CIVIL FORUM

About Civil Forum

The civil forum in Kazakhstan is being conducted for the first time. It is the certificate of increased role of non-governmental organization in Kazakhstan society and shows the significance that emphasizes the state in cooperation with “ the third sector ”.

It is obvious, that the development of a civil society is a necessary condition of further democratization of the country. Any attempts of speeding up the democratic reforms without taking into account the level of development of civil society and political culture, can lead to the most pitiable results.

The history evidently shows: as a result of such experiments is a destruction of the whole system, or recoil to dictatorship. Only having generated strong civil society, strongly interested in promotion of reforms, it is possible to guarantee their irreversibility.

Involving of nongovernmental organizations in the process of reforms, interaction and cooperation of the state and nongovernmental organizations will allow successfully realize the strategy of democratization of the country

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For the years of independence Kazakhstan has managed to carry out deep political reforms which have allowed to create, stage by stage, new political system, to generate new institutes of civil society: political parties, independent mass-media. Among them nongovernmental sector is the most dynamically developing. Activity of nongovernmental organizations covers practically all socially significant spheres.

These are questions of ecology, social sphere, education, culture, public health services, gender attitudes, protection of human rights, etc. Actually nongovernmental organizations face most significant social problems.

Kazakhstan has positive experience of interaction between the state and nongovernmental organizations. At the same time, there is a number of problems that constrain the development of nongovernmental organizations and without solving the problems we will not manage to promote on the way of deepening of partner attitudes.

Firstly, it is necessary to develop a complex of legal, economic and other measures on further development of nongovernmental organizations. Secondly, it is necessary to develop mechanisms and to think over new forms of interaction of the state bodies with nongovernmental organizations on republican, regional, branch levels. Thirdly, it is important to think over the support and development of the civil initiative in a countryside.

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Key issue is the perfection of legislative base of interaction of the state bodies and nongovernmental organizations. Here the major point is the governmental bill “About the state social order ”. It is directed on solving one of the basic problems of nongovernmental organizations - the absence of stable and long-term financing.

For the first time Kazakhstan has closely approached to such stage in development of " the third sector ” when the state not only intended, but also is capable to render the state support to nongovernmental organizations. It is especially important in the conditions of increasing the volume of social tasks at the given stage.

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The main task of the Forum is to define the perspective directions of cooperation of the state and nongovernmental organizations and to develop the mechanisms on further interaction of " the third sector » with the state. It is necessary to develop the constructive decisions directed on the development of mechanisms of equitable dialogue of the society with the authority of all levels.
Only in this case the forum will bring the real and powerful contribution to the development of democracy and civil initiatives in the country, will provide political stability in the society. The civil forum can potentially become the dialogue mechanism which will create a general national platform between the state and nongovernmental organizations.