ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION
Public institutions and services is one of the five core cooperation domains of Switzerland in Central Asia. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, exclusion from political and economic participation, rapidly growing differences in standards of living, unequal allocation of public resources, unreliability of the judicial system, weak accountability of decision makers, and a growing perception of the high level of corruption in national institutions constitute conflict lines in the Central Asian states. One of the main challenges for these countries is therefore the creation of state institutions that are open, accountable, responsive and effective, capable of delivering the most needed public services and guaranteeing minimal personal assets and security.
In particular, the public finance sector is facing the constraint of weak transparency and accountability leading to high fiduciary risks also for donors. As well, building a reliable judicial system where access to and independence of the judiciary is secured, in particular for the disadvantaged groups, is a key priority. In order to address the limits and weaknesses of the public administration building capacities of public institutions is a long term challenge of highest priority in Central Asia . Activities in the frame of the "Public Institutions and Services" domain are mainly focused in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (in Uzbekistan, the program is limited to the “Regional Art and Culture” project).
COOPERATION GOALS
The main goal of the Swiss Cooperation in this domain is to promote better public services and institutions. Support aims at:
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strengthening the management of fiscal, budgetary and monetary policies to advance the transparent and efficient use of public resources;
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protecting people’s civil and economic rights by empowerment of civil society and by support to the government at all levels.
Through its support, Switzerland intends to contribute:
APPROACH
The Swiss approach to public institutions and services implies the management of fiscal, budgetary and monetary policies through strengthening transparent and efficient use of public resources. Special attention is paid to the empowerment of civil society and to government support at all levels.
DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
In Kyrgyzstan, the projects supported by Switzerland in the Public institutions and Services domain are following:
The goal of the regional Public Debt Management and Government Securities Market Development Project is to improve the monetary system and financial management in the region (Central Asia and Azerbaijan) and to promote sound financing strategies through the development of domestic public debt markets.
The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Strike (AML) Project works to reduce the risk of corruption and improve the reputation of the financial services in the country.
The Public Finance Management Capacity Building Trust Fund is going to apply a consolidated approach in developing and supporting training activities, according to identified needs and ongoing reforms, in order to strengthen the management and reform capacities within the Ministry of Finance and line ministries.
The Legal Assistance to Rural Citizens (LARC) Project works to improve the legal culture of the rural population, to contribute to the rule of law and to secure access to justice on agriculture and land-related issues.
In Tajikistan:
The domain Public Institutions and Services consists of the following projects (in addition to the Government Securities Market Project): Access to Justice and Judiciary Reform, working on capacity building of judges, on awareness raising of rights seekers, and supporting advocacy platforms.
Reduction of Violence Against Women, aiming at awareness raising on equal gender relations and assisting victims of gender-based violence.
The Supreme External Audit Institution Development Project has the objective of assisting the Government of Tajikistan in creating an external audit function to improve the monitoring of budget spending.
The Regional Arts and Culture Programme (RACP) was created by merging the previous national programs in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The Project continues to promote cultural pluralism, the recognition of diversity as an asset, and to support the emergence of national identities in these multicultural states, in short to foster unity in diversity.
CROSSCUTTING ISSUES
"Gender" and "Governance" are crosscutting themes for all five-core domains as an additional dimension to development operations, with the aim of enhancing program effectiveness and relevance. Switzerland promotes increased female representation in all institutions and the participation of women at all levels of decision-making. One of the measures for achieving this in the public administration is to provide access to information and knowledge about rights and procedures. It is also important that women are not victims of any discrimination when obtaining access to justice. Swiss projects aim at promoting non-discrimination in application of the law, at applying equal opportunities policy for women and men in the public administration, as well as at obtaining equal access to public services.
Switzerland promotes “good governance” as one of the conditions necessary for the country’s development. There are five principles adopted by SDC to which a state should adhere in order to implement “good governance”: accountability, transparency, non-discrimination, participation and efficiency. Building capacities in public finance management will contribute to increase accountability, transparency and efficiency in the use of public resources. By securing access to justice, Switzerland aims at preserving the principle of non-discrimination among the population.
Page was last updated August, 2008
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For more information on SDC and seco visit these websites:
http://www.deza.ch
http://www.seco-cooperation.ch/index.html?lang=en |
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