Kazakhstan

Recent activities

Last Update 10.06.10

From January to April 2010 the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan (SFK) continued to support the process of EITI implementation and Validation in Kazakhstan.

It should be noted that at the last Annual Conference of the “Oil Revenues-Under Public Oversight!” Coalition, the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan voluntarily withdrew from its membership of the coalition, in order to better address the ongoing needs of the coalition and other associations/coalitions participating in the EITI implementation process in Kazakhstan. In consequence, SFK now has ‘observer’ status at the National Stakeholder Council (NSC).

SFK was very active in mediating between two Kazakh civil society coalitions in delivering their concerns and messages to the Validator. SFK was also involved in organizing meetings for the Validator with various NGOs in the region.

SFK has sponsored a translation of the report “Contracts Confidential: Ending Secret Deals in the Extractive Industries” into Russian and plans to translate it into the Kazakh language to foster dissemination among interested stakeholders.

Thanks to SFK funding, Yuri Krivodanov from the NGO, Blago, conducted research into extractive companies’ transparency and reporting issues, providing recommendations for possible improvement. These recommendations were presented and discussed at a roundtable conducted with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (Ministry of Oil and Gas as of March 2010). In his presentation of the 12-page research report, Yuri touched upon the following issues: disaggregated reports, methodology of reporting data on EITI, inclusion of companies’ social investments in EITI reporting, etc. He elaborated upon separate recommendations directed towards the National Stakeholders’ Council, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (now Ministry of Oil and Gas), to the Finance Ministry and to the Government.

SFK also currently supports a pilot project in the Mangystau region. The NGO Eco Mangystau, has already successfully set up a Working Group (WG) on Social investments. This follow-up project with SFK aims to boost the WG’s ongoing work and provides a platform for a more professional structure with clear goals, a development strategy and effective monitoring processes.