the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia contributed to the development of the Guidebook.
In the Guidebook, experts shared useful tools, that enable NGOs and third parties to track and evaluate the projects’ outcomes. It helps community projects to deliver higher results for beneficiaries and successfully solve problems.
The Guidebook helps educate non-commercial organizations on the project assessment methods at every stage, in a very simple way. By using this book, NGOs will be able to describe their projects’ achievements to the sponsors in a more coherent way, attract more funds and hence deliver more benefits for people. The experts answered questions during the presentation meeting.
Rzabek Artygaliyev, TCO PGPA General Manager, shared his perspective, “Decades-long implementation of social projects helps bring about positive changes in our society. We witnessed the how residents in countryside became more involved in taking actions to change their living standards through the Public Spaces Project. Our experience and knowledge contributed to the development of a draft law on social entrepreneurship that should come into effect in 2022. A simple and clear monitoring and assessment process for any project will bring multiple benefits. First, it will let us better understand the benefits provided to communities and how valuable they were. Second, it will boost competition among NGOs as their number grow and stimulate continuous improvements in their organizations. In general, it will enable civil society and TCO to achieve maximum synergy to the benefit of Atyrau Region residents”.
The Guidebook was launched within a Civil Forum work frame. The Guidebook includes principles of proper project planning and implementation, and a set of exercises and tips adopted from best practices. The Guidebook will help the NGOs not only to study a particular topic related to the project assessment but also to sharpen the skills by applying them to their own projects.
Tengizchevroil LLP is a Kazakhstani partnership that develops, produces and markets crude oil, LPG, dry gas and sulfur. TCO implements new technologies and conducts operations in accordance with world-class safety and environmental standards for a more sustainable Kazakhstan in April 1993, Tengizchevroil was formed between the Republic of Kazakhstan and Chevron Corporation. Current partners are Chevron, 50 percent; KazMunaiGas NC JSC, 20 percent; ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc., 25 percent and LukArco, 5 percent.
Eurasia Foundation in Central Asia (EFCA) is a non-governmental organization stablished in the region in 2005. EFCA mobilizes public and private resources to help citizens take an active part in building their futire through reinforcing local communities and advancing civic and economic prosperity. For more information about EFCA programs and review the board of trustees please visit http://www.ef-ca.kz.
