Since 2009 till 2024 DPI successfully implemented about 60 projects in the area of municipal and state administration, including municipal and state resource management and citizen participation in local developmemt planning and management (funding from SDC, FCDO, USAID, UNDP, UNICEF, the World Bank, the European Commission, and other international organizations. The main principle of development or choice of a project is its full accordance to DPI’s Mission and possibilities for quality and timely implementation of the project.
DPI was the first local organization in Kyrgyzstan to directly implement SDC and USAID-funded projects aimed at developing LSG, local services, interbudgetary reations, and citizen participation in the budget process.
Impementation: Development Policy Institute, Kyrgyz Republic (www.dpi.kg)
(Project Manager: Nurgul Jamankulova, +996 555 313385, 770 771711, njamankulova@dpi.kg)
Donation: Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)
Duration: November 2012 - November 2013
Coverage: all oblasts of the Kyrgyz Republic
Project objective:
Project activities:
Study tours will include, but not be limited to the following major destinations:
Trips will include 15 journalists from around Kyrgyzstan (5 from Bishkek and 10 from regions), who will be selected by DPI based on the quality of their applications, level of experience, prior participation in project-based seminars, and potential for increasing / improving writing on economic topics. DPI will require journalists participating in the study tours to write / publish at least one article based on the tour.
Informational Seminars "Press Sessions" for Journalists:
As a rule, journalists receive information on economic subjects during press conferences and briefings. These are usually brief events which do not enable a journalist to get an adequate understanding of complicated economic information. Typically, Kyrgyzstan's journalists receive little economic education at school, at home or in their universities. Journalists are often dispatched to cover economic news with little understanding of the topic, failing to understand the context.
To continue educating journalists on business issues and key economic concepts, DPI will organize a series of 10 press sessions for 15 practicing economic journalists in each session. These press sessions will be open to participation to all journalists; however DPI expects that about half of the participants will have participated in previous educational seminars under CIPE/NED funding and that the participants in all 10 events will largely be the same journalists. Participants will receive certificates of completion after having attended at least 8 out of 10 sessions, as well as write and publish articles on the topics covered at the press sessions.
DPI will invite experts and practitioners to speak on topics that include, but will not be limited, to the following:
Nurturing New and Future Economic Journalists
Within this project, DPI and CIPE will focus on not only strengthening the qualifications of practicing journalists to report on economic issues, but also on promoting economic journalism to prospective journalists currently studying in universities. Students of Journalism faculties in Kyrgyz universities rarely obtain substantial knowledge on economics or have opportunities to communicate with practicing journalists to gain practical skills and perspectives to write knowledgeably on economic topics.
Typically, journalism students select areas of specializations such as sports or crime, but rarely business or economics. Even those who select economics lack basic knowledge in this area. This was an issue raised by practicing journalists repeatedly over the last few years at project related events. KSEPC has made several attempts to engage journalism students in the educational program in the past. However, recently journalism faculty deans, professors, and staff of three leading universities agreed to allow KSEPC I DPI to hold classes on campuses for students majoring in journalism and communication, i.e. prospective journalists.
DPI expects that approximately 30% on average of journalism I communications students will attend these lectures, if held on campus and incentivized with certificates. To this end, within this project, DPI will organize 10 lectures with 15 students (average age 20-21) at each lecture. The lectures will take place on the campuses of the Bishkek Humanities University, Kyrgyz Technical University and Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University. The lectures will be led by Ms. Nadezhda Dobretsova of DPI and invited experts I practitioners depending on the specific topic.
DPI will encourage students to participate in the Press Sessions within this project (described above) in order to build professional networks and obtain mentorship from practicing journalists. DPI will provide certificates of completion to those students who participate in 90% of the lectures and have at least tried to write articles on topics covered at the lectures. The certificates will serve as an incentive for participation and as a means to strengthen their employability at local media outlets upon graduation from university.
DPI will develop and distribute a new Economic Journalism Guide that will help new economic journalists and journalism faculty to organize lectures with visiting experts and practitioners on their own in the future. This Guide will help address the following issues:
CIPE will work with DPI to ensure that this guide is translated into English to be used as a resource for economic journalists elsewhere in the region, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.
One-day Conference for Journalists on "The Role of Media in a Market Economy"
To advance appreciation for the role of the media in a market economy, as well as for the principles of economic freedom and democratic governance, DPI will organize a one-day informational event for journalists and policymakers who will be selected by DPI. The conference will take place as the last event ofthis project in the Fall of2013. DPI expects that participants will include 40 practicing and potential journalists in Kyrgyzstan, as well as members of the policymaking community, and will take place in an off-site location in the Issyk Kul region.
Speakers will include members ofCIPE's reformer network, such as Jaroslav Romanchuk (Analytical Center "Strategy," Belarus) and Emil Umetaliev (Bishkek Business Club, Kyrgyzstan), to lead discussions on the benefits of market-based democratic institutions, a comparative analysis of international indicators and models that support the benefits of economic freedom as a pillar of prosperity and stability, and the importance of entrepreneurship as a catalyst of innovation and employment creation. Mr. Romanchuk's work in Belarus to present an alternative viewpoint favoring market-oriented democratic values will be an important asset to this conference. Mr. Umetaliev is a well-known and highly respected business community leader in Kyrgyzstan advocating for market-oriented democratic reforms. In addition, CIPE's Moscow staff will present lessons learned in the Russian regions with positive examples of the media working with the business community to raise public awareness on important economic issues. Topics will be presented in accessible language easy to understand for Russian-language and Kyrgyz-language audience.
Website for Journalists and Public
Within the framework of the CIPE/NED-co-funded conference in October 2011 on "Financial Literacy and Economic Journalism as Factors of Stability and Poverty Reduction," DPI launched the website www.finliteracy.kg that hosts conference materials and follow-up events, if any. While currently this website is down, within this project, DPI will re-launch and restructure the website to serve as this project's informational website and a resource for journalists and the wider public on economic issues as they relate to the media. This website is not affiliated with a particular organization, but is a stand-alone informational forum. In previous projects, key materials that were stored on KSEPC's website www.press.kse.kg will be linked or moved to www.finliteracy.kg. This website will also offer links to relevant websites that provide information in support of economic freedom, democracy and importance of well-developed and well-functioning financial markets. The website will be available in the Russian and in Kyrgyz languages.
Final documents: