 |
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
 |
USAID Information:
External Links:
|
|
|
|
|
Activists Expand Community Services in Turkmenistan
FrontLines - October 2009
By Virginija Morgan
Challenge
|
A community activist displays a new transformer USAID helped install in Turkmenistan’s Bibioten Village, Dashoguz Province.
|
Most Turkmenistan citizens
are reluctant to exercise their right to participate in civic activism and rely on the government to address their problems, even when a community
has the resources to resolve them.
For example, even though the country has considerable hydrocarbon wealth, many rural areas lack basic infrastructure
and services. Roads, water, and electricity systems have seen little renovation since the Soviet period, and in many locations have all but disintegrated, leaving the communities
to struggle for even the most fundamental needs.
The government has allocated
considerable amounts for upgrades as part of a $4 billion rural development program, but because communities
don’t voice their needs, they often are left out of improvement plans.
Innovative Response
To encourage the development
of civil society in Turkmenistan, in September 2006, USAID launched a three-year program to train activists to identify local needs, design plans to address them, and seek funding. Local officials were involved in each step of the process.
"My wife said that I was spending more time in these community meetings than at home," said Khudayberdy Yakulym, an activist in Bibioten Village of the Gorogly District, Dashoguz Province.
More than 3,000 community members from 42 communities
across the country became involved—including farmers, youth, and women.
Communities designed projects
for road improvement, jobs for youth and women, upgrades to electricity systems, and other ways to address pressing needs.
Project staff helped the communities
resolve legal issues related to their plans. USAID provided small grants to partially
finance the projects, with remaining amounts secured through community fundraising and government funding.
During the last year of the project, USAID also helped communities to develop 25
economic development plans
to improve local service delivery.
Results
Communities have renovated parks, residential buildings, offices, sports fields, and playgrounds;
and improved access to water, gas, electricity, and computers. Youth have received vocational training such as carpet-weaving and sewing.
Each community was required to contribute at least 25 percent of the cost estimate for their initiative, raising a total of $200,000 in labor, materials, and other resources.
"Thanks to USAID, we have a good and steady supply of electricity in our homes and no longer have to plan which electrical appliance to use, so that we don’t lose electricity altogether," says Yakulym.
A new transformer not only provides electricity for the current 167 households, but has enough capacity to service new construction in the community.
To match the $4,000 grant from USAID for the transformer, the community provided over $1,300 worth of labor, meals, and transportation.
The local government and the utility company replaced electrical poles and wires, built a new platform for the station, and installed the equipment.
On average, communities
contributed between 70 percent and 90 percent of the required cost-share amount—through labor, transport expenses, and meals for workers—
for their projects. "We are already negotiating with the local government a new project to pave the main street in our village," says Yakulym.
The project has benefited 75,000 Turkmen in rural communities
across the country.
"I am confident that many of these communities will continue working with their local governments on further improvements of their local infrastructure," says Aynabat Ataeva, manager of the USAID-supported Dashoguz Civil Society Support Center. "These activists have seen how they can engage with their local governments on a variety of issues, and will keep building on this resource in the future."
★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
To have FrontLines delivered
to you via postal mail, please subscribe.
Material should be submitted
by mail to Editor, FrontLines, USAID,
RRB, Suite 6.10, Washington, DC 20523-6100;
by FAX to 202-216-3035; or by e-mail to frontlines@usaid.gov
To view PDF files, download
the Adobe
Acrobat Reader.
Back to Top ^
|
