On November 30, 2018, the National Conference on the best practices within the framework of the Public Service Improvement Project (PSI) was held in Bishkek. The event was attended by the heads and representatives of 30 municipalities of Issyk-Kul and Jalal-Abad regions, representatives of the government bodies, and the Embassy of Switzerland in the Kyrgyz Republic.
Opening the conference, the head of the Department on Development of Local Self-Government of the State Agency on Local Self-Government and Interethnic Relations Azamat Shameev noted the importance of such events in the development of regions and improvement of services at the local level.
“Services provided to the population at the local level play a large role in the development of the regions. Recently, the Program of Development of LSG was adopted. This program includes a number of activities aimed at improving services at the local level. In addition, together with the Ministry of Economy, we are working on a document that will reflect the public opinion on the quality of the services provided,” - said Azamat Shameev.
During the conference, examples of improvement of services at the local level in the municipalities of Issyk-Kul and Jalal-Abad regions were presented to the participants. For example, representatives of Kumbel municipality shared their experience in organizing the drinking water supply service, and representatives of the city of Toktogul spoke about improving the collection and removal of solid waste in their city. In addition, the experience of other municipalities in improving services on lightning of public areas, preschool education, education of children with special educational needs, and maintenance of internal roads was presented.
“The next step would be, if we agree that that the mechanisms and methodologies tested by the municipalities present today were successful and have indeed improved quality of public services at the local level, to ensure sustainability of these experiences and find ways to scale them up and to institutional them at the national level,” – noted Ms. Danielle Meuwly Monteleone, a Deputy Head of the Mission of the Embassy of Switzerland in the Kyrgyz Republic.
“This will only be possible if all relevant institutions at the national and local level join efforts, including GAMSUMO, the Union of Local Self-Governments, the Ministry of Economy and of course the local communities,” – Ms. Danielle Meuwly Monteleone continued.
Asel Mambetova, the Project Manager of the Public Service Improvement Project noted that in general 38 action plans on improving services were supported by the project, including nine initiatives to ensure sustainable access to clean drinking water, eleven services to improve the quality and accessibility of pre-school and school education, nine services in the field of cultural and leisure activities (park areas, cultural and sports services) and eight plans for the maintenance and cleaning of public areas.
“The overall cost of the implementation of these plans was more than 97 million soms, while the own contribution of the municipalities amounted to more than 31 million soms or almost 32%, which once again emphasizes the importance and relevance of the problems to be solved in a particular municipality” – said Asel Mambetova.
The Public Service Improvement Project is funded by the Swiss Government through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented by Helvetas Kyrgyzstan and the Development Policy Institute.