New Initiative of the Soros Foundation - Kyrgyzstan
Forum of Reforms Project

Soros Foundation Kyrgyzstan has started implementation of the Forum of Reforms Project focused on infilling vacuum in country development scenarios resulted from the take-over of a country after the events in March, 2005.

Current government has come to power on the tide of discontent over the previous government without any clear social and economic programs. Lack of development among party institutes and such structures of civil society as independent analytical centers are aggravating the situation with absence of programs for stabilization and development. There is a real danger for the country to roll down to worse scenarios during the period of political life activism on the eve of presidential elections, and in this respect, development of alternative programs for the short-term stabilization becomes one of the most important objectives.

The Forum of Reforms Project is focused on the development of programs by the groups of independent experts, wide acquaintance of citizens with the process and the content of stabilization programs.

Main Goal of the Project
Development and wide dissemination of alternative programs for country stabilization.

Tasks of the Project
1. development of short-term country stabilization programs by groups of independent experts and analysts;
2. wide coverage of the alternative development programs;
3. attraction of the attention of central administration and politicians to the programs with a view of their adjustment and further application;
4. ensuring wide access of population to the developed analytical documents;
5. making a precedent of alternative development and open discussion of alternative development programs.

Project implementation
First stage: 27 of April – 22 of May, 2005
Open competition among the groups of independent experts was held during this stage to develop short-term programs for country stabilization. There were submitted 20 applications from groups of authors; 14 expert groups, which submitted their applications in compliance with the requirements of the competition, were invited to participate in the competition. 9 groups of authors became the finanlists.
Analytical programs, - alternative short-term stabilization programs, - shall be developed till 15 of May, 2005 inclusive.

Conceptual part of stabilization programs will include the following main blocks (topics):

1. summary: stabilization and development
2. prevention of economic recession
3. public security
4. transformation of public administration

The programs will be presented to the current government, parliamentarians, public and political figures for further potential application. A campaign is organized in mass media to ensure wide and open discussion of the programs under development: interviews, articles, comments, news programs, debates on TV, etc.

Second stage: 23 of May – 30 of June, 2005

Wide discussion of alternative stabilization programs with all the stakeholders. The Discussions will take place at different forums involving the program developing groups, current government, parliamentarians, public and political leaders, independent experts, journalists.

At this stage, main task of the project would be involving international experience in terms of creation and implementation of stabilization programs and further development. Participation in the international Forum of Reforms of experts, who have experience in developing short-term programs for stabilization and development from countries where the situation similar to the one in Kyrgyzstan was successfully overcome, would be advisable. Analysis of negative experience would also be useful for the discussion. Another group of foreign participants of the forum could be the current and former members of the government, parliamentarians having experience of similar programs implementation. Their knowledge and experience would help in evaluation of the alternatives proposed for our country.

Proposed time for the International Forum of Reforms is second half of June, 2005.