Institutional capacity

DPI is a politically neutral, financially stable organization with a well-developed management system that is constantly being improved. Financial statements of the organization are supported by an annual independent financial audit.

The organization has a permanent staff of highly qualified experts (about 50), working at national level (consultations, analytical studies and regulatory normative activities), as well as with municipalities in projects at local level.

DPI works with 300 local communities and LSG bodies in the Kyrgyz Republic through its head office in Bishkek, offices in Karakol, Jalal-Abad and representatives in Naryn and Osh.

DPI's "Cross-cutting" Methods

• 3D: DATA. DIGITALIZATION. DEVELOPMENT
  DPI is committed to improving the quality of data-driven management decisions to best model the future of local communities. Therefore, DPI helps the governing bodies to introduce data-driven approaches to planning, management and monitoring of development (including spatial data) and digital tools, including digital tools for data disclosure, citizen participation and monitoring (e.g., Citizen Budget online www.gb.minfin.kg, municipal real estate and land transaction disclosure portal https://www.cadastre.kg/svc-portal/app/marketReport.do, etc.).

• SUSTAINABLE INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY
  DPI seeks to help local communities and local governments in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia master skills of sustainable development, ability to articulate balanced social, economic and environmental perspectives for living and future generations. Sustainability also means a policy of full inclusion, active inclusion in the development processes of all groups in the community (in the example of social development this means that in addition to direct social assistance, local authorities, with the help of DPI, shape development measures for vulnerable groups, allowing them to realize their social and economic potential), for example, by creating services and public spaces for women.

• SOFT SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
  DPI believes that the right and ability to realize own potential in a way that ensures a decent standard of living to be the key to a person's success. Therefore, DPI supports the implementation of mechanisms at the local level (for example, state social order) to enable citizens' initiatives and create conditions for the development of "soft skills," which include legal, digital and financial literacy, as well as conflict management and personal and social mental well-being skills.

• PARTICIPATION SPIRAL
  DPI developed and implements the Spiral Model of citizen participation in local self-governance and local development (www.vap.kg), which has already been fully or partially implemented by over 300 municipalities in Kyrgyzstan. The model includes mechanisms for joint planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of local governance and development plans, including public monitoring of procurement, services, efficiency of budget expenditures at the municipal level. The model's unique feature is that participation has a cyclical nature that develops in an upward spiral, and at each new cycle (stage of development of participation) DPI offers new mechanisms of interaction for the partner community and the municipality (for example, online budget hearings, funding of local initiatives from the local budget, etc.).

• CENTRAL ASIAN GENDER CONTEXT
  Stakeholders interested in achieving gender equality in the countries of Central Asia today have a challenge finding ways to absorb universal values, therefore, DPI together with the Local Governance Academy of Central Asia and 25 partners from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan developed a set of recommendations for working with rural communities of the region, based on the Central Asian regional model of strengthening women's participation in local development and governance, which includes region-specific process accelerating factors (specific terminology, transformation of amplifiers and target audiences, expansion of "soft skills", etc.).